Crown is Australia's largest casino. —Photo (File) AFP
Crown is Australia's largest casino. —Photo (File) AFP

MELBOURNE: Australia's largest casino has alerted police to a betting scam in which a high-roller reportedly netted Aus$32 million (US$33 million) in an “Ocean's Eleven” style heist.

Melbourne's Herald-Sun newspaper said a foreigner staying at the Crown Casino was involved in the sting which it believes accessed the venue's own surveillance cameras, which are constantly trained on players and croupiers.

Information gleaned from the images taken by the high-resolution cameras was apparently signalled to the high-roller as he played cards, the paper said, comparing it to Hollywood blockbuster “Ocean's Eleven”.

In the 2001 comedy-crime caper Brad Pitt and George Clooney also recruit someone familiar with security to rob a series of Las Vegas casinos.

Crown said a staff member from the VIP gambling area had been sacked and the patron involved banned after the scam was uncovered several weeks ago, the newspaper added.

Victoria state police said they had been informed of the incident.

Deakin University's Linda Hancock, who has written a book about Crown, said surveillance cameras were throughout the casino but even more intensified in the premium areas.

“There's someone in monitoring rooms looking at them in real time,” she told the ABC.

“So they must have picked up that there was a winning streak here that looked suspicious and zoomed in on it and then been able to look at what was going on in real time in the room.”

Reports said Crown believed it could recover a significant portion of the money.

Opinion

Editorial

Border clashes
19 May, 2024

Border clashes

THE Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier has witnessed another series of flare-ups, this time in the Kurram tribal district...
Penalising the dutiful
19 May, 2024

Penalising the dutiful

DOES the government feel no remorse in burdening honest citizens with the cost of its own ineptitude? With the ...
Students in Kyrgyzstan
Updated 19 May, 2024

Students in Kyrgyzstan

The govt ought to take a direct approach comprising convincing communication with the students and Kyrgyz authorities.
Ominous demands
Updated 18 May, 2024

Ominous demands

The federal government needs to boost its revenues to reduce future borrowing and pay back its existing debt.
Property leaks
18 May, 2024

Property leaks

THE leaked Dubai property data reported on by media organisations around the world earlier this week seems to have...
Heat warnings
18 May, 2024

Heat warnings

STARTING next week, the country must brace for brutal heatwaves. The NDMA warns of severe conditions with...