The Life and Times of a Casino Expat

Darren Keane (Storm International) Running Illegal Casinos in Russia

2011-08-12T06:29:00.000-07:00

Un jaf asupra unui cazino surprins de camerele de supraveghere

2010-08-31T02:58:00.000-07:00

Un jaf asupra unui cazino surprins de camerele de supraveghere from Gambling Magazine on Vimeo.

World's Biggest Casino

2009-12-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

EELEX 2008 - Москва, Россия

2008-10-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

В эти дни, с 9-го по 11-е сентября, в московском выставочном комплексе "Крокус-Экспо" проходит 17-я специализированная выставка EELEX 2008. В отличии от 16 предыдущих "Элексов", где главным организатором выступала компания "Уникум", эту выставку представляет компания SMILE EXPO. Из постоянных участников выставки, производителей и дистрибьютеров оборудования для казино и непосредственно игровых автоматов, на экспозицию приехали от силы 10%, что не удивительно в свете тенденций последних лет. Количество посетителей и площадь стендов была, наверное, как никогда мала. На фоне проходившей рядом огромной выставки стоматологических компаний эта разница в размерах казалась особенно болезненной.

Единственный на всю выставку стол для игры в блэкджек представила компания "ВЕК". Хотя представлен был даже не стол, а интегрированная в него система идентификации и каунта чипов от французской Bourgogne et Grasset. Несколько производителей пытались привлечь внимание к своим стендам оборудованием и программным обеспечением для спортивного покера. Федерация спортивного покера России, а также Федерация спортивного покера Москвы соседствовали, и даже проводили покерный турнир, не вызывающий однако прежнего ажиотажа посетителей. Львиную долю выставки занимали стенды различных медиа изданий, которые, впрочем, сиротливо демонстрировали голые стены и поговорить на них было абсолютно не с кем.

В рамках выставки прошла конференция по российским игровым зонам, на которой выступили представители от "Азов-Сити" и необозначенной правительством, но самородившейся татарской зоны "Камские поляны". Их выступление, однако, всерьез воспринято не было, и скорее вызывало у собравшихся невеселые усмешки, нежели походило на диалог бизнеса с властью. Какие либо представители оставшихся трех зон на выставке никак себя не обозначили и никакой информации о себе не давали, т.е. речи о российских игорных зонах, за исключением "Азов-Сити" не велось.

В целом выставка EELEX 2008 полностью отразила нынешнюю ситуацию и настроения российского игорного бизнеса. Стаффрум искренне надеется, что 17-й EELEX не был последним в российской истории.

Jail For Gang Who Mugged Casino High Rollers

2008-10-01T04:45:00.000-07:00

A ruthless gang of muggers who robbed high rollers as they left Mayfair casinos with their winnings have been jailed for a total of 30 years.

The brutal thugs, all Kurdish asylum seekers from northern Iraq claiming benefits, preyed on middle-aged businessmen they had spotted cashing in their winnings at top London casinos in the early hours of the morning.

They followed their victims home before beating them up on their doorsteps and snatching tens of thousands of pounds in cash.

One victim, a man suffering from cancer, lost more than £40,000 cash when the mobsters sprayed him and his daughter with CS gas before punching and kicking them to the ground and grabbing his cash.

In another robbery the victim had a plant pot smashed over his head.

Yassin Rashid, 35, Soran Bisary, 37, and Zana Karim, 32, were each given 10-year jail terms after being convicted of conspiracy to rob.

They had denied the charges, forcing their traumatised victims to give evidence against them.

However, a jury found them guilty following a trial at Wood Green Crown Court in north London.

Jailing the trio, Judge Peter Ader said: "None of the victims will ever forget these incidents when they were attacked outside their homes and overpowered by your gang.

"These were not chance events. These were high winners who were being targetted by you and the intention was to rob people who had a great deal of money on them."

Karim was also convicted of possessing a prohibited firearm, namely a CS gas canister, and was given an extra 12 months' jail to run concurrently.

After the gang were jailed, Detective Constable Daniel Candler said: "I'm very pleased with the result which shows just how serious these offences were.

"Three vicious, cowardly and cynical men who preyed on vulnerable victims and were not afraid to hurt women have been taken off the streets and are now safely behind bars."

Rashid, a member of several gambling clubs and casinos, was the gang's mastermind and spotter, the court heard.

He would spend hours in casinos and would identify suitable victims while the others waited outside.

The gang targetted two high rollers at the same casino - The Sportsman, near Marble Arch - on the night of September 1st last year.

First, Aipeng Wen was spotted cashing in his chips and was followed to his home in Golders Green, north London. The gang rushed him as he parked his car and stole nearly £4,000 plus his wallet and car keys.

Rashid then returned to the same casino where he picked out Masaaki Feduchi and again trailed him as he took a taxi home to North Finchley.

Right outside his front door they attacked him and wrestled him to the ground as he refused to let go of his bag, containing £8,000.

One of the gang grabbed the victim's terrified wife, Yumiko, put his hand over her mouth and shoved her back inside the house while the others continued to beat her husband until he surrendered his winnings.

A month later the gang targetted Slovakian businessman Zdenko Kos, who later told police he had cashed in "at least £40,000" in chips when he left the Palm Beach in Mayfair.

Rashid had been observing him at the gaming tables for three nights in a row.

As he arrived home with daughter Katja, the pair were both sprayed with CS gas, which left them with streaming eyes and breathing difficulties. Both were physically assaulted before Katja's bag, containing the cash, was cut from her arm and the gang fled.

Rashid and Karim, both of west London, and Bisary, of Enfield, north London, all arrived in the UK as asylum seekers and were living off a raft of state benefits at the time. Two of them were also working as illegal taxi touts

'Cash plays - no make that weed' !

2008-07-27T16:48:00.000-07:00

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Casino Cheats !

2008-06-02T04:04:00.000-07:00

Notice the obvious mistake on roulette:

Las Vegas in the old days was like Moscow was in the nineties, cheats were taken on a journey to the local forest and didn't return:

Original M.I.T. Blackjack Team Member Mike Aponte Talks 21

2008-04-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

Casino Chips - Possible Health Hazard...?

2007-11-11T06:55:00.000-08:00

The Phoenix, AZ-based ABC affiliate ABC15 has discovered that the casino chips most popularly used in Las Vegas (and many other places) contain seemingly eye-popping amounts of lead. They tested the “clay” casino chips used in major Strip casinos like Caesars Palace, The Mirage, Mandalay Bay, and many more, and they found enormous quantities of lead.
How much lead? “Over half of the tested chips maxed-out the swab’s detection limit at 10-percent lead. That’s more than 160-times the lead the EPA legally allows in paint,” says the article.“Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook looked at our lab results. ‘I am very surprised by the high levels of lead that you found in these poker chips. Very surprised. It’s shocking. I’ve never heard of any other consumer product having this kind of lead content.’” Apparently not even toys from China.
Anyone who’s played with these chips knows that they are all covered with a thin layer of nastiness that coats your hands after a few hours. I thought it was just general railbird funk, but apparently it’s railbird funk combined with a powder chock full of lead. Tasty. For those that like eating in the cardroom, apparently your sandwiches have benefited from a yummy secret ingredient.
While not shocked, I can’t say I’m pleased. I’ve spent thousands of hours around these things, inhaling the dust. There’s no reason they need to be made of such a large quantity of such a toxic material. So be careful. Don’t take the chips home and let your kids or dogs chew on them, don’t grind them up and snort them, and always make sure the filter on your gas mask is clean before coming to the cardroom.

You can read 'Gaming Partner's International''s answer here.

The Good Old Days....!

2007-11-11T05:05:00.000-08:00

I started working in Casinos back in 1985. I worked at a Builder's Merchant from Monday to Friday, and went to the training school at the weekends. The casino was the Silhouette Club in Southampton, England, and had a Night Club on the ground floor and a Casino on the first floor. My teacher was Dave Denison, who was actually a School Teacher during the day and Casino Manager during the night. We had 8 trainees, of which just two of us qualified to start work in the casino. We were trained in roulette and a little blackjack. I'll never forget my first game of roulette. My Inspector basically shadow dealt for me because the game grew very quickly. I basically span the ball, cleared the layout and chipped up. The Inspector counted and made the payouts. I kept hitting clear numbers and wiped virtually everyone out.

After a few months, I started to deal on Blackjack which was a nice change, because things are more relaxed. After dealing for about 9 months, we started to get a game on the Punto Banco table, and an Inspector trained me up to do the payouts. It was great fun, and also a welcome relief from the crazy roulette games. On Saturday, we used to work till 2am, because of Government legislation. Ah the good old days. I remember doing double shifts every week. We worked from 2pm till 9pm, 1 hour break usually taken in the Pub getting tanked up, then we worked from 10pm till 4am. Some dealers used to get pissed in the break, but they never got sent home. The Pitboss would get them to chip all night. The problem was that after about 1/2 hour of chipping you wanted the toilet real bad, and the sadistic PB would deliberately leave you chipping for at least a couple of hours, before getting a break.

I'll never forget the first time I saw 'Card Counters'. One afternoon two men and a young lady came to play blackjack. They kept winning and eventually the Manager dealt to them, shemmy shuffling the cards after each shoe. They left having won a substantial amount of money. I was intrigued and start to find out all about card counting. I find it strange that there are casino games where the player can play honestly and beat the house over a long period of time. Card Counters win at blackjack, and consequently get banned from playing in the casino. There was one player called Jeff Lisandro, who is a professional poker player, and also a talented card counter. He got banned from the 'Metelitsa' Casino in Moscow for card counting, and they actually changed their shuffle, because he successfully used the shuffle tracking system, whereby you keep track of the bunches of high and low cards when they are being shuffled, and cut away the low cards. When the cards are consequently dealt, Jeff places big bets straight away, knowing that big cards will be dealt.

