The positive end of the year atmosphere that resulted from strong second half earnings in 2009 did not last for long at Casinò di Lugano. Authorities, who led a long term investigation of the gambling house, have publicly confirmed the existence of a huge scam perpetrated at the casino’s blackjack tables.

Casino supervisors initially raised a red flag and asked police to investigate out of the ordinary winnings that occurred at blackjack tables in the fall, along with unusual behavior by some staff members at these tables.

Apparently, the excessive chances taken by a few blackjack players were the result of a scam in collusion with some dealers. The system was very simple, almost primitive, and was accomplished by using marked cards.

It was not difficult to uncover the scam as several people involved acted in a rather amateur way. First, dozens of cards decks disappeared during a short period from the casino’s armored rooms, a suspicious fact in itself. These cards were then marked and used at the blackjack tables and the dealers and players were caught colluding by surveillance cameras. What is most surprising about the entire scam was that the employees tried to cheat when they knew all of their actions were being monitored.

The cards used for the casino fraud were slightly marked on the back to allow players involved in the affair to recognize them. This was definitely basic, old school form of cheating, rather than an exciting 007 James Bond movie scene.