Three held over £1.3m Ritz casino 'fraud'

Three Eastern European gamblers have been arrested on suspicion of carrying out an elaborate operation in which they netted more than £1m at the casino at the Ritz Hotel.

Two men and one woman are alleged to have used laser scanners inside mobile phones to determine where the ball on the roulette wheel was likely to drop. Police were called to the Ritz Club in London, below the hotel, on Tuesday night after the club's management watched videotapes of the gaming tables.

Detectives seized a "significant amount of cash" from a hotel room as they made the arrests. The three suspects have been bailed and are to appear at a London police station on 30 March. The two men, aged 38 and 33, are Serbian and the woman, 32, is Hungarian.

Officers from Scotland Yard's money laundering investigations team obtained a court order on Thursday, enabling them to freeze the money for three months while the investigation continues. The winnings are said to amount to £1.3m. A Scotland Yard spokesman said police were investigating "allegations of obtaining money by deception through gambling", but said it was "inappropriate to speculate on charges at this stage".

It is alleged that laser scanners were linked to a microcomputer which calculated where the ball would drop. As the ball spun, the information was delivered back to a group of gamblers by one of them pushing a button on a mobile phone, and bets were placed before the croupier closed bets.

The Ritz Club in London is a popular haunt for high-rollers and membership costs £1,000.

Gambling experts were bemused by suggestions that laser technology was used. Some speculated the three may not be charged because the Government's new Gambling Bill, which will strengthen laws in casinos, has yet to pass through Parliament.

The trio reportedly first appeared at the club on Monday night and won £100,000. Ritz management decided to act when they also began winning large amounts the next night .

Professor Peter Collins, the director of Salford University's centre for the study of gambling, said he believed the use of lasers was unprecedented in Britain. He said it was more common to have "devices under tables such as magnets", which interfered with where the ball landed. The two most common forms of cheating and trickery in casinos were collusion with a croupier and "card counting" - famously used by the autistic savant played by Dustin Hoffman in the Hollywood film Rain Man.

Mr Collins said: "I think that [laser technology] will be a new one on most people. The only thing more ingenious than the criminal classes in these matters is the ingenuity of the operators."

Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University, said: "I haven't heard of a laser scanner being used before, but on roulette, mathematical systems have been used for years based on the speed of the ball and where the croupier places it. It is reliant on calculations being done very quickly and when you have got technology involved it improves the chances."

Susanna Fitzgerald, QC, who specialises in licensing law, said: "Putting yourself in unfair advantage of everyone else by electronic means, the chances are a [court] would think that was cheating."

A spokeswoman for the Ritz Club declined to comment on the alleged incident.

The club, in Piccadilly, west London, says on its website that it places "great emphasis on ensuring the highest standards of operating procedures are constantly upheld".

The website says that roulette is: "Ideally suited to 'system' players who note down number sequences to detect patterns. No other game of chance allows players to win so much, so fast."