Tran Organization

The Tran Organization was a criminal gang of casino cheats in the 2000s. The group targeted at least 28 casinos across the United States and one in Canada. The casinos lost around $7,000,000 to the organization. As of 2011^[update], 47 people were indicted, of which 42 had already plead guilty, in relation to the conspiracy.

The criminal enterprise started around August 2002 in San Diego, California, and included Van Thu Tran, her husband Phuong Quoc "Pai Gao John" Truong, and Tai Khiem Tran. Many other members of the Tran family were also involved in the organization.

The organizers had themselves been card dealers. The organizers bribed card dealers and casino supervisors to do false shuffles to create "slugs" of cards with already-seen sequences. The system worked especially well with mini-baccarat, in which players are allowed to track cards openly. They later expanded to blackjack, in which the betting limits are higher but card counting is forbidden at most casinos; the group hid wireless microphones and earpieces on themselves to communicate with conspirators using computer programs to predict which cards would re-appear.

Casinos often didn't realize they were being cheated until after the gang had already left town. Some casinos, suspecting they were being cheated in an unknown way, called on government authorities. The FBI opened a case file in 2004.

After Phuong Truong started shortchanging the colluding dealers out of their portion of the illegal money, some dealers became informants for the FBI. In June 2006, Mississippi Gaming Commission agents posed as corrupt dealers and secretly videotaped a meeting with Truong, in which he bragged openly about the scheme and its success.

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