In Moscow, there was a player called Sergey Karas who invented a system to win at Casino Stud Poker, where you can buy cards. He would play two boxes and over a couple of days play win big. It was like the player and casino reversed roles. Sergey and his cronies played all over Russia, and the former Republics of the Soviet Union, eventually getting banned. I was the General Manager at a casino in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, and who should walk in to the casino for a little punt? You guessed it - Sergey. I met him at the entrance to the casino. He had already paid for the entrance and was holding the lucky chips in his hand. Needless to say that he didn't play in my casino. I allowed him to lose the lucky chips at the roulette table. He asked me to recommend a casino where he could play in Astana, so I recommended the opposition of course.

There was a team of Punto Banco players in Moscow that pooled their funds, and they won a lot of money. They played a type of martingale system, whereby stakes were increased to cover the previous losses and produce a modest profit. To beat them, you had to literally break every player, which would be a sum in the millions...! The casino shouldn't have let these people play that way, but in Russia life isn't that simple.

There was a roulette player called Simonian. He was from Armenia and a very dangerous player. He could turn $20k in to $1 million bucks, and very quickly. He was amazing to watch. A casino opened in Moscow, called Kutuzov, and they gave Simonian credit, a widely practiced system in Moscow, due to the huge sums of money involved. Simonian won $1.5 million in two visits and the casino banned him.

A casino is a difficult and dangerous business. When I worked in Naberzhnie Chelni in Tatarstan, one Mafia guy who played at our casino, was opening his own casino on the ground floor of a block of flats. He had invited a management team from Samara (Russian town - south of Moscow). He invited me for the opening of the casino, and I complimented him on his courage to open a casino without any experience or knowledge of the business. I said that even with over 20 years of experience I'm very apprehensive about opening my own casino, particularly in Russia. Needless to say that within a few months the casino closed.

The good old days....!

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2007-10-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

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Video Clips !

2007-10-09T02:39:00.000-07:00

1001 Ways To Rip Off A Casino !

2007-10-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

Casinos are always battling with crooks and criminals from both sides of the table.

This device enabled the dealer to see the value of the next card to come out of the shoe. The dealer could then deal a "second" to a player who a 10 value card would help, and save the 10 value card to bust another player. Sometimes, it's not the cheaters cheating the house, it's the house cheating the players.

This device required a player agent and a dealer to be acting in concert to steal chips from the casino. The agent arrived at the gaming table, placing the "empty cup" as a wager. The hand would be played, if the player won, the dealer would pay the empty cup with real chips and the wager would ride. If the wager lost, the dealer take the "cup wager" and slide it into a higher denomination row on the chip tray - filling the hollowed cup with a stack of high denomination chips. The dealer would return the filled cup to the agent when they next won a hand. The player would play a hand or two with other chips then cash out and split.

The Chip Cup was used in South Africa in the eighties, and the people involved made an absolute fortune, before they were finally caught.

Check out vegas tripping for this and other interesting articles on Casinos in the States.

Here is another interesting article from the Telegraph. This type of technology came from the Chinese and was being used in Moscow in the late nineties. Where there is a will there is a way.

Another variant on cameras is where the playing cards are marked with a seemingly invisible ink, which is picked up by the camera on the player. The signal is sent to someone sat in a car or hotel with a monitor, and he relays the Dealer's cards back to the Player by use of a miniature microphone.

Here you can find an interesting site that provides high level security through state-of-the-art defense against illegal cheating devices used against slot machines and other casino games. There are some video clips of cheating devices in actual use.

Finally, here is an article from the New York Times about Police and other Officials that are being trained to spot casino cheats. You have to get up very early in the morning to catch these guys out....!

Status Quo !

2007-09-22T06:09:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone in 'Casino Land'.

It's been a long time since I posted any stories from my eventful past, but I have done some tuning to the site with a Google Video Bar and an mpeg player. The music will be changed on a regular basis, and you are more than welcome to request your favourite music.

I'm now living in England and not working in casinos. Having worked abroad for many years, just the thought of returning to work in an English casino sends shivers up my spine.

I'm now trying to set up my own business, but it's very hard to do and the costs are enormous. Having worked in the gaming industry for over 20 years, I've had enough of the easy life and BIG salaries lmao (laugh my arse off). As you very well know, getting out of the industry is a very hard thing to do. You've got more chance of winning the lottery.

When I set up this blog, I was really hoping that people would send in their stories to be published on this site, for all of us to enjoy. Unfortunately, other than myself, and an old colleague of mine, no-one has sent in any stories. As you can appreciate, this makes it difficult to give any content to the blog. I will continue to write stories for the blog and hope that you guys will also participate. At the end of the day, this blog can be enjoyed by all casino staff if we all contribute a little.

In England there is a new scheme whereby University Graduates (of certain courses) can go on a 'fast track' course to become 'instant' Pit Bosses. Anyone with any experience in the business and half a brain cell will tell you that this idea sucks big time. Managing people is the same regardless of profession, BUT without a sound knowledge of the mechanics of the games, how can you possibly properly understand the problems with the dealing staff and players. I believe that casino staff MUST serve an apprenticeship behind the tables for at least a few years before having the opportunity to run the Pit. It's one thing to learn of stealing techniques from a book, and quite another to experience them in a real life situation. Can you imagine a Surgeon learning all the theory from a book, then going to make an operation, without ever having any practice.....! I rest my case; it's too bloody heavy....lol.

There is a conflict at the moment between the British Government and newly opening Poker Clubs. There is not sufficient legislation that covers the legal aspects of running a poker club. Some poker clubs are trying to obtain a casino licence and just run poker tables. Other poker clubs are running without any licence and just charging the punters for entrance etc. The Government must do something to decide this question. Poker Clubs that receive casino licences, can legally work as a casino, therefore the other genuine casinos in the area will protest to the court, claiming that there is insufficient need for this type of club in the area.
The stumbling block is whether poker is a game of skill or chance. Most people believe that poker is a game that contains both, with skill be the overriding factor over a long period of time. If poker is a game of chance then the poker club will require a casino licence. If poker is a game of skill then a licence is not necessary. Already in the U.K you can play poker at your local Pub. It's tournament style with a limited buy-in, but what an insane decision by the Government. They have decided to mix gambling with alcohol....????? The mind boggles.

I believe that the Government need to make a NEW licence, especially for Poker Clubs, that covers certain games that combine both skill and luck, played both in tournament and cash games. The Government will have total control over the number of clubs, their location, and even size, just like the casinos, and earn a few 'bob' in the process. Poker Clubs must be allowed to open, because poker is essentially a game of skill with an element of luck over the short term, which actually attracts new players to the game, because it gives them more chance of winning.

Okay, that's enough gaming politics. See you guys later.....!

P.S
26th September 2007
Dusk till Dawn, a new poker club in Nottingham, has just received a casino licence with restrictions to work only as a poker club. It is the first case in the United Kingdom and the beginning of the legitimisation of poker clubs within the current legislation. Excellent news !
You can read an article about it here.

Video Clips

2007-08-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

The Empire Strikes Back !

2007-03-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

The largest casino in London is to open in Leicester Square's historic Empire cinema building.The former Empire Ballroom has been transformed into a GBP 16 million casino and entertainment venue with capacity for 1,700 guests.It will open in May and offer a range of gaming rooms, two restaurants, a destination bar, ice creamery, nightclub, a dedicated poker room and VIP room.

Called Casino At The Empire, the complex will be run by London Clubs International and offer two floors, measuring 50,000 square feet.The ground floor will house the main body of the casino with 30 gaming tables and a private poker room with its own bar accommodating up to 80 players, and state of the art electronic gaming machines.Both restaurants will be situated on the second floor. One will be a grill room with covers for up to 65 guests. The second will be an informal noodle bar, offering pan-Asian dishes.The second floor will also feature a members' lounge with dance floor.

Las Vega-based firm The Paul Steelman Design Group is behind the Empire project.The VIP room will be at the front of the building with a balcony offering a vantage point over the West End.The Empire started out as a Music Hall in 1884. It is claimed that the first moving pictures in Britain were shown there by the Lumiere Brothers.The cinema was originally much larger, with 4,000 seats, but was split up in 1967 into a smaller 1,490-seat theatre, with the rest of the building becoming the Empire Ballroom.London Clubs International already owns seven casinos in the capital including Les Ambassadeurs and Fifty in St James's Street.

A spokesman for the Casino At The Empire said: "It will be a welcome addition to the West End, which has never seen an opening on such a scale before."It is the first new casino to be announced since London lost out in its bid for the country's 24-hour supercasino in a shake-up under the Gambling Act 2005.

The Millennium Dome was favourite to win the licence but in a controversial move the Casino Advisory Panel awarded it to Manchester.The panel also agreed to approve one of 17 licences in London. Newham was recommended as a site for a large casino, which can be 1,500 square metres with 150 jackpot machines paying out prizes of up to GBP 4,000.A scheme for a GBP 20 million casino at Earl's Court was rejected last year after objections from residents and anti-gaming groups who were concerned over drunken behaviour and noise late at night.

And Now For Something Completely Different !

2007-03-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

Funny Videos

Casino Cheats Caught Due To Greed !

2007-03-01T05:45:00.000-08:00

Cheaters caught after winning to much !
Trapped by a sting that won too much !
by Steve Bird

Dealer beaten 34 times in an hour !
Hidden cameras used to film cards !

London’s high-class casinos may be used to hosting moments of outrageous fortune, but when a woman at one three-card poker table won 34 times in an hour, staff began to suspect a little more than luck.
The Chinese woman won with such regularity, and played crucial high-stake hands with such confidence, that security staff decided to investigate — leading to the discovery of Britain’s most sophisticated casino sting.

In scenes reminscent of a James Bond film, the woman and two accomplices were found to be using minature cameras woven into a suit sleeve and a handbag, hidden earpieces and a van full of video monitors to win thousands of pounds at poker tables.

Southwark Crown Court heard yesterday how the gang pocketed a total of more than £250,000 at a total of six casinos by filming cards as they were dealt. The images were transmitted to a van parked outside, where they were played back in slow motion, revealing the croupier’s cards. The details were then relayed back to the players via hidden earpieces.

The jury was told how Bit Chai Wong, a respected player among London’s gambling community, had decided to wreak revenge on casinos by devising the scam after suffering heavy losses. She would sit at the table, relying on cameras in her handbag and in the suit sleeve of her accomplice, Yau Yui Lam, to film the dealer from different angles. Fan Leung Tsang played back the footage in the van to establish exactly what hand the croupier had.

