Ida Summers—Vegas Vixen When it comes to casino cheats, the stories surrounding them are typically male-centric. When there were women involved, they were usually utilized to distract dealers and pit. Ida Summers is one of the fewest females who have made their profession is such a dangerous realm as gambling. In the 60s - 70s of the XX century, this ingenious beauty hit Nevada casinos as deftly as a. The most famous of them is Ida Summers called Fox from Vegas. In the sixties - seventies of the twentieth century, she broke the bank in casinos in Nevada as deftly and cleverly as the mother fox.

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Everybody loves to hear stories about casino cheating players. Deep down, we all know that the casino wins in the long run, so stories about the big cheats and casino scandals somehow satisfy us. Even if they are flat robberies…

Well, today is your lucky day because we will tell you the world-famous cheating stories of 5 gamblers. These world-famous players used tricks, human psychology, devices, and all the other tools in a thief’s bag to claim victory, and some of them managed to get away with it. Unfortunately, none of these gamblers is from the United Kingdom – but we are sure that they “inspired” lots of UK players too.

One final note before we start: the cheating techniques that are listed in this article (including devices) are no longer available. Casinos took the necessary precautions to prevent them, and you cannot use any of these “methods” anymore. Don’t even think about applying them if you want to avoid jail time.

Dennis “Slots Breaker” Nikrasch: The Locksmith

Dennis Nikrasch is the greatest slot-thief of all times. When someone says famous cheaters, his is the first name that comes to mind. He was born in 1941 and worked as a locksmith for nearly 20 years. Unfortunately, this is a profession with low-income, so he started to look for other opportunities.

In 1976, he found out that slot machines in Las Vegas casinos have “locks” too. Back in those days, most of these machines were running on cogs and reels, and they can be opened in case a repair is necessary. Well, Dennis Nikrasch decided to open the machine for himself. It took him only a couple of seconds to open the machine and rig the cogs in his favor. He spun the reels and voila, instant win.

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Until 1983, he continued these slot machine cheats and made at least 10 million USD in total. Nobody knows how much he won exactly, but some sources claim that he managed to get 16 million USD. This was not a simple casino trick; it was a flat robbery. He got caught in 1986 and spent 5 years in prison. After he got released, he returned to Las Vegas and kept manipulating the machines. Once again, he was sentenced to prison for 7.5 years and released in 2004. He died in 2010, and most of his “tricks” are still unknown.

Monique “No Smoking” Laurent: The Femme Fatale

We all love to hear Las Vegas cheats, but it is not the only city that has casinos. There are other countries and other cities for casino cheats too. Monique Laurent is an excellent example of this. She ranks number one among the roulette cheaters. It all happened in 1973, in Casino Deauville, a famous French casino. A woman in a seductive dress approached the roulette table and started to play her cigarette pack., and 10 minutes later, another gambler on the table won thousands of francs. They left the casino together.

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Monique Laurent continued to do this and “won” more than five million Francs in total. Her secret was the cigarette pack: it is actually one of the most famous casino cheating devices. The pack is actually a remote control which stops the ball on any number the user wishes. To pull the hacks like that, the croupier must be in it too, and this was the case. It was actually quite simple when compared to other robberies. Monique did not play, she just stayed near the table. She had two accomplices: the croupier and another player on the table. The player placed the bet, the croupier used the “magic ball”, and Monique stopped it on the right place. The player walked away, and they all divided the money.

Her mistake? Going to the same casino all the time, and playing at the same table. She had no other choice, as the croupier was a part of this scam. The casino owner got suspicious (naturally) and started to think about why this attractive woman who never plays keeps playing with her cigarette pack. The whole scam lasted for a week, and they got busted.

Ida “Cooler” Summers: The Hand Mucker

And now, it is time for a poker-cheating story. Ida Summers was an attractive woman who played in Las Vegas casinos. Her preference was poker games, but she was ok with all card games, actually. And she was a professional at “hand-mucking” technique. Have you ever watched Wild West movies where players hide some of the cards in their pockets and use them at the right time? Hand mucking is a similar gambling cheating method: You distract the dealer, steal one of the cards from the pile, and use it at the right time. Basically, it is a sleight of hand technique, and Ida Summers was an expert at that.

But changing a single card was not enough for Ida. She was, for the lack of a better word, “cocky”. After running this hand-mocking technique for months, she decided to do the impossible: stealing the entire deck and switching it with one of her own. Since she already knew the card order in the deck, she could win all of the games she played.

Now, sit back and think about this: we are talking about swapping an entire deck here. Two decks must be identical and the dealer must be really stupid – or distracted. Ida Summers hired dozens of “players”. Their job was creating noise and keeping the dealer busy, and this actually worked: Ida managed to switch the entire deck god knows how many times. She got caught after a couple of months and not because the casinos noticed what she was doing. She got caught because a former lover of her ratted Ida to FBI. To this date, Ida Summers ranks in TOP three in casino cheaters list. She is also the “creator” of best cheats around.

Richard “Savannah” Marcus: The Switcher

Richard Marcus is one of the famous cheaters who managed to get away with his winnings. Richard Marcus was cheating many Las Vegas casinos for many years! His love for gambling came from childhood when he loved to guess the car colours on the road before he saw them and playing craps at school. Now he earns money on his books and pieces of training on American Roulette that reveal answers to “how to win?”, “what strategy to use”, “best odds&bets”.

He never got a prison time even after casinos found out what he was doing. Well, he is lifetime-banned from all casinos in Las Vegas because of his casino tricks, of course, but this was the only punishment he got. Why? Because his technique was so simple, the casinos would look like a fool.

