The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office (SDC-DAO) has charged two men with felonies for cheating to win poker games at two Southern California casinos.
The SDC District Attorney Summer Stephan on Tuesday arraigned Vaagn Galustyan, 52, and Armin Martirosyan, 53, on two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime.
According to an SDC-DAO press release, Galustyan and Martirosyan won over $30,000 at Harrah’s San Diego Resort & Casino, and Pala Casino Spa Resort by illegally marking cards.
scam “goes back hundreds of years”
Stephan said the pair’s card cheating scam “goes back hundreds of years.” The DA added, however, that with modern technology, the crime “can be detected and those who would scam local casinos can be brought to Justice.”
The newfangled tech that exposed the cheating duo’s game was the casinos’ CCTV cameras. Surveillance caught the men cheating in a way that’s impossible on online video poker by: “bending the corners of the high-value cards they received—Tens, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces.”
If found guilty of all their charges, Galustyan and Martirosyan face a maximum three years, eight months in prison.
