Casino Scams in the DR

They usually call it Super Keno. They let you get very close to a large jackpot so you keep playing. THERE IS NO WAY TO WIN. The operator palms the number you need, it is not even in the mix. Of course you know nothing and keep playing.

Amazing people fall for this scam. How people who usually play $50 in a slot machine end up with a thousand dollar tab in a third world casino will always boggle my mind.

Take your pick of stories here .

Just to expand a little on SKY's post.

The game you are referring to is known as the Razzle Dazzle, or sometimes just the Razzle, as it is known in casino parlance by the "operators" of the game. It appeared in the casinos of Havana, Cuba in the 1950's and was well known as a scam even then. The Cuban government had to finally ban the game from the night clubs and casinos as so many American tourists were losing huge amounts of money that the American embassy was inundated with complaints and the Cuban Tourist Institute tried to clean it up, to no avail. Finally Cuban President Fulgencio Batista ordered the police to rid the casinos of the game and that was the end of the Razzle in Havana as well as the deportation of several U.S. operators.

It is such a lucrative money maker that it has taken on different variations and has been given different names depending upon where it is being offered, such as carnival midways or casinos. No matter the name, it is absolutely a scam and as SKY emphasized in his post, THERE IS NO WAY TO WIN. However, it continues down here in paradise to this very day.

I warn everybody I know who goes to the Casino down here to not go anywhere near this game, don't even look at it.

Last time I was in the Coral Bay Casino in Sosua, it was being run at a table toward the back of the casino. I was watching two young men from New York being methodically separated from their money. The operator of the game noticed me watching, and even though I didn't say a word to the "players" warning them of the scam, he asked me to leave the area and not watch the players.

Here's a couple of links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razzle_(game)

http://www.goodmagic.com/websales/midway/razzle.htm

Like it's a surprise that you go to a casino to play, not to win?

As a general rule , anyone who tries to make you Think or Feel that you are ABOUT TO WIN, in a game of Chance .. is probably scamming you.. this holds true even in Poker .. where you actually have a REAL Chance, based on your Skill level.

But in a WHEEL GAME, or any game with numbers and Balls ? you should have enough common sense to know u are totally being set up for a very big Fall .

I was fascinated by this scam when I heard about it years ago, so I did quite a lot of research to find out how it works. Basically the game is very simple. They usually have an American or Canadian running the game which immediately inspires some trust from those playing as they think they are less likely to be scammed by someone from their country. The players are given some "free money", maybe $50 to spend in bets, so think they have nothing to lose. The deal is you have to score between 100 and 130, each turn they pull out a numbered ball from a machine. Each turn, the prize doubles, but your stake also doubles. So you start at a $5 stake and a $100 prize (and you have $50 in your hand in free money). He pulls out a ball with a 2 on it. Then the stake is $10, and the prize is $200, and he pulls out a ball with a 3 on it. So now you have 5. Then the stake is $20 and the prize is $400, and he pulls out a ball with a 10 on it, so you're up to 15. Lots of chat and confidence building. Now the stake is $40 so your "free" $50 is used up and you have to start paying. The numbers gradually move up towards the magic 100, the stake money approaches maybe $500 but the prize is something like $5000 so you are tempted. They usually ask for a credit card as soon as you have run out of money, the credit card company often calls and go through security checks. Casino debts cannot be cancelled on credit cards, it's treated the same as taking cash from an ATM, completely non-refundable. Eventually you're at, say, 95 so you just need a ball with less than 40 on it. Then the balls all start coming out at over 40. Seems that the balls are all over 40, but the guy pulling them out of the machine has been holding them to cover numbers, so that they appear to be lower. Free drinks are also being given away throughout. I can see how people get taken in, but many have lost over $10,000. It's a serious scam.

...busloads of suckers are born every seconds....

this has popped up on dr1 numerous times...

2001: http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php/10909-Casino-scam-progressive-roulette
2002: http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php/17413-Super-Keno-Scam-Still-Alive-and-Well
2004: http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php/32749-BEWARE-of-Super-Keno-Scam
2012: http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php/121602-sosua-casino-scam
2013: http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php/134530-Progressive-roulette-sosua-grandbay-casino-Sosua

the world never runs out of fools.

I had a biker acquaintance that ran the one in Boca Chica.

Big hulking guy like me who was very intimidating just to look at him.

He used to tell me stories about how he'd scare the crap out of folks just by getting a little too far into their "space", and how they would max out cards trying to get that last number.

I can tell you he pulled down some serious money in the Hamaca casino.

JDJones said:

I had a biker acquaintance that ran the one in Boca Chica.

Big hulking guy like me who was very intimidating just to look at him.

He used to tell me stories about how he'd scare the crap out of folks just by getting a little too far into their "space", and how they would max out cards trying to get that last number.

I can tell you he pulled down some serious money in the Hamaca casino.

Click to expand...

He would not live long and make a buck on the north coast. The mystic of the big dirty biker being someone to fear is gone. I see less and less of the biker set on the north caost. I am much more afraid of a skinny moto guy who drives up next to me at 1130 pm pushing a ride and blue pills.

frank12 said:

Can one of the Moderators fix some mistakes on what i wrote..for example, in the 1st paragraph (last line), it should say "some people have lost thousands of dollars." Not thousands and thousands...

On the same line of the 1st paragraph (last line), it should say this: "and they do "not" really understand how the game works?" it should not say, "and do really understand how the game works?"

Thanks, Frank

Click to expand...

Dam Frank, with all the books you have written one would think you send your posts to the editors before posting....

"Is this a game of chance?"

"Not the way I play it"

[video=youtube_share;nK_d-Vg495c]https://youtu.be/nK_d-Vg495c[/video]

southern said:

He would not live long and make a buck on the north coast. The mystic of the big dirty biker being someone to fear is gone. I see less and less of the biker set on the north caost. I am much more afraid of a skinny moto guy who drives up next to me at 1130 pm pushing a ride and blue pills.

Click to expand...

You lost me. What's that got to do with the subject of the thread?

JDJones said:

You lost me. What's that got to do with the subject of the thread?

Click to expand...

Lost ?!? You were the one that bought up a large menacing biker dude influencing gambling, I was merely stating that would not work on the north coast.

There are in fact suckers all over the island, but I have not seen any big biker types intimidating the clientele. Actually quite the contrary, I enjoy having a cocktail in the casinos watching the crowd meeting up with friends. The casino business always has people that feel they are scammed when they lose money. Play the game, have a chuckle over a few bucks and move on. If one thinks he's going to win thousands at that game and continues to go to the ATM chasing his losses, he's the problem not the casino. I have played the game for amusement while having a drink and no dirty biker or man in a suit threatened me to put up more cash.