With the element of luck and skill gone, the pair could choose to fold or dramatically raise the stakes. It is the first time that anyone has been caught using such technology to cheat in British casinos.

At one point Wong was winning 80 per cent of the games she played. In just one week she turned a £31,000 stake into £69,000. But it was that success that led to their undoing. A number of casinos had reported seeing a parked white van on nights that the house had suffered severe losses.

Shortly after midnight on September 13, 2005, Wong and Lam walked confidently into the Silver Room at The Mint casino in Kensington, West London. Sitting directly opposite the croupier they played three-card poker — a game that pits them solely against the croupier.

Wong, who arrived with a float of £2,500, rested her handbag on her lap leaving the filming to Lam.

The court was shown video footage captured by Lam’s sleeve camera as he rested his arm on the table at an angle below the woman dealer’s hands. When the pictures were slowed down the suit and value of each card the croupier placed on the table were clearly visible. When security staff spotted the van parked outside they contacted police.

All three were arrested. Wong was found to be wearing a transmitter and earpiece and carrying the surveillance camera in her handbag. Lam had a harness fitted with the microcamera, two transmitters and an earpiece.

In the van, officers found torn-up video tape, two monitors, one for a “live feed” and the other to play video recordings of the croupier’s cards.

In just 40 minutes Wong, a mother of one, had made £3,520, winning 34 times and losing just ten times. When arrested she had £6,020 in chips and Lam had £525 in cash.

All three admitted a single charge of cheating at play under the 1845 Gaming Act.

Lam, 45, a chef, with a previous conviction for dishonesty, was jailed for nine months. Wong, 39, a waitress from Sandy, Befordshire, and Tsang, 41, a restaurateur from Paddington, were given suspended nine-month sentences, ordered to do 150 hours’ community service and banned from entering a casino for two years.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said: “The method used by you could never have been conceived at the time Parliament drew up this Act.” He added: The crime of cheating at play may well be over 150 years old, but as has been demonstrated in this case it is still alive and kicking.”

Jason Cross, defending the trio, said that Wong had not considered her behaviour morally wrong because she had lost vast sums of money in casinos. All three had suffered gambling debts, he said.

Fast and loose

In 2005 a Hungarian woman and two Serbian men made £1.3 million at the Ritz in London with a scanner hidden in a mobile phone. The device calculated the speed of the roulette ball and where it was likely to land. Although the trio were arrested they were never charged, and as there had been no interference with the table they kept the money

Paul Kennedy, duty manager of Portsmouth’s Stanley Casino, and David Ho were found guilty last May of conspiracy to defraud. Their four-year scam got them more than £1,000 a day. Kennedy would steal chips with a barely detectable sleight-of-hand move and leave them in the lavatory for Ho to pick up

In 2005 Kwong Lee, Martin Fitz and Shuhal Miah became the first people to be found guilty of “cheating at play” under the 1845 Gaming Act. They used a trick called “top hatting” to drop chips on to the roulette table after the ball had settled
found here www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2548952,00.html

The Putch - Moscow 1993

2007-02-22T05:32:00.000-08:00

On 3rd October 1993 we had returned from our holiday in Turkey and I was standing on the street outside Metro Rizhskaya on Prospect Mira, waiting for my girlfriend. It was middle of the afternoon and rather cold. Then appeared lots of people with banners, shouting slogans and waiving flags. I couldn't quite understand what they were shouting, but it was obviously some sort of demonstration. I began to get nervous because of possible animosity towards foreigners. I had an accident on holiday in Turkey and wounded my leg. I couldn't run away for love or money.

My girlfriend came and we went home quickly. Later that evening, while watching the news on TV, it turns out that it was the beginning of a 'Putch' organized by the Communists to overthrow the new Democratic Government. They were marching to 'Ostankino', the television studio to take it over and relay their message to the whole country and abroad. This was the start of a mini civil war and the Communists were making a futile attempt to overthrow the Government. The ringleaders were Alexander Rutskoy and Ruslan Khasbulatov, two prominent figures in the Communist Party.

The putch lasted from 3rd till 5th October and in that time the Communists had taken-over the 'White House'. The Government brought in the Army and tanks were shooting at the White House. Zhenya Kuznetsov was the Captain in charge of the tanks shooting at the White House. He later resigned from the Army and came to work in my casino. Zhenya told me many interesting stories about that time and about the Russian Army in general, but that's another story. Communist rebels were firing back with Kalashnikovs, but to no avail. Crazy people were standing in the streets and on the bridge by the White House, watching the proceedings, like watching some American police serial on TV. They didn't think they would get hurt.....? Many people were shot, injured, and killed. There were snipers, positioned on the rooftops, taking potshots at people passing by. The hospitals couldn't cope with all the injured people and dead bodies. Police were arresting police and other officials. It was complete chaos.

I worked in Casino 'Cosmos' that was based in the Hotel 'КОСМОС' in ВДНХ on Prospect Mira. The casino was situated on the balcony (1st floor), overlooking the entrance to the Hotel and you could see 'Ostankino' through the glass walls. At night time we watched the tracer bullets lighting up the sky as the Communist rebels battled it out with the Army. The Government announced a 'curfew' and no-one was allowed out on the streets after 9pm till 6am.

I used to play poker at the Arbat Casino on New Arbat in the centre of Moscow. Gordon Young used to run the game. Due to the curfew, we went to play in another casino that was due to open, (Business Russ Club) opposite the Kremlin, on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. My friend Jeff Lisandro was running the game. We played five card stud with a strip deck (32 cards from 7's to A's). It's a strange game, because a flush is bigger than a fullhouse...??? This game is actually very popular in Finland and China of all places...! The Russians loved this game and it took a good few years before they grasped the finer point’s lol. It was a license to print money
On the 5th October the Government managed to take control of the Communist rebels. Rutskoy and Khasbulatov were sentenced and sent to Lefortovo prison in Moscow.

Ice Ice Baby !

2007-02-16T16:17:00.000-08:00

Casino Robbery & Shooting !

2007-02-08T11:34:00.000-08:00

Mafia Killings in a Casino in Karavas !

2007-02-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year !

2006-12-30T05:12:00.000-08:00

May you have plenty of new adventures and stories to tell and that all your new year resolutions come true......!

Cheers,

Andyexpat

Oligarkh KO'd in the Casino ! Part 2

2006-12-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

O.B went outside to speak to his people, and the G.M seized the moment to make his escape. Without uttering a single word, he literally ran full speed out of the office, throught the casino, and out through the staff entrance. I was left standing in the office with my jaw bouncing off the floor in a state of shock. The Night Director came into the office and I explained to him what happened. He had worked with this G.M before and knew the score. Hmmm ????
The General Director, and the people from Head Office had been notified of our situation, but there was no feedback, so I had to hang tough and see what would happen. I called a good friend, who is a Lawyer, and he explained to me what action to take and how deal with any situation that might occur.
O.B returned to the casino, and by that time the local police had arrived and had started to take statements from all the witnesses. Both myself and the Night Director were left holding the baby, but he got most of the grief due to the fact that he was russian lol. My philosophy was 'out of sight, out of mind', and I spent the rest of the shift in the staffroom. My presence in the casino would of been like spraying a fire with petrol so it was better for all concerned that I held a low profile.
O.B insisted on receiving details of Gadji, which of course he never received and his 'cronies' stayed in the casino until late the next morning, waiting for the information. O.B also wanted the casino to wipe off the credit that he had lost that night as compensation for his injuries lol. Well, there was no harm in trying. He didn't get to be so rich by being a nice guy. O.B was taken to a specialist hospital that deals with head injuries.
Our 'people' got in contact with O.B and explained the situation to him in his language, and the credit was paid immediately, and O.B wasn't seen in the casino again.
I suppose that when you have so much money, which in Russia means power, you really do feel a sense of being godlike; that you can do what you want, when you want, and nobody can do a thing to stop you. Well O.B got a slap, which he thoroughly deserved, and let's hope that he learned his lesson.

2006-12-12T09:22:00.000-08:00

Now this takes some Balls - and not the type you find on a roulette wheel !

Oligarkh KO'd in the Casino !

2006-07-13T06:23:00.000-07:00

This event happened fairly recently in a V.I.P Casino in Moscow and therefore names have been changed to protect the innocent.

An 'Oligarkh' is the name given to extremely wealthy business people in Russia, and include Roman Abramovich, Victor Vekselberg, and Iskander Mukhamedov.
One such Oligarkh, O.B started to play in our casino. He was a terrible player and always lost, even if he had been winning, because he enjoyed the process of playing. On his first visit to our casino, he lost in the region of $1 million and would have lost more, but the funds on his credit card had dried up and the casino wasn't prepared to give him any more credit. He had the unusual habit of only speaking to female staff, and ignoring the males completely. O.B even completely blanked out the General Manager, which was quite a shock for him. lol
He made several visits to our casino, usually losing substantial amounts of money in the process.
O.B was always very demanding; and would insist on presents from the casino and anything else he could get for free ( na halyavoo). On one ocassion, having lost a couple of hundred grand, he became rather aggressive when we refused him credit. He had been drinking Crystal Champagne and beer of all things, so it was a rather delicate situation. On leaving the casino with one of his personal employees ( shestyorka), he made some derogitory comment about the casino, and one of the players in the casino made a sarcastic reply. O.B had found a reason to vent his anger and invited the other player for a fight on the street. O.B said such bad things to the player that he had no choice but to defend his honour. The player, Gadji was in his thirties and from the Caucauses, so very hot blooded. He was also about 2 metres tall with arms like legs so O.B had chosen a worthy opponent. The casino only had 3 Security Guards at that moment in time, and could not control the situation. The players started to fight by the cloakroom, just inside the casino. O.B was in good physical shape for a man in his fifties, and had obviously trained in the combatal arts at some time in his life. O.B flew at Gadji, kicking him in his midrift. Gadji replied with a kick and right cross. O.B attacked again with another kick and followed through with a right cross which connected with Gadji's jaw. Gadji instantly retaliated with a right cross which connected with O.B's jaw with a bone crushing crack. O.B literally flew across the floor, landing on his back. His head bounced off the floor and blood started to ooze from the crack in his head. I was standing right next to the players as they fought and seeing O.B lying unconcious on the floor with glassy eyes frightened the living daylights out of me. I thought that he had died. The Security lifted O.B up and sat him on a chair. After some time O.B came to his senses and carried on a verbal battle with Gadji. O.B called his 'protection' (krisha) and they continued their heated discussion on the street.
In the mean time, I went to the General Manager, who had been watching the whole incident from the office. He didn't know what to say or do. Gadji decided to leave with his friend and O.B returned to the casino. I met him at the entrance and he started screaming and shouting that we didn't protect him from this maniac and we are to blame for the whole episode. Hmmmm ?
O.B wanted to speak to the General Manager, who reluctantly spoke to him in the bar. On returning to the office, the G.M said that O.B was demanding the personal details of Gadji and that he was calling K.G.B, Police, the City Prosecutor, and the Press. Hmmm ???

