In 2016, Bellagio craps dealer Mark William Branco and two accomplices, Jeffrey Martin and Anthony Grant Granito, were arrested and charged with at least four years in Nevada State Prison for scamming the casino out of more than $1 million.
According to The Las Vegas Sun, the group would go to craps tables that Branco and another dealer were manning and place phantom "hop bets," or high-value bets that a specific combination of numbers on the dice would be rolled.
The Sun reported that one of the two players "would mumble something that sounded like a hop bet and one of the dealers would pay out as if they had correctly wagered on whatever fell." The group tried their trick 76 times over two years, officials testified.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, casino personnel caught on when they realized the group's luck defied 452 billion-to-1 odds.
The group was ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution by the Clark County District Court Judge, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. Branco is serving four to ten years in prison. He is also now No. 36 in the Nevada Gaming Commission's "black book," which makes it a felony if he ever enters a casino.