5/18/2023 0 Comments Las vegas black book![]() With the aid of Las Vegas attorney, Bob Nersesian, Russo and James won their case in June of 2005. Caesar’s Palace arrested them on grounds they were cheating at a 3 card poker game an allegation that ultimately would not hold up in court. Well known advantaged players, Michael Russo and James Grosjean, filed a defamation lawsuit against Griffin Investigations for supplying information to Caesar’s Palace, which led to their arrest and detention in April of 2000. This led to many more serious oversights by the users of this information: the casinos. ![]() ![]() Many players who were legitimately beating games, were labeled “cheaters,” either intentionally or unintentionally. However, somewhere in the process, they made a fatal error by not clearly distinguishing cheaters from advantaged players. The agency formed with the purpose of identifying both cheaters and advantaged players. This was the beginning of disaster for Griffin Investigations. While the character’s actions in the book are largely fictional, Andy Anderson has been interviewed in television programs, such as the History Channel’s “ Breaking Vegas” documentary series, where he personally connects himself to the “silver-haired” antagonist in Mezrich’s novel.įast forward a few years and the Griffin Detective Agency became Griffin Investigations, and started distributing information, mostly electronically, to their casino subscribers. While Mezrich’s novel was admittedly a work of fiction, loosely based on early MIT card counting teams, Mezrich did base the silver-haired character on real encounters MIT players had with Andy Anderson, a Griffin detective that joined the agency sometime in the early 70’s and worked as a lead detective for many years. This kind of detective was depicted in Ben Mezrich’s well known novel, Bringing Down the House, as the “sliver haired” man who follows the MIT card counters across the country on a witch hunt to shut them down. In the early days, a casino would contact a Griffin detective when a they suspected someone of advantaged play or cheating. In the days before easily circulated digital records, Griffin performed the evaluations in-person. The detective showed up at the casino and an impromptu evaluation was conducted on the suspicious player. The information was so valuable to casinos, that the Griffin Detective Agency even had several illegal, private casinos on their client list. Casinos paid for copies of the agency’s latest intelligence on undesirable casino patrons in order to augment their own surveillance departments and expedite player skill evaluations. If a gambler was either cheating or beating a game, the Griffin Agency took the patron’s picture and added it to “The Book.” This “book” became a prized commodity among casino operators nationwide and internationally. The agency investigated and reported on people suspected of cheating or advantaged play in casinos. Griffin founded the Griffin Detective Agency 1967 as an investigative firm that supported the gaming industry in Las Vegas. Many blackjack players live in fear of “The Griffin Book” and other databases that offer similar “counter catcher” information, like the Oregon Surveillance Network and Biometrica.īut what is the Griffin Book, and should we really be afraid of it?īeverly S. The Actual Griffin Investigations Website
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