A District Court in Switzerland recently held a trial in a case of cheating at the electronic roulette of the Casino of Lucerne.
Four people were accused of illegally winning about 30,000 Swiss francs, which is about the same amount in euros.
But one of the suspects was wrongly detained for months. The canton of Lucerne will have to pay him compensation.
Small black sheets placed on some numbers to limit the bounce of the ivory ball
During the month of April 2019, a gang of cheaters visited the Casino of Lucerne in Switzerland. To implement their scheme, the dishonest players used small, thin black sheets that they placed on the numbers 8, 11, 17, 24, 26 and 29 of an electronic roulette wheel so as to limit the bounces of the ivory ball in the cylinder.
Of course, it didn’t work every time, but often enough to pocket big bucks, without it being immediately noticeable.
For example, one of the defendants is said to have bet 255 times on the rigged numbers, staking up to 845 Swiss francs per game. All in all, our little gang would have won more than 30,000 Swiss francs dishonestly when they left the Lucerne Casino in the early morning.
Cheaters arrested at the border
The security service of the establishment did not notice anything. Our dishonest players were caught, as they crossed the border of the country. During a check, the customs officers found tools, wires, magnets, black sheets of paper, a lot of money and a chip from the Lucerne Casino in the car.
After investigation, the pot of roses was quickly discovered. As a result, the 4 people found in the car were accused of cheating.
Recently, the trial of these cheaters took place before a District Court in Switzerland. In the end, the court decided not to accept the charge of misuse of a data processing facility against the defendants. In fact, it was the traditional boxes that were manipulated and not the electronic part of the roulette.
In the end, the loot estimated at 30,000 Swiss francs had to be returned to the Casino of Lucerne, but the verdict was quite lenient. For example, one of the defendants was sentenced to a suspended fine of 125 days at 30 francs for fraud. He also had to pay a fine of 960 francs.
A defendant banned from gambling who was acquitted
In this case, there was also an unfortunate accusation. One of the men arrested in the car was acquitted. In fact, he was not allowed to go inside the Casino in Lucerne. Since he is not allowed to gamble, he was denied access.
Even if he had suspicious items on him when he was arrested, this in itself does not constitute a violation of the law. He was therefore wrongly remanded in custody for approximately 3 months. He will therefore receive a reparation which amounts to 4 650 Swiss francswhich corresponds to 50 Swiss francs per day.
