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In what appears to be a simple case of incredible hoodwinking, Seyit Ibrahim Yel, a scammer and blackjack player, took several casinos in Las Vegas for a royal ride that cost them several thousands of dollars and himself nothing!
Seyit Ibrahim Yel spent a few weeks in Vegas and posed as a high roller and wealthy businessman called Mustafa Seda. Yel managed to convince several Vegas casinos of his identity and drew out large loans from them on this basis. In addition to his extremely good acting skills, it would appear that Yel was also a good blackjack player, as he gambled with this money and walked out of the casinos without paying any bills.
The few checks that he had written eventually bounced alerting the casinos to what had happened. The reputed Bellagio Casino was one of the victims of Yel who had taken $200,000 from it in two days; the casino filed a lawsuit against him under the name “Seda”. Today, Yel cannot be located and his crimes remain unpunished since it is not possible to serve him under a fictional name.
Online blackjack portals and online casinos know better than to believe a fictional identity and require proof from players before they can register them. Yel had also used accomplices to cash out his chips, another aspect not possible with an online blackjack portal. Indeed, online blackjack sites may be just more reliable than land based casinos!
What has changed since this story was published?