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May 26, 2004

25/5 What a day!

(still Listening to: The Hilltop Hoods, then some of the Wiseguys)

I definitely didn’t expect to have so much to write about BEFORE I got to my hotel in Bangkok, oh well, that’s probably not so bad. No-one HAS to read these :P

I woke up at about 9, so I had 7-8 hours of sleep. I decided to go for a walk, see if I could find the Train Station, or at least a tourist information centre. I forgot I had a free breakfast, so missed out on that completely. I walked all the way through Chinatown, through some markets, with the expected wild-and-wonderful things aplenty.

After finding myself a fair way up the river, but away from the Station, I managed to get cash out (as aforementioned) (and Dad, yes, I have tried it in more than half a dozen different banks' ATMs). With such wealth, I hired a tuk-tuk to get to Hualamphong Station, as it was 11am and checkout was 12. I booked my bus ticket to Surat Thani, combined with the ferry ride to Ko Samui, picked my bags up from the hotel and left them at the travel agent for the day.

Pantip Plaza hasn’t changed a bit! (except for the free, yet unreliable ADSL stall on the ground floor). I did some browsing, and bought 4 DVDs (shock! horror! Only 4! Such control!), and a very small mouse for when I've had enough of the touchpad.

(Start Scam Story here...)
I started my expense list on the back of my hotel reservation, and realising it's limited capacity, attempted to find a notepad. This took me to 7-11 across the road from Pantip Plaza. Before entering, I was asked where I was from, by a man standing out the front. He seemed ok enough and had a good grasp of English, so I continued to talk for a few minutes. He (Andy) mentioned that he had a daughter heading to Australia and asked if I would be so nice as to have a chat with her. I told him I needed to buy some things, as well as get a massage. He helped my look for a notepad (without success) and suggested a cheap 1.5 hour massage near his house, where his Daughter would be. I met his niece (was shopping in 7-11), and chatted with them in the taxi on the way to their home. Long story short…. No I cant do that… hehehe - they seemed very nice, quite good English, and seemed like a very hospitable Thai family. I was invited inside their house for a coke and a brief meal. I chatted with the guy's nephew also (probably early thirties), and he told me about his work as a croupier. In fact, he was willing to show me some tricks with his speciality, Black Jack. Why not?

Why not indeed….. After a few minutes, we (the niece and I) went upstairs where the nephew (Alex, if I recall) had set up a small table with cards and some basic plastic chips.

He went through the basics of Black Jack, which I knew, as well as the rules to the international standard (eg. Banker rules, such as 'must hit on 16 or below, must stay on 17 or above, etc). He then continued on to show my how you have a 50% guaranteed chance of winning, by seeing the next card in the deck with some basic sleight of hand movements…. I now realise that this wouldn’t be able to completed in a professional Casino, but I went along with it. The next step, said Andy, was the 100% move…. Whereby you know what the downward facing card of the banker is based upon the croupier's gestures (fingers to indicate 1-9, a hair movement to indicate 10).

I understood, and Andy offered to 'have a go' sometime when he was next working. In fact, he told me about an injustice that had occurred the night before, whereby a (and I quote) 'cheap charlie' had won $50,000, and had only given $200 to the croupier/Casino as opposed to the 'standard' 10%. This guy was a middle-eastern bisexual (relevance?), and would I like to help rectify the situation and teach him a lesson?

The middle eastern man was supposed to be coming to Alex's house to take him to get Shark-Fin soup, but was running late. We could dupe him out of maybe 10,000 dollars, and I would take 25% as my share (the niece would be my 'girlfriend', and I could go with her to her place to hand over the money). I was given the $200 that was given to Alex - this would be my starting capital.

I wasn’t tempted by it, however I was going to offer to join him at the Casino next time I was in Bangkok, and give it a few minutes of my time. I wasn’t even given enough time to propose this, as the middle-eastern man arrived, and came up the stairs.

The game started all so suddenly and rapidly (definitely part of the scam) that I barely had time to react, let alone think about it. The 'other guy' didn’t even look middle-eastern, he just seemed like a dressed-up Thai - things didn’t gel, but time to think was not on my side. A few hands went by, me winning each time (obviously, yet almost too obviously - these guys need to go back to Acting School).

