Born in Deauville, France on February 14, 1948, Monique Laurent was responsible for what Richard Marcus – who cheated casinos worldwide for $25 million – described as ‘ one of the greatest scams of all time’. Working in conjunction with her brother, who was a roulette croupier at Casino Deauville, and her husband, Laurent came up with an innovative scheme to influence the outcome of each spin of a roulette wheel by inserting a tiny radio receiver into a roulette ball.
After much trial and error, a sculptor friend designed a duplicate roulette ball, of the same dimensions and weight as a standard ball, which could be unobtrusively introduced into play at any time. By pressing a button on a radio transmitter, concealed within a cigarette packet, Laurent could cause the roulette ball to divert into a group of six numbers with an accuracy of 90%. Bearing in mind this was 1973, the use of radio transmitters represented a new level of sophistication and the fraudsters were able to make five million French francs in a week before the casino operators got wind of any wrongdoing.
The subterfuge was eventually discovered when the amorous casino manager, who had been rebuffed more than once, noticed that Laurent always stood close to the roulette wheel, but never placed a bet and appeared for all the world to be a largely disinterested spectator. Of course, she also always carried a cigarette packet, but never smoked. His suspicions aroused, he alerted security staff, who discovered that a radio signal was being transmitted in the vicinity of the roulette wheel. The police were called and when asked for a cigarette from the ‘dummy’ packet containing the radio transmitter Laurent could not, of course, provide one; the cigarette packet was confiscated, the transmitter discovered and the fraudsters arrested.