Rushmore Casino

When you’re doing something like introducing table games in your state’s casinos, you’re bound to experience some teething troubles. Such troubles are recently being felt in Pennsylvania, which just opened table gaming in its casinos.

After a recent incident involving a gentleman who’d had too much to drink, Pennsylvania casino have now witnessed a pair of cheaters at the new blackjack tables. Worse yet, these players are attempting to pull tricks they wouldn’t dream of trying in a Las Vegas casino.

First example is Claudie Kenion, who at Hollywood Casino in Grantville was caught “capping” bets. “Capping” is a practice in which the player palms a chip or chips, waits to see his cards, and using slight of hand drops the chip onto his wager – This allows the player to effectively double his winnings after finding out his cards.

Unfortunately for Kenion, a sharp-eyed dealer caught him in the act and now faces a maximum sentence $75,000 to $150,000 and up to five years in prison. Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board executive director Kevin O’Toole was quoted as saying, “Oh it’s very serious. There’s no question that anybody that commits illegal conduct in the casino will be prosecuted.”

Said Kenion: “Other people was cheating, I just followed suit to be honest. A lot of people were doing it. I did it. I didn’t think nothing of it. I didn’t think it would be no formal charges pressed or nothing.”

In a second case, a man estimated to be in his 50s is wanted for playing blackjack with counterfeit $100 chips at the Mt. Airy Casino Resort in the Poconos. On Sunday between 2 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., the man used 19 of the chips playing craps and blackjack.

Apparently getting greedy, the man returned the following night and tried to cash five of the $100 chips at the cashier window. Not only did the cashier recognize that the chips were fake, thereby necessitating a hasty exit from the casino, but the man’s face was recorded on security cameras for distribution to the media.

The man is still at large.