During the next round I had a winning hand, but the ante was upped to enough that I had run out of chips, and would have to come up with some cash. I didn’t like the idea, and told them I had no money on me. Currency? Not a problem, we will accept any currency. I still didn’t give them anything, so they decided to offer me credit - had given them a glimpse of a credit card to prove I 'could' if necessary. I signed for $250, so I figured, worst comes to worst, I'm out $250. Not so bad compared to the tens of thousands they were talking about.

I won the hand, and ended up with about $2000 worth of chips. I wasn’t comfortable at all, so I told them I'd had enough and that I wanted to leave the game. Their clever response to this was that the other guy still had chips on the table, and that it was completely disrespectful to him for me to pull out on a winning streak while he still had chips.

After a lot of coaxing the next hand started. I had a winning hand, obviously, but after the other guy ran out of chips whilst putting money on the round, he pulls out a WAD of US $100s…. It was waved in front of my face for reality, and handed over as $10k - exchanged for chips. The other guy then proceeded to put all of the money down (as I had demanded it to be the last round).

"Now you need to match it."

Right.

"I don’t have any money, I told you."

"We'll credit you the money"

I don’t FRIGGIN think so. $250 is one thing, and can be blown off as a bad gambling experience, but $10,000 is DEFINITELY another thing altogether.

I was almost visibly shaking now…. What was going to happen? Me win $10k and take 25%? If it's too good to be true, then it probably is dodgy.

I forcibly told them the game was over, I didn’t want to be there, and that I'd had enough (staying 'with it', I used air and drinks as excuses). I said I didn’t care that I lost my whole hand and all the money. The 'other guy' up and left. After a minute I went back downstairs, with both Alex and the niece doing their best grumpy faces. Alex reminded my that he lost $200, but didn’t ask for it, nor did he ask for the $250 that I 'had' on credit, although the 'other guy' technically owned that, and didn’t ask for it either.

I asked for a cab (Andy's Daughter was going to be late - really? wow), and they said they'd called one. I didn’t particularly feel like hanging around, so I went outside, Andy trailing, and we went in search of a cab. I was still feeling a bit shaky, so I was keeping an eye out for any 'placed' cabs as well…. Anyhow, the cab ride back was safe and unproblematic. It was over.

What a freakin amazing experience!!! What did it cost me? 130 baht in cab fare, plus a couple of hours….. That’s the same time and cost as the 'Last Samurai' DVD I bought, yet much more amazing!

What 'would' have happened? Would I have won it, then got busted by some undercover cops for fraud or something?

Would I have lost somehow? Maybe - so then would they really try to hold me to the $10k signature? I'm not sure, but I'm glad I didn’t find out.

How about that hey? Heres a couple of lists for you to ponder :)

Lucky/Smart things:
Not pulling out any cash
Only signing for an affordable amount of credit
Forcing the game to end - I was sure something was going on.

Things that were odd:
The 'other guy' was FAR from middle-eastern, yet half of the original $200 was seemingly in Iranian currency.
Alex was not terribly upset about losing $200.
The other guy didn’t ask for the $250 on credit.
Timing was all a bit too sus, and pressured.
The niece was being far too nice, sitting far too close to me than any non-prostitute Asian typically would, even BEFORE she 'became my boyfriend'.
Also, the niece apparently didn’t know how to play, but she played FOR me for most of the hands, or at least told me what to do.

Scam? I think its highly probably. What do you think? Feel free to comment!

I have since heard many people talk about this as a known scam – I obviously missed that one when reading about recent scams…..

(End Scam Story)

Posted by Dan at May 26, 2004 10:53 AM

Comments

All your instincts were correct. My view is that you need to be a bit more instinctive earlier. It could have been more dangerous. Next time it might be someone with knives, etc.

Glad you are safe and well.

Posted by: Dad at May 26, 2004 12:03 PM

Apparently this is not an uncommon scam..... it's obviously one I HADN'T previously heard about....

and 'card game scams' are even mentioned in the recent bali kidnapping:
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9697220%255E2,00.html?name=topstory

Posted by: Dan at May 30, 2004 06:21 AM