To be continued.....!

The Italian Football Team in Training !

2006-06-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

2006-06-19T03:07:00.000-07:00

Packer's Russian roulette: casino venture enters a dark world

Peter Wilson, Moscow
June 19, 2006

To see one of the problems that James Packer will have to deal with when his Consolidated Press Holdings becomes the first foreign group to run a casino in Russia, you just have to spend an evening standing outside the gambling establishments that will soon be his rivals.

Any casino in any country will attract seedy characters, but many of the men going into some of Moscow's bigger gambling houses on Friday night could have stepped straight from a gangster movie or out of jail. Freelance photographer Yuri and I kept our distance and stayed in the shadows, but he correctly predicted there would be plenty of bodyguards standing beside the dark-windowed cars parked outside the casinos, and that they would not like being watched.
In fact, Yuri thought the assignment was risky enough for him to bring our own protection, a large gent named Pavel.

Pavel assured me he was not a criminal any more, but he did have a worryingly intimate knowledge of the heavies going in and out of the casinos. "That's the Joker," he said, all excited as he pointed out yet another guy with jewellery and a close hair cut.
"This one is a hired killer, that one a small-time hood.
"That fat guy is known as The Chechen, but he is actually from Kazakhstan. And there is Blondie."
Just after midnight I lost interest in Pavel's narrative and the whole exercise when Yuri casually lifted his jacket to show me the gun he was wearing on his hip in case of trouble.

Muscovites and longtime expats living in the capital often insist Moscow is no longer the cowboy city it was in the wild mid-1990s. But the fact an experienced photographer feels the need to arm himself is a reminder the violence of the past decade did not just disappear.

Mr Packer is now planning to enter the Moscow casino world in a way that will contribute to a painful restructuring of the industry expected to destroy scores of mafia operations and leave him competing with dozens of others -- potentially creating a few unpleasant enemies in the process.
Fresh from breaking ground on its $1.4 billion City of Dreams project in Macau, CPH is now dealing with Russia's Crocus Group, which is building a 24,300sqm casino at Crocus City, on the north side of Moscow, which bills itself as the largest luxury mall in the world.

"Like anywhere, you will get mafia types taking suitcases of money to casinos," said a US analyst of the Russian gambling industry, who asked not to be named.

"The question is do they actually own the casinos as well as frequent them, and yes, they are involved in some operations in Moscow but mainly the very small ones.

"It is not an industry that is wholly controlled by the mafia, but in Russia you never know where the boundaries lie. In general, I would think your guy will have more trouble with bureaucrats and politicians putting the squeeze on him rather than gorillas carrying guns."

An Australian businessman who holds a senior position in another industry in Moscow said he would be nervous about entering a cash-rich business such as gambling under a Russian culture that tolerated corruption and changed the ground rules at will.

"You never know when someone is going to impose a new tax interpretation on you and suddenly make it retrospective, or somebody else might decide you're doing so well you should give a slice of your business to a relative or friend of theirs."

Moscow casinos are certainly lucrative after an estimated 30 per cent annual growth in the industry's turnover over the past five years, but even the largest operations are small by Australian or US standards. Moscow's biggest casino is the Shangri-La on Pushkin Square. Owned by the Dutch firm Storm International BV, it promotes itself as the closest you can get to Las Vegas without going to the US, but it has only 220 poker machines, 49 gaming tables, two restaurants and four bars.

That would be dwarfed by Mr Packer's plans for a real Las Vegas-scale operation, but the difference between Moscow's current market leaders and its smaller casinos is still an important one. Since the deregulation of licensing rules in 2002, hundreds of much smaller operations with between half a dozen and a few dozen poker machines have popped up in almost any public space available -- shopfronts, arcades, even toilets and underpasses leading to Metro stations.
It is those smaller casinos that have the most obvious criminal ownership, and after lobbying by larger operators and church groups the city has launched a crackdown in recent months that has put hundreds out of business.

City officials have identified 2640 gambling sites and have vowed to get that number under 500. Wiping out the small operators should create a lucrative opening for larger ventures such as that proposed by Mr Packer. But Peter Grishin, an analyst with the investment bank Renaissance Capital, says the industry is in flux because the new rules are still not decided.

"Originally everyone thought it would be fantastic for the big guys because the Government is forcing the little operators out, but it looks like the impact on the big operators will be partly negative because the new licensing regulations could be quite harsh," Mr Grishin said.
"There is enough uncertainty that some deals we have been working on have been delayed."

The Albion

2006-06-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

Back in the late nineties, I went to work in a small town called Ribinsk on the Volga river, not far from Yeroslavel, north of Moscow. There was a casino called 'The Albion', situated in the local sports centre, upstairs from the ice rink. I had been employed by some Moscow Businessmen to go to Ribinsk and sort out the casino. The casino was run by two Moscovian Managers who were basically robbing the place blind.

When I got there, they basically did nothing, but within a month, the casino was making three times the usual monthly income, so it was pretty obvious what was going on. All the staff were girls, which was great, but as with most things, there were pluses and minuses. With most of the casino clientele being male, it was very hard to prevent the girls going out with the punters, especially in summer. Of course, with no video surveillance and being on my own, it was extremely difficult to control the casino, eventhough there were only five tables.

We had many 'characters' in the casino. 'Cockroach' was a local businessman who was larger than life. He would regularly lose a bundle in the casino, and liked to treat all the girls well. 'Mosquito' was the 'big boss' in town and a 'real gent' as far as Mafia Bosses go. His henchmen were not so nice though. 'Bayanik' was a real nasty piece of work, and had to be held on a leash, otherwise somebody would be spitting teeth by the morning. For a small town there were quite a few Mafia Groups, and they all seemed to get on okay in the casino. Our casino security were all ex Army Officers, which might sound fine, but the problem was that it was 'Dad's Army'. lmao

So basically, there was no security. One evening, these young mafia guys arrived from Yeroslavel, and started to cause havoc. They were drunken, celebrating the release of one of their members from prison. The trouble started when one of our security told one of the guys to remove his 'shapka' (winter fur hat). The young guy just smashed him in the mouth, and broke his jaw ! Then, these guys started to get real familiar with all the girls in the casino. OMG ! With no security and punters that could not be controled, I was forced to close the casino, and hide the girls in the staffroom, under lock and key. The local punters were very supportive and didn't give me any grief over my decision. The local police were called and they arrived a short while after. But, of course, nobody would say anything through fear of reprisal, and the young bandits left a little while later. Waiting for them down the road, was the Armed Police 'OMON' who swiftly arrested the bandits and locked them up for a couple of nights. The security guy was on sick leave for a good while, and never received any compensation from the company....!

Another time, these local mafia guys were playing on poker and losing quite heavily. One of them 'Oriol' stole a card, then threw it on the floor when we questioned him about it. That's when the fireworks started. He was p!ssed and started to get violent. He grabbed me by the jacket and would not let go until he had been compensated for his losses. He also threw a glass across the casino floor, that smashed as it bounced off my Pit Bosses chest...! In the meantime, someone had called our 'roof' (mafia protection). Of course, by the time the roof arrived, these idiots had already left. Just like the bloooody Cavalry. We had a problem with our 'roof'. They got drunken and started to get boystrous.

The topping on the cake was when the KGB started to follow me. Ribinsk, formerly known as 'Andropov', the former General Secretary of the Soviet Union, was a 'closed town' with limited access, due to the aviation factory. Since opening up, the local authorities were still keen to control the access and took a keen interest in 'yours truely'. To cut a long story short, I had to leave Ribinsk or face some grief with the KGB. Having returned to Moscow, I later found out that the local owner of the casino, was using the Russian Management to steal money from the casino, deceiving the Moscow Partners, and used her contacts in the KGB to remove me from the equation.

After Ribinsk, I was sent to Tver, a town between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The casino was called 'Joker' and it really was a joke, but that's another story.

Stay tuned.

Video Clips of the Week !

2006-06-08T04:52:00.000-07:00

Do you work in a casino like this one:

A little taste of Macao and the status quo:

And finally for all you 'card counters' out there:

Stay tuned.

Tales from Behind the Rusty ‘Iron Curtain’ !

2006-06-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

A Vicar used to come and play in the casino. He was a huge man with a long unkempt beard and always wore a big baggy jumper to hide the enormous cross that he wore around his neck. One day, while chatting with the Vicar, he said to me, “you know Andy, I only have three weaknesses - casinos, alcohol, and women.” Thank God he didn’t take drugs. Lmao.

We had an Inspector once called Steve, who liked a drop of vodka. One night, Steve is working and his mate came to have a little punt. I was the Pit Boss at the time and didn’t know that this guy was a mate of Steve. Anyway, Steve is drinking vodka while inspecting the poker tables, unbeknown to us. His mate was leaving a glass of vodka in the corner of the table, so that Steve could help himself. About half way through the shift, Steve is completely p!ssed. He leaves his position and comes to me and the Manager in the Pit. “Lads, I’ve got to take a break”, he said. Steve left the pit and fell asleep on the couch in the bar. He woke up on the day shift, and staggered off back home. Needless to say, that was his last shift. Lmao.

