Drawing Fire from a Sub-Par "Surveillance Consultant”

I received the following email about an earlier post.

Subject: You're nicked, me old beauty!
From: "LDPrograms" ldprograms@yahoo.com
To: richard@richardmarcusbooks.com


On your blog you wrote:

"I present the following photograph. Taken of me as I
was detained in a particular casino's backroom after
they suspected me of pulling off 'moves' in their
casino. I later received it from an insider informant
who I payed off to keep me apprised of my status
within casino security circles."

The photo you present is from the Griffen book. Can we
chalk this up as your first lie - you'll grant that
what you wrote was less than truthful. The Griffen
photo is a police mugshot - that means you were caught
cheating at some point, probably in the U.S. Another
lie? That claim of yours that you retired "clean as a
whistle"?

yours skeptically,

Brian


The photo IS from a surveillance record book. It was taken in a casino backroom -- not a police mugshot. As I stated in my book, I’ve been in casino backrooms on more than one occasion. Although it rarely occurred over my twenty five year professional career (perhaps a dozen times), being backroomed is part of the business. The fact remains, they were NEVER able to prosecute me, and when they were forced to let me go I walked away WITH their money.

This skepticism is not a surprise to me anymore, as too many people simply love to believe that the major casinos’ security measures are unbeatable. This guy should know better though. I asked around a bit and I found out that he is in the casino surveillance business. His name is Brian Hever and he runs a casino consultancy service out of Mexico.

That he never heard of me is either testament to my teams’ effectiveness, or to his incompetence (maybe both). I must humbly admit though that this guy's inattentiveness to the details in my blog and in my book is amazing, indicating he probably never caught anyone but the most dimwitted amateur cheat.

Before my book was published several folks in the publishing business independently checked up on me within the gambling industry, all of the prominent surveillance professionals in Las Vegas with whom they checked confirmed my professional cheating credentials, even if it was done so with some ill will. Even more surveillance professionals have contacted me since the book was published, ones savvy enough to read and explore an inside perspective from their enemy. However, I have answered their inquiries with a refusal to become a crossroader by helping them spot cheats.

I’d feel bad for this Hever guy’s consulting clients, paying for services that probably aren’t worth shit, except that the clients he’s short changing are casinos (who deserve being ripped off). So I suppose he’s just a guy scamming casinos out of their winnings just like I did. More power to him.

BTW, here is the text from the surveillance book that accompanies the earlier picture post, names shaded to protect my teammates.