According to Casey, Truong devised a plan: recruit dealers from various casinos willing to learn how to conduct and perform a false shuffle during a card game, and to cash in after that.The gambling age is the minimum age at which one can legally gamble in a certain jurisdiction. Truong, a former casino employee, was known as little more than an avid gambler and drifter in the local Vietnamese community. Figuring out what the best angles to hold her hands, reviewing the different protocols within her own casino,' Casey said.Īccording to Casey, the woman was actually working for an unlikely criminal mastermind - Phuong 'Pai Gow John' Truong. What Casey didn't realize at the time was that the dealer was doing more than just stealing, she was gathering intelligence. She was fired, and the situation was brought to the FBI's attention and chalked up as an isolated incident. 'No one is the wiser if you don't know what you're looking for,' Pete Casey, special agent for the FBI in San Diego, told '20/20' co-anchor Chris Cuomo.Īccording to Casey, the lead agent on the case, the dealer was caught helping several people win a few hundred dollars at the table. That way, players at the table who were watching and tracking the order the cards came out will know exactly how to bet when that deck, or slug, of cards comes back into play. In reality, the dealer actually protects a large portion of the cards and keeps them in the order in which they were dealt. The false shuffle is an old sleight-of-hand trick in which a dealer appears to wash and shuffle a deck of cards.

In 2002, a dealer at San Diego's Sycuan Casino was caught performing what is known as a false shuffle.

Based out of San Diego, the group stole more than $7 million from 19 casinos across the country using techniques even Hollywood hadn't thought of.

There is an exception, however: a group known as the Tran Organization. After spraying the dealer with mace and grabbing the chips, one of the two alleged bandits was literally knocked out of his wig and sunglasses by casino security, quickly foiling the robbery. Take the botched attempt earlier this week when two thieves attempted to steal $155,000 from a dealer at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

— - Casino heists make for great movies, but in real life they usually end up considerably less glamorous.

Sycuan casino age to gamble