Back in England during the mid ‘80, s, when I worked in the Silhouette Casino, in Southampton, we had a trainee who was colour blind. Apparently, it wasn’t noticed on the Training School and nobody understood why he chipped multi-coloured stacks on roulette. They didn’t get rid of him though. He just dealt Blackjack all the time. The mind boggles.

Something that happened quite recently – two couples came to our casino, and one of the ladies had a large handbag. On entering the bar of the casino, she opened the bag and let a little dog out. The dog ran all over the casino, and pissed under the roulette table. It was one of those dogs that have ribbons in their hair, and was a vicious little bitch (literal sense). ;-)

Things happen in a V.I.P Casino Club in Moscow that you can’t possibly imagine. The ‘super rich’ of Russia live life beyond the Laws that are meant for the common man. They have their own Laws, and every player is the exception to the rule.

There is one player who is one of the richest men in Russia. When he comes to play, there is an entourage of pretty girls, all at his beck and call. Regardless of whether he wins or loses, they all get at least $5000 as a present. He plays on two roulettes by the maximum and can win or lose anywhere in the region of $10 million on a single visit.

We have another ‘Oligarkh’ (nickname for the mega-rich) who is an ‘Oil Magnate’ and is worth at least $3 billion on paper according to Forbes. He can lose $500 on roulette, and leave quite contented. His girlfriend loses more!

Casinos in Moscow are very civilized compared to 10-15 years ago. You don’t get anywhere near the trouble today. There is top level Security and video surveillance in all the casinos now and ‘Bandits’ have evolved in to ‘respectable businessmen’.
Mind you, the provincial casinos can still be very ‘spit and sawdust’. I worked in the provinces for 7 years and saw many unpleasant episodes. The local ‘Bandits’ still have not made that essential transition and live their lives by the ‘gun’.

When I worked in Tatarstan, we had one punter who they called ‘wooden’ and he was a ‘Vor v Zakonie’ or ‘Thief in Law’ which basically means that he was the ‘Daddy’ of a prison. Generally speaking ‘wooden’ was quite well behaved and even occasionally helped us to decide a dispute. One day, he came in to the casino and acted in a very strange manner. He wasn’t drunk so my only conclusion was that he had taken some drugs. Anyway, his behaviour became unacceptable, and I decided to remove him from the premises. The Head of Security used deception to fool ‘wooden’ in to leaving the premises, and then didn’t let him back in. This was like spraying a fire with petrol and ‘wooden’ went crazy. I went out on to the street to try and calm the situation, but ‘wooden’ wanted a victim. Eventually, we get him in to a Hotel room with my Shift Manager and the Assistant Director. They tried in vein to appease ‘wooden’, but he was probably tripping and couldn’t be reasoned with. He pulled a revolver from his trousers and started to shoot at the ceiling. Not the cleverest thing to do in a Hotel. Eventually ‘wooden’ came to his senses and went home to bed. Bless him.
Why didn’t we call the Police ? Good question ! But that would have created a very big scandal and maybe even a war between the Bandits, which nobody wanted. The secret to survival in the ‘wild east’ is diplomacy and never letting the opposition ‘lose face’ when they succumb to your demands.

On a lighter note, we used to have a weekly lottery in the casino in Tatarstan, giving away anything from paintings to lucky chips or even a car ! There were many people at the lottery, so we used to run the lottery from the Pit. One prize was a wooden sculpture of a hedgehog. We called out the number and one of the local prostitutes screamed out in joy, having noticed that she had won. The funny thing was that she couldn’t see what she had won, and the look on her face when she received the hedgehog was priceless. You just had to be there. ;-)

Stay tuned.

Sheepish Insults !

2006-06-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

Very few of the expats that came to Russia in the early 90’s could speak the language and at Gabriella not understanding the insults had its advantages. The swearing was replete with western style insults like cnut (pizda), fothermucker (mudak), fcuking faggot (pederast blyat) and most of the usual phrases we have for insults and these became quickly known. Occasionally though, one would hear new words and just have to ask the inspector, invariably chosen for their ability in English, to translate.

I’d just resolved a table dispute against the infamous Apti and was expecting the usual pleasantries when he said, “Ti kazyol blyat, barran blyat i gandon”. So I turned to Boris my inspector and said “what did he call me?” to which Boris replied “a goat, a sheep and a condom” with enough etiquette not to interlace it with the 'f' words. “Oh!” I replied bemusedly with a small grin, quietly thinking to myself that things must be improving! Sometimes once we actually knew these words it would lead to some bizarre scenarios. Once a drunk and pissed off player called Grey Jumper called the expat inspector a goat at which he cracked up laughing so you can imagine Grey Jumpers’ reaction…!!

Don’t Get Caught!

Some crimes committed in Gabriella went unpunished and some not. Once passing through the lobby of the hotel making my way in for day shift I saw Armen, a crazy drugged out Armenian with wild eyes, lying slumped back, eyes closed, on an armchair. It was a hot summer’s day and Armen sported a short sleeved shirt with a small trickle of blood oozing from his elbow region. He’d probably shot up in the casino as needles were often found in the players toilets on the main floor. The security only had hand held detectors and although they had checked him Armen had managed to smuggle a knife into the casino by simply holding his arms up and concealing it there as they searched his clothed body. The next event only ever happened once that I know of but it DID happen!

Once inside the casino Armen had teamed up with another Armenian ex-con thug called Ramazan and then they waited for their prey. It was to be a young Chinese guy who had strayed into the casino and was now headed for the toilets. The two men followed him in and they were all conspicuously absent for some period. An hour later the 2 Armenians emerged with satisfied, sneering faces and this had been no usual robbery. Five minutes later the now humiliated Chinese guy emerged sniveling and walking awkwardly from the toilets. They had robbed and raped him and forced him to leave the toilet with a red rose between his teeth and told him to leave the casino without removing it or they would kill him. He had then suffered the gauntlet of jeering Chechens before exiting never to be seen again. No report was made by him and Armen was seen the next day in the casino.

They thieved from the casino, each other and even the staff! Once, after unscrewing the tip box housing under the roulette, one enterprising young Georgian called Georgi actually was caught shuffling on hands and knees with the tip box firmly wedged between his thighs trying to get vertical. Another time they actually succeeded in stealing an entire float from the casino and successfully snuck it out of the casino passed security whence it was promptly smashed, divvied up and distributed between them. They even had the audacity to return the float and part broken lid back into the casino without our knowledge almost as though they wanted a refill!? One thief had a filed down metal-insert chip which he said he used to cut away stitching and bragged that no casino detector in Moscow could stop him entering with it. There seemed to be sanctioned thieves or at least those smart enough to pay a kick back to security to be allowed to ‘work’ the casino but they had one rule .. “Don’t get caught!” because if they were caught then it would depend upon whom they had been trying to steal from, regular thieves were often pre-warned. Occasionally however an ‘outsider’ would come in to ply his trade and get caught and the security had their own special way of dealing with them. They even had a ‘fax’ room where they would take the players to be ‘faxed’ which also doubled as the staff locker room. One unfortunate pickpocket once had all 10 of his fingers broken one at a time and, despite the staffroom being about 3 meters away around the corner, his screams and pleading could be heard on the main floor. You’d expect them not to get replaced with others but they always were……..the rewards for the pros were too great! It would often happen that a manager would send in a pit boss to mop up any splattering of blood that might be smeared on the lockers after the security had finished! What a lovely place!

Swftm

Video Clips of the Week

2006-05-30T00:31:00.000-07:00

Are you good at doing chip tricks ?
Well take a look at this guy:

This guy gets caught cheating at Vegas style Blackjack !

This is what happens to casinos when they retire !

And finally, an ingenius way to advertise your casino !

Stay tuned !

Fancy a Game of Russian Roulette ?

2006-05-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

The American Roulette Professor

When I was working in Tatarstan we used to have a player on American Roulette called Igor. He always sat and recorded the numbers spun by all the Dealers and made meticulous records, finding the appropriate cards for each dealer as they changed. We gave Igor the nickname of ‘Professor’ as a result of his insatiable behaviour.

One day I noticed that Igor had been winning on a regular basis. This fact wasn’t noticed to begin with because he used to win a small amount of money, say $100 or $200 then leave. When Igor started to win in the region of $1000 on a regular basis I started to become suspicious. We observed Igor every time he played and which dealers won and lost to him. We couldn’t understand why he was winning so often. Igor was the most honest person that you could meet.

It was a public holiday and Igor came to the casino with his beloved wife. They celebrated in the restaurant and then came to the casino. Due to the fact that Igor was drinking and with his wife, he didn’t play at the roulette table. Igor had become drunk and just couldn’t resist teasing me about his winning streak. He gave me some clues and finally decided to show me how he was winning. We walked up to the roulette and studied the wheel intensely. “Can you see it ?” he inquired. “See what ?”, I replied. The ball was dropping in the same place on every spin due to a fault in the wheel. This defect had given Igor an edge over the casino which he used to his advantage.

From that day on, the wheels were changed around and checked on a regular basis. Igor suddenly started to lose and initially couldn’t understand why. Then it dawned on him that in his drunken stupor he had ‘let the cat out of the bag’, and cursed the day that he got drunk in our casino.

The Name’s Bond – James Bond

There was another roulette player in the same casino called Alexander. He always used to come in to the casino with sunglasses and we gave him the nick-name of ‘James Bond’. The first time that J.B visited our casino with his wife he won approximately $6000 playing a combination of the ‘martingale’ system (betting on the even chances; doubling the previous bet until you win, then starting the sequence again i.e., 1 2 4 8 16) and bets on the numbers. He had never played in a casino before and won the very first visit. He also drank vodka like mineral water and never lost control. J.B got extremely drunk that night so we put his winnings on deposit and he took a taxi home with his wife. After a couple of days J.B came to the casino with his wife and explains to us that he had been robbed at the entrance to his flat that night. J.B thought that it probably had something to do with the taxi driver. We told him that we had put his winnings on deposit and he was pleasantly surprised. He thought that the thieves had taken everything.

