Australian Casino Hit by 'Ocean's Eleven' Scam

Australia's largest casino has alerted police to a betting scam in which a high-roller reportedly netted Aus$32 million (US$33 million) in an "Ocean's Eleven" style heist.

Melbourne's Herald-Sun newspaper Friday said a foreigner staying at the Crown Casino was involved in the sting which it believes accessed the venue's own surveillance cameras, which are constantly trained on players and croupiers.

Information gleaned from the images taken by the high-resolution cameras was apparently signaled to the high-roller as he played cards, the paper said, comparing it to Hollywood blockbuster "Ocean's Eleven".

In the 2001 comedy-crime caper Brad Pitt and George Clooney also recruit someone familiar with security to rob a series of Las Vegas casinos.

Crown said a staff member from the VIP gambling area had been sacked and the patron involved banned after the scam was uncovered several weeks ago, the newspaper added.

Victoria state police said they had been informed of the incident.

Deakin University's Linda Hancock, who has written a book about Crown, said surveillance cameras were throughout the casino but even more intensified in the premium areas.

"There's someone in monitoring rooms looking at them in real time," she told the ABC.

"So they must have picked up that there was a winning streak here that looked suspicious and zoomed in on it and then been able to look at what was going on in real time in the room."

Reports said Crown believed it could recover a significant portion of the money.