CANNES, France -- Three Italian poker players and two employees of southern French casinos were in custody Thursday, accused of netting thousands of euros in a high-tech gambling scam that involved marking cards with infrared ink.
The scam allegedly involved marking each of the cards in a pack with ink visible only when wearing infrared glasses, then planting the pack at a poker table in Cannes, Le Parisien reported.
The players then turned up to play wearing infrared glasses so they could see the marks.
"In a way, these players saw through the cards," a judicial source said.
Police became suspicious when the gang pocketed around $60,400 at a swanky casino in Cannes in August and set up a device to intercept them the next time they visited.
During their next visit to Les Princes des Cannes casino, the three Italians won about $27,460 but were stopped in the casino hallway as they tried to leave and were arrested. An employee from the casino also was arrested, along with a member of staff from a casino in Nice.
The three Italian players were "linked to serious organized crime," according to the newspaper.
Investigators were sending details of the trio to all casinos in Europe in case they used the same scam elsewhere.
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