J.B became a regular visitor to our casino, winning on a regular basis. Over a period of a month he lost only 2 or 3 times, mainly because he couldn’t be bothered to go home for more money. We dreaded him coming to the casino due to his incredible winning streak. He played honestly, winning against all-comers. J.B was winning in the region of $100,000 which for the Provinces is a lot of money. The Owner was getting really rather upset about the situation. Even the Players started to treat J.B like royalty. They all wanted to shake his hand when he entered the casino and watched him play, trying to understand the method behind his madness. Lol

Then one day J.B started to lose. He went home for more money and lost that as well. Over the next three days J.B lost all his winnings and another $30,000 of his own money. The bubble had burst. J.B’s winning streak was over. I have never seen such a long winning streak on roulette in my life and never want to see another one, unless I happen to be the lucky player. Lol.

Here is James Bond playing roulette:

Stay tuned.

The Criminal Circus

2006-05-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

Anyone working in Moscow through the early 90’s would surely remember the Gabriella Casino because it was the closest thing to open prison, without the guards, as you could get. In any one evening we had our fair share of hard men, hitmen, pickpockets, extortionists, gangster wanna-bees, violent drunks, and the rest were at least a bunch of thieving gits. Now racially mix them into Chechens, Georgians, Armenians, Caucasians (meaning from the Russian Caucuses), general scumbags and you’ve got your clientele for the shift. Straight up, that’s how it was.

Security was either paid off or told to fcuk off, depending on whom it was required against. Often players would walk in and give security a $100 cash each as a sort of “don’t touch me” payoff and as soon as you saw those punters enter you knew you were in for a fun shift. They were to all intents and purposes untouchable; it meant your security were going to do sod all and that left you pretty much screwed as a manager. Tables were turned over with regularity (for anyone that’s not seen a roulette table up-ended, I assure you it’s not a pretty sight) and vodka poured on the table and set on fire. We had stand-offs between the above mentioned factions, not dissimilar to “Reservoir Dogs”, where guns and knives were pulled in all directions with float lids on, pit bosses shouting to the dealers to get under the tables and distraught managers !

Gabs owner, Alexander Greem, had two other casinos, “Bingo Gabriella” (later to become Madame Sophia’s, after his wife, and now the ‘Imperial’ owned by the ‘Golden Palace’ group) and Alexander’s No.1, after himself, now long closed. Apart from the punters being ‘barking mad’, the owner wasn’t far behind, and because someone had told him ‘casinos never lose’ (which he took verbatim) any manager who had a losing shift could find himself sacked, although they would invariably be relocated to one of his other casinos. Expats were employed from all over the world, and we had a lot of experience with Yugoslavs (pre breakup, mostly Croats and Serbs), Poles, Czechs, Rumanians, Latvians and Estonians. In 1994 the “Barbara Bowyers Agency” went through about 90 expats of varying positions in one year alone (nice commission). I once had a manager who did one shift and got the next plane home ! Fair play, it wasn’t for everyone. For those of us who stayed (mostly misfits and nutters) it meant going to work either drunk, stoned or both, in order to get through the shift where death threats and intimidation were the norm. The ‘Lowenbrau Bar’ was a regular hangout for after-shift piss-ups (often before too !) and story swapping.

Most of the punters had nicknames like Psycho, Son of Psycho, Grey Jumper, Big Nose, Prune face, Satan and Gadaffi but one guy everyone will remember went by his own name, a Chechen named Apti. He was famous for many things and probably the originator of the $500- on- red-nick-it-back-when-it-loses scenario (which caught on quickly !) keeping inspectors and pit bosses on their toes but I distinctly remember him for two fairly outrageous events. This guy could swear and intimidate like the best of them, get drunk and violent, but I will never forget the time when he rode a child’s tricycle around the casino, playing the violin quite well( apparently he was some sort of entertainer back in Chechnya) and serenading my female dealers, asking for tips. Another time he had acquired a horse from one of the girls who organized horse rides for the tourists in Pushkin Square. He gave the girl enough money to let him ride away with the horse, and he promptly rode into the lobby of the hotel ! The security stopped him coming into the casino, but he was happily trotting round the hotel foyer ! Can you imagine the reaction of the tourists in the Hotel, and just 300m from Red Square too!

Some Expats worked for the money, a few worked for the experience, but have no doubts, we were all working in the “Criminal Circus”, and that circus was called “Gabriella’s”!

The Godfather of Sochi

2006-05-24T03:38:00.000-07:00

During the mid 90’s I was sent to Sochi, a resort town on the Black Sea, to takeover the running of a small casino in the centre of the city. Casino “Chances” was situated on the 3rd floor of a large building, with a Bazaar on the ground floor. There were 8 gaming tables and slots on the entrance to the casino.

The casino was owned by Americans, managed by English, it had a Dagestan “Roof” (roof is slang for mafia protection), based in Moscow, and two Directors; one Armenian and one Georgian, who didn’t like the sight or sound of each-other.

The casino had no video surveillance, and the Security were local lads who could handle themselves, but were no good against any serious Mafioso. We also employed the local OMON (the Military department of the Police), who would come to our emergency. Among our esteemed clientele were 4 “Vorie v Zakonie” (Thief in Law – a title given to the “Daddy of a Prison”), and 1 “Kryosni Otets”(Godfather). I had an experienced Russian Pit Boss from Moscow, who was born and raised in Sochi, so he knew all the local Characters, and my dealing Staff (all girls), were trainees with less than 6 months experience, so as you can see, I had my hands full. Lol.

Everyday, we worked from 8pm till about 8am, depending on the punters. You had to have eyes in back of your head, because all the players, without exception, were trying to steal money from the casino. Due to the fact that I actually didn’t have any protection, (the Roof would take a couple of days to fly down from Moscow, the Security were afraid of the local Mafia, and the Directors tried to not get involved in any major conflicts, and the OMON were limited in their actions), I decided that the best course of action would be to become really friendly with the “Godfather” and the “Vorie v Zakonie”, so that they could help me to control the situation. The “Godfather”, better known as “Napoleon”, befriended me, and we built up a good relationship very quickly. He called me “Fransoos” which means Frenchman; God knows why. Everything was going great. If there was a conflict in the casino, Napoleon would sort it out in a second, if I asked him. Of course, he didn’t supply this service for nothing. I gave him all his drinks and food for free, which he rather enjoyed.

Napoleon liked to drink vodka in large quantities, which is perfectly normal for Russians and people from the former Republics of the Soviet Union. As a mate, I was also obliged to share in the odd tipple of vodka, or is that a litre. Lol. Napoleon would swear a lot, especially when he had been drinking heavily, and I had to be very careful what I said and did, because his mood could change in a moment. One evening, as usual, Napoleon would play on the Blackjack and slowly get drunk with his favourite drinking partner, yours truly. Everything was going well, and in the morning we ended up dancing and drinking vodka by the bar. Napoleon was swearing and becoming a little more aggressive than usual. In my drunken stupor, I replied to Napoleon in the same way that he had spoken to me. I started to verbally abuse him in the same fashion that he had spoken to me, even being more abusive. OMG!

Napoleon became outraged in an instant, and wanted to kill me. He called his henchmen, who arrived in 4 Mercedes, gunned up to the eyeballs. Someone from my Staff called the Directors to come immediately, and the OMON were notified of a possible “blood-bath”. A small platoon arrived with AK47’s and ready for action.

????? HOLY SH!T ?????

It felt like a scene out of a Hollywood Movie. It was a crazy situation, and I’ve never sobered up so quickly in my entire life. There was a big crowd that separated me from Napoleon, including Directors, Security, OMON, henchmen, and punters. We had reached a stand-off, and the only thing that Napoleon could do was retreat. Eventually, everyone left and I closed the casino. In the mean time, the Directors, and other influential people had calmed Napoleon down, explaining that “Fransoos” is a complete nutter, and not to pay any attention to him. Napoleon didn’t apparently hold a grudge against me, and after a couple of days, he came back to the casino, and we drank vodka, and had a good time. In Russian, when someone wants to punish you or even kill you for some reason, they won’t necessarily do it straight away in retaliation. They will wait maybe six months or even a year before taking some action, so I was still very concerned about the fact that I had publicly humiliated the “Godfather”.

Not long after that dreadful day, I decided that it would be better to leave Sochi for safer shores. I flew back to Moscow, and another English Manager flew down to Sochi. This Manager lasted for about six months, before having to flee the casino and town with the Cash-desk money in hand, being hotly pursued by the local Mafia. She had had her flat robbed, and was even attacked on the street after work. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when the local Mafia decided to take-over the casino.

Working in the provinces can be interesting, definitely not boring, and sometimes very dangerous, but those are the risks that you have to take. I have worked in the provinces for 7 years, and came out unscathed physically; I’m not sure about mentally though. Lmao.
I am now working safely, (touch wood and whistle), in Moscow. My days of gallivanting around Russia are probably over, but you just never know.

Stay tuned.

The "Chechen Surrender" Rule

2006-05-22T01:04:00.000-07:00

The “Gabriella” casino or “Hell” to those who worked there was named after the owners grand-daughter, and was located in the Intourist Hotel on Tverskaya just a few hundred metres from Red Square. The owner, Alexander Greem, was a tough old git, and hobbled around on crutches as a result of an earlier assassination attempt. The story goes that both his car and his security’s cars were riddled with bullets. Alex survived, and heroically, with legs disabled, he allegedly crawled back into his bullet ridden Mercedes, and pulled his wounded security guard out of harms way…respect! But, our fearless Boss also had no understanding of how casinos really work, and he expected ‘quite literally’ that dealers would hit empty numbers on roulette, and always pull ‘21’ on Blackjack.
Once, we had a new batch of slots installed, the latest in Japanese technology, guaranteed to win, but unfortunately, one of them paid a jackpot on the very first day, and after ‘firing’ the slot machine, Alex then proceeded to smash it to pieces with his crutches, before asking security to remove it from the casino. It wasn’t beyond him to wander into the pit, and hit the legs of any dealer with his crutches (girls included), that had lost money while he observed the game, often leaving bruises.

