Part II: Table Game Cheating · Roulette Cheating Methods

Scam #3: Top Hatting (Dealer-Assisted Past Posting)

How it works

Top hatting requires the active collusion of a dishonest dealer. After the winning number is determined, the dealer secretly adds extra chips (the same color as the accomplice’s chips) to the player’s winning bet stack. Unlike player-executed past posting, the dealer’s action is far more difficult to detect because dealers are trusted personnel whose movements are not scrutinized as closely as players’. The dealer may palm an extra chip in their hand and release it onto the winning stack while appearing to perform normal payout procedures. Alternatively, the dealer may pay out more chips than the winning bet warrants, splitting the excess with the accomplice later. The term “top hatting” refers to placing a chip on top of an existing stack — like a hat on a head.

Where it appears

All roulette variants

On the record

Top hatting has been a persistent problem since the earliest days of casino gambling. Many documented cases exist of dealer-player collusion