He worked in casinos for a long time so he already knew how tables were managed. He never used a cheating device, he never manipulated a croupier. He did not have any accomplices too; he was a “lone wolf”. What he did was simple:

• Pick a roulette game, any game, any casino.
• Place 4 red chips on a low-paying option. The chips are stacked and the first three are 5 USD worth. The last chip, which cannot be easily seen by the dealer, is 500 USD worth. The dealer won’t notice this because he will think you are placing a 20 USD bet on a “worthless” option.
• If you win, show the dealer your last chip was actually 500 USD worth. Claim the prize, which will be at least 1.000 USD.
• If you lose, quickly swap the fourth chip with a 5 USD chip, so you lose only 20 USD.

See? This simple and quick sleight of hand is the only thing you need. He managed to win hundreds of thousands of dollars with this technique. He “retired” in 2000 and currently is writing books about “how to beat the casino”, and his legendary technique is called “Savannah by Marcus”.

Tommy Glenn “Slider” Carmichael: The Master of All Slot Cheats

If you do a Google search for “cheating devices for slot machines”, you will see a lot of tools: monkey paws, kickstands, light wands… And you know who designed these devices? Well, we owe them all to Tommy Carmichael. He is the most famous “engineer” of casino cheating slot machines. He designed dozens of tools to hack the cabinets and to cheat the system. He is a true legend, and even casino managers respect him. If any of these stories deserve to become a Hollywood movie, then it is the story of Tommy Carmichael.

He was a TV repairman back in the 80s. One day, he bought a slot machine from a casino, just to entertain himself (casinos sell their merchandise after a while.) In order to keep entertaining himself, he decided to open the coin slot of the machine: he was wondering how the machine “knew” what kind of coin is inserted. The old machines used a light-beam to detect a coin dropping from the slot. He invented the “light-beam” tool to trick this system and started to play without inserting any coin.

Slot manufacturers designed new systems, based on microchips and advanced electronics. They spent tens of thousands of dollars for the R&D process. Tommy Carmichael beat them with a kickstand that is 5 USD worth. No matter what they threw to him, he managed to beat them all. This guy played slot machines for years without spending any money and kept collecting the payouts. At one point, he was winning 1.000 USD per hour.

He finally got caught in 1998 and received a three years prison sentence. He is also banned from all Nevada casinos for life. He is living a normal life now, but cheaters still use his devices to trick slot machines – Tommy Carmichael is a true legend among thieves.

Now you know about the most famous casino cheats in history, but please do not get inspired by these tricks since they simply will not work nowadays. The reason for them being used successfully by the cheaters is the significant drawbacks in gambling systems of that time which now are completely eliminated due to the sustainable research and development of this industry. Play responsibly and take care!

Home > Online Casinos > Casino Articles > Ida Summers

We recently started a new series of articles on GamblingSitesOnline, where we will be writing about some of the most famous casino cheats throughout history. In this latest article, we cover one of the most unusual – Ida Summers. Ms. Summers is unusual primarily because she's a woman. Indeed, she was the only known female professional casino cheat when she was caught.

Summers is by no means the only female casino cheat in history, but the majority of known cheaters are indisputably male. Women have been part of many cheating scams over the years, but their role is usually to create a diversion so that a male accomplice can do the actual cheating. Summers, however, was both the mastermind behind her scams and the one who carried them out.

You can read more about Ida Summers and her cheating activity below.

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The Vegas Vixen

Ida Summers operated in Las Vegas casino during the 1960s and 1970s. A strikingly attractive woman, she earned herself the nickname 'The Vegas Vixen'. At only just over five feet tall, and weighing less than 100 pounds, she used her physical appearance to her advantage. It was very unlikely that the pit bosses and dealers of the time were ever going to suspect this beautiful, petite lady was cheating them.

As well as her good looks, Summers possessed a great deal of charm too. She was flirtatious and very good at making others feel comfortable in her company. While her attractiveness and sociable nature were obvious to those who met her, her real talents were far less noticeable. She was actually very skilled at sleight of hand, and it was these skills she used to cheat casinos out of thousands of dollars.

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Hand Mucking & Deck Switching

Summers started out using hand mucking techniques at the blackjack tables. This is a relatively simple form of cheating, but not at all easy to do. The basic idea is that the cheat, Summers in this case, will take certain cards off the table during play without being noticed. At the right time, a card is then returned to the table to help the cheat make a winning hand. Doing this without attracting attention is no easy feat, but Summers managed to pull it off.

She didn't stop there either, and moved on to using an even harder technique – deck switching. This involves swapping out an entire deck of cards for a replacement. The cards in this replacement deck, which is known as a cold deck or a cooler, would have been pre-arranged to ensure that Summers would win. She may have also had accomplices playing at the table, to maximize this benefit. The deck wouldn't have been set for her and her accomplices to win every hand, as this would have been too suspicious, but they would win enough hands to walk away with a profit.

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Switching a cooler in to play and removing the original deck, without being noticed by anyone, would have taken incredible skill. It would simply not be possible in modern casinos, and even back then it was something that very few people would have considered. Summers was bold enough, and talented enough, to do it though.

It's not known for sure exactly how Summers managed to successfully complete the switches unnoticed, or how much she made from her cheating exploits. It is believed that she made substantial sums of money though, over a prolonged period of time.

Arrested & Charged

Very little is known about the exact circumstances which led to Summers eventually being caught. All we can say for sure is that it was a combined operation between gaming officials and the FBI which resulted in her arrest. She was duly charged for her cheating, but her looks and her charm may well have helped her out one last time. She avoided a prison sentence and was instead placed on probation.