It was the summer of ’93, and just a few months before the second coup attempt (Pooch), and a beautiful sunny day, as I made my way in for the four o’clock day shift. Day shifts started off quietly, without the mayhem that would often accompany the night shift, which could include any of the following… thieving from all directions, excessive drinking, drugs, intimidation, collusion etc but they usually ended up that way in one form or another. Gabs was one the first three casinos in Moscow (along with the Leningradskiy... later better known as “Jackos” and Casino Royale), so that ensured plenty of action. Most Moscow hotels were (some still are) controlled by mafia groups and the Intourist was one of the Chechen’s hangouts.

One particular Chechen was called Aslan, a smallish man who dressed in white suits, and drove a flash white sports car with which he would use to terrorize the central lane in Tverskaya Street, without regard for the law. He also carried a gun, which would trigger the alarm, whenever he walked through our metal detector. Despite all of his tirade, and gangster ‘wannabe-ness’ this Daddy’s boy got his respect because his father was none other than the parliament speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov (later to become the guy who holed up with Rutskoi in the white house).

The casino meals for staff were not much better than a warm soup with about as much vitamin content as you’d expect to find in prison or the Russian army, so inevitably we would order sandwiches for the staff or management. This particular day we had sent out a staff member to MacDonald’s to get a large order for everyone, and a perk of the management was to get it first, while it was still warm. Aslan was playing $100 per box, on a couple of boxes, and the only other game was a small roulette game, so I decided to take my 5 minute-cheeseburger-break in the staffroom. Spending time off the floor at Gabs was not a good idea, and even a visit to the ‘lavatory’ had to be left until bursting point to save time, because as soon as your back was turned, they were at it (not that they wouldn’t blatantly do it in your face).

At least one cheeseburger and some fries later, Nastya (short for Anastasia), my now white-faced Pit Boss, came bursting through the doors leading from the main floor, shouting that Aslan had just punched Vlad (the dealer) in the face and not only that but, as Vlad’s blackjack table was situated directly in front of one of the four pillars inside the main pit, his head had rebounded off the pillar. He was lying slumped under the table, being aided by an Inspector (Sasha), who had jumped off an empty game to help. WTF?

Before hitting the floor, I needed to know what this was all about, so after a few deep breaths, she preceded to tell me that Aslan was playing $500 a box, and was a few grand in the hole, and he had started cheating by the “Chechen surrender” rule. Often, on roulette games, a common scam was (on a busy game, where staff were managing heavy games, and the attention was stretched) to put $500 on red (or any even chance bet), and should black come in, they remove their losing bet, before the dealer has a chance to clear the layout…blatant theft! Well, this one on blackjack was no different. There is a player option called “surrender” on blackjack, which allows a player to give up or “surrender” half his bet and the cards will be removed at no further loss. On a 2 box game, at $500 a pop, Aslan was removing both bets (he should lose one), and asking the dealer to remove the cards. The dealer, backed up by the inspector, then asked Aslan to put back the money, at which point, after some intimidation, he was punched out.

Vlad had now recovered, and had been ushered off the floor out of sight, and I now stood in the pit, and decided to personally inspect the game. I had a reputation for sticking up for the staff, and was sure that had I been there, it would not have happened. I put the inspector to deal while I inspected, but he did the same thing again, (without punching the dealer), and removed both bets due to very bad cards. It wasn’t unheard of for managers to deal at the table to sort out problem games, so I decided to move the inspector out of the way, telling Aslan that he would now have to deal with me (not knowing the language helped to not fully absorb the insults, but I got the message).

Everything was fine (he won a few legitimate hands) for about 15 minutes, and then it turned, and so did I. He cheated. That same, schoolboy bully tactic, but I demanded that he return the chips to me. Not so politely, he said he wouldn’t (suka, blyat and pederast spring to mind as retorts) to which I replied, “If you don’t return ‘our’ chips, I will close the table”! He didn’t, so I did as promised, and simultaneously removed the float lid, asking brave Nastya to bring me the pit keys. He pulled out his gun!?! After pointing it at my head, he then told me to open the float or he would shoot me (and presumably kill me as it was pointing directly at my head). In the few seconds it took Nastya to get the keys, I had time to contemplate this now bizarre scenario. I’d figured he wasn’t a proper gangster (they don’t threaten like that); the pissed off guy, who quietly exits, giving a deathly stare is the one that shits me up, but this guy looked more like the dwarf off of Fantasy Island, and his revolver was most definitely a fashion accessory. Out of madness or bravado, (actually, pure disbelief that the son of the parliament speaker would shoot an expat in an Intourist hotel!), I told him to get on and shoot me, while I closed the float lid with the pit keys. As expected, (phew), he bottled it, re-holstered his ‘government licensed’ gun, and proceeded to the next available table. I repeated the procedure of closing whichever table he chose to sit at, including the roulette, which he’d never, played in his life. Finally, when all 12 tables were closed, he realized he’d better try on someone else’s shift and left a few grand down.

It wasn’t quite over for me, and I was forced to explain to our equally crazy Owner why I had closed all the tables, albeit temporarily. He did have some sympathy, and said he would take care of the problem, and although it wasn’t taken care of mafia style, I did receive a bottle of Cognac, chocolates and a forced apology the next day from Aslan himself (probably a humiliation for him)! And this of course, meant that the ‘reprobate’ wasn’t even blacklisted! The security were all fired for doing sod all; at least that’s what Alex was told, but in reality they were redistributed to his other clubs, by Alex’s head of security.
Roll on the next shift!

Swftm

The Author of this article prefers to remain anonymous.

Kazakhstan and the K.G.B

2006-05-21T16:52:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I was invited to takeover the running of a casino in Astana, the new Capital of Kazakhstan. The casino was situated in an Entertainment Complex, which also had a Restaurant, Billiards, Swimming Pool, Saunas, and Café. The casino was owned by a Property Developer, who had absolutely no idea about the business, and would constantly meet to discuss why players had won……hmm ?! The previous General Manager was Turkish, and with the help of his Management Team, had stolen at least $500,000 from the Casino, within a one year period, until I caught them “red handed”.

Due to the fact that Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan, the town is full of Government Officials, who have “untouchability”. Basically, they live beyond the long arm of the law, which, as you can imagine, can create rather awkward situations. If a drunken Official is making a problem in your casino, there is not a lot that you can do, except use all your diplomatic skills to control him and try to co hearse him in to leaving. The other type of problem punter is the Mafia. The Kazakh Mafiosi is very primitive and basic, (as opposed to the sophisticated Muscovite Mafioso). The Security are afraid of the Mafia; their hands are tied due to the fact that they all live in the same town, and the Mafia grew up with most of them, and know their families, so they can’t do much to remove them from the premises. It all has to be done very diplomatically, so that no one loses “face”.

When I started to work at the casino, the Head of Security for the complex was Bulat. Bulat was a local guy, who served in the Army as a Captain, and had spent many years in Afghanistan. He was as tough as a coffin nail, and took no sh!t from anyone. Bulat had a run in with one Mafia Boss, which ended up with them fighting on the floor in the casino. Bulat later complained that he now needed his own security to protect him from the Mafia Boss and his cronies. Lol. The trouble was that Bulat lacked certain diplomatic skills, preferring to kick arse instead.

After Bulat, the new Head of Security was a Russian man called Victor Ivanovich. He was a Colonel in the K.N.B, which is the equivalent of the Russian K.G.B. Victor was in his fifties, and his specialty was Anti -Terrorism. Victor was a really nice guy, just like an Uncle, and he recruited lots of new Security from the K.N.B. On the arrival of Victor, “bugs” were strategically placed in the Manager’s Office, in the Staffroom, and other hotspots of the complex. Due to the stupidity of the Owner, it was obvious by our conversations that he had heard what was being said about him in the Manager’s Office. Lol. Victor also managed to catch the Bar Staff, who were faking the Manager’s signature, in their absence, so that the Book-keepers received the daily paperwork on time. Often, we would have conversations with Victor, and he would say something to try and get a reaction or opinion from us. It was just so obvious what he was trying to do, so we would make things up to completely confuse him. Lol.

One morning, when the swimming pool and bar area were opened, the television, (Bang & Olfsen) was missing. When Victor came to work, he started an investigation to find out what happened. Having interviewed all the Staff, that had worked that night, he had still not made any progress. The Owner was furious, and demanded that he found the culprits immediately. The Head of the Shift of Security that night was one of Victor’s recruits, and apparently he had borrowed a lot of money due to personal circumstances. Victor knew about this, and was convinced that this guy had organized the theft of the television, but was in a dilemma as what to do. Through sheer frustration and desperation, Victor decided to visit a “Medium” to try and find out who the culprits were, and location of the television. Lmfao.

That bit really cracked me up, a K.G.B Colonel going to “Mystic Meg” to find out who stole the T.V from under his nose.

Not long after this episode, I left their employ, and returned to Moscow. And by the way, the television looks great in my living room. Lol.
Only joking.

Stay tuned.

Adventures in Tatartstan !

2006-05-19T00:41:00.000-07:00

In 1998 I went to open a new casino in the Entertainment Complex “Batyr” in Naberezhnie Chelni, Tatarstan. Chelni is where the “Kamaz” factory is located. Kamaz make Lorries, which also participate in the Paris – Dakar Rally.
Batyr which means Knight in Tatar language, basically has two floors; on the 1st floor is the casino, and on the 2nd floor is the 5 star Restaurant and the Night Club. Batyr is the most prestigious place in Chelni to go, relax and be seen in.
Chelni is a new town, built by the “Komsomol”, (The Communistical Youth Movement), in the seventies, around the newly constructed Kamaz Factory. People were invited from all parts of the Soviet Union to live and work in Chelni. They were offered a free Apartment and work in the Kamaz Factory. Chelni has very few street names. Flats are split up into complexes or Blocks like in the United States. It’s probably the only town in Russia using this system.
Due to a massive influx of youth, the town became extremely criminal, especially at the beginning of the nineties. Every complex had a mafia group, and they would fight each other for territorial rights.
When I arrived in Chelni in May 1998, we built the casino on the 1st floor, where a billiard hall had previously been. All the Mafias and Businessmen of the town visited us, and learned how to play American Roulette, Blackjack, and Poker. We held a special training school for the Players every Tuesday, with a free buffet and Champagne. Batyr was always seen as neutral territory by the Mafias, because it is protected by the local Authorities, and it was the best place in town to have some fun.
Early one morning, a couple of Punters came to play some Roulette. There were two roulette tables in the main hall; AR1 being situated close to the main entrance. They started to play on AR1. One punter was an evil gangster from the Caucuses, and the other was a local Businessman. They had been out on the town, drinking and playing billiards. They were both rather drunken and the gangster became more and more aggressive towards the Businessman, making threats that he would rape and kill his wife and children. The Businessman, who had a “желтая справка”, (this means that you are certified as mentally sick), and was a Hunter, and had guns in his car !
The Businessman left the casino and returned with a loaded shotgun. The Security, who were unarmed, had no choice but to let him in. He walked up to AR1, and shot the gangster in the back. He then put a second shell in his head, spraying the casino with brains. YUCK ! He then put down the gun and let the Security arrest him, until the Police came. The Businessman was arrested, and after a few months was released !
The Businessman is the brother of a very important man in the local Government, and also a certified nutcase and he killed a mafia scumbag, so the Judge and Jury were persuaded to understand his predicament, and release him. ;-)
The casino was closed for some time, while the Police undertook an investigation, and when we opened up again, everybody was asking lots of questions, and wanted to know exactly where he got shot. People can have a very morbid curiosity. The hardest part of the clean-up was the brains. They had been splattered from here to kingdom come, and took ages to remove from the interior.
Many things happened during my time at Batyr, some good, some bad, and some very funny things, but that’s another story.

Stay tuned.

Little Red Riding Hood

2006-05-18T00:26:00.000-07:00

I left the wonderful casino in the Hotel Intourist, and went to work in a casino in another Hotel, situated in the northern part of Moscow. The casino was located on the 1st floor, which was a balcony overlooking the ground floor of the Hotel, where the reception was located. The casino was owned by a couple of Israeli guys, and run by British Management. I started working there as an Inspector, and eventually became a Shift Manager.

We had one punter, whose nickname was “Little Red Riding Hood”. Don’t ask why. He was a Mafia Boss from St. Petersburg, and was one of the nastiest people that I’ve ever met in my life. You looked into his eyes and saw dead bodies. He had a group of 4 “Henchmen”, who were his bodyguards / workforce. They were also the epitome of evil. One day, I came in to do the night shift, (I was working as a Pit Boss then), and LRRH was playing on Blackjack, when suddenly jokers appeared from the shoe. The dayshift Manager had sorted new cards when LRRH came in to play, (a job that the Dealer usually does, but it was a trainee Dealer, and the Manager needed the job done quickly lol), and in his hurry had forgotten to remove the jokers.

??????? HOLY SH!T ????????

LRRH was a very intimidating character and could do literally anything that he wanted. The security would not have touched him with a barge poll, and his “Henchmen” were even more evil. We were completely defenseless. When the jokers appeared from the shoe, LRRH wanted blood. He had been losing, and demanded his money back, with compensation, which the Manager was obliged to do, because LRRH would have got the money back anyway, and the Manager didn’t want a new hole in his scrawny body.

LRRH was notorious for his bad behaviour, and even apparently killed a traffic policeman, because he stopped him, which obviously p!ssed him off.One time, in the Night Club of the Hotel, there was a fight between the “Henchmen” and the Hotel Security. The 4 Henchmen annihilated the 5 Security and one security guy got killed in the process. Special Police / Military Troops were called in and the Henchmen got hammered. The guy that killed one of the security, ran, and hid in the Hotel. He was later found dead due to unknown causes. Hmm ?

LRRH was eventually killed at his flat in St. Petersburg. Hired Killers gunned him and his wife down at the entrance to their flat. Luckily for them, their children were at their Grandparents; otherwise they would have been killed as well. As they say, “live by the sword, and die by the sword”.

In the beginning of October 1993 we had a “Pooch”, which is a mini revolution. The Communists had an uprising, and tried to take over the “Television Tower”, (central television centre), and the “White House”(Houses of Parliament). The Pooch lasted 3 days, until the Communists lost the struggle. Rutskoi and Khasbulatov, Government Ministers, were arrested as the ringleaders of the mini revolution and sent to jail in St. Petersburg.The Television Tower was visible from the Hotel where I was working, and you could see the tracer bullets at night time, as the Communists were battling against the Authorities. The Communists had taken over the White House, and the Army was sent in to bombard the White House with Tank shells, until they surrendered. Innocent bystanders were getting shot in the street, as they came close by to watch what was going on. It was real carnage, and even the Hospitals couldn’t cope with all the wounded people. There was a curfew in the city, and you were not allowed out at night. It was just too damn dangerous. There were even snipers, standing on the roofs of houses, shooting randomly at innocent passersby.

Can you imagine what would have happened if the Communists had succeeded in their quest to overthrow the new democratic government ? I dread to think.In the next episode, I’ll tell you about my adventures in the Republics of the former Soviet Union. Stay tuned.

Moscow - Here We Come ! Part 2

2006-05-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

So, here I am in the worst casino in the world, dealing with probably the most dangerous players in the world. Fun fun fun. To cope with the stress of working in such a dangerous place, we used to have a few beers before work, and a few after work. Being in a permanent drunken stupor definitely helped to control the emotions. You may well ask why we bothered working there in the first place. Well, you see we got paid well, and a six month contract meant a nice motor back home, so we all grinned and bore the situation.

Having worked for a couple of months, I was on a morning shift, and we had a big punter by the nickname of "big nose" playing on the roulette. He was Armenian, and the nastiest piece of work you have ever met. He was also a friend of the Owner, which didn't help matters, because the Owner didn't give a sh!t what big nose got up to, just as long as he lost. Big nose was losing big time on roulette, and had verbally and physically abused just about every member of staff that came even close to the table. I was next up to get some grief. Luvly jubbly ?! So there I was standing at the roulette table. Big nose had all his sidekicks, baggabonds, and general tossers hanging around the table, causing as much mayhem as possible. Big nose is playing Voison de Zero ( a set french bet which basically covers half of the wheel around zero), and I'm spinning Tier, which covers a third of the wheel, opposite zero....!!!! He's not a happy camper; how did I guess that...? Firstly, the chips come flying at me, and as they bounce off my chest, I duly pick them up and accept them as tips. Don't forget that I don't speak a word of russian at this time. Next come the brass ashtrays, which made his message crystal clear. lol. As he lost more and more money, the anger just became unbearable, and he was ready to throw the chairs at me. Very nice...!
Having worked there for two months, I was really tired of the situation, and didn't really care about the consequences of my actions, so I told him to go and funk himself using my best sign language. For some strange reason, he got really offended, and he and his cronies started to attack me. Luckily for me, one of the security, Victor, (Kyokushinkai Karate Champion of Moscow), was the good friend of mine, and he, with the other security helped me to get safely back to the Staffroom unscathed.

I thought that I was on a twenty minute break, so I got my gas pistol from the locker, and stuck it in my trousers, for self protection, if big nose wants to get physical. Unfortunately, the Owner was on the premises, and heard about the situation. I get pulled into the office, and get a proper bollocking, and told to go home, and hide for a few days, until it all blows over. Yeh sure. My mate, Victor, helped me to get back to my flat through the tradesmen's entrance to the Hotel. Apparantly, Big nose and his mates were waiting for me at the entrance to the Hotel. Bless 'em. So, as you've probably guessed, I finished working at that prestigious establishment, and got a job in another Casino, in the northern part of Moscow.

A couple of months later, I visited the Royale Casino, and who should I bump into on the staircase, walking up to the casino ? You guessed it, Big nose. I greeted him in russian, and he politely answered, then did a double take and walked away bemused...! lmao.

Did I tell you the story about "Little Red Riding Hood" ? No, not the fairytale, but an extremely aggressive Mafia Boss from St. Petersburg. No, well we leave that story for another day.

Moscow - Here we come ! Part 1

2006-05-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

Back in 1992, I was working in a casino in London, as a Croupier, and was really bored. I wanted a change of scenery, because there was no future in my job, so I contacted an Agency that helps Croupiers to find work abroad. This particular Agency offered me work in Moscow, Russia or Istanbul, Turkey. I didn't fancy working in a hot country, so off to Russia I went.

Having arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport, in Moscow, there was nobody there to meet me. It was the first time that I had been to Russia, and not knowing the language, it was a little scary. Anyway, there were loads of Taxi Drivers trying to drum up business, and they pester you all the time. $100 to get to the centre. Yeh sure ! One guy agreed to take me to the centre for $10. Result.

We arrived at the Intourist Hotel, and the Taxi Driver gave me his telephone number, written on a one rouble note. Wow. I couldn't believe that someone could write their number on a banknote and give it to me, until I realised that one rouble was worth less than a half penny.lol.

I found the casino in the Hotel, and they weren't expecting anyone...? Okay, so I get shown around the casino, and meet the Management. I walk into the Staffroom, and the first person I meet was Steve; a guy that I used to work with in Bournemouth. Small world, especially in the casino business. He was pissed and drinking a Whisky. Not looking good.

I get taken to the Staff accomodation by minibus. It was based at a Sanitory about 30km outside of Moscow. It was called Polyot, which the Expats interpreted as Pollute. A very apt name in retrospect. lol. That evening I went on the "piss" with some other Expats at the Irish Bar on New Arbat, in the centre of Moscow. It was the "watering hole" for all the Expats in Moscow. The Bar was so popular that people were sat on the floor outside the Bar. A pint cost $5-6 which was extortionate, but nobody seemed to mind. The next morning I arrived back at Polyot, very drunken and skint.lol. That evening, I went to work for my first shift. OMG. The Expats went to the Hotel Bar for a few bevvies, before starting their shift. Nice one. ;-)

I enter the casino from the Staffroom, and the casino is full of Players, mainly Chechens ! I was Inspector on one of the American Roulette tables. OMG. It was like Draughts. The players were replacing their bets on the even chances (Red, Black, High, Low, Odd and Even) at lightening speed, trying to put the bet on the winning chance when the ball had fallen. It was an absolute nightmare. The Players shouted, swore, threw things at the Staff, and cheated all the time. Welcome to Hell....!

Stay tuned for part 2, coming to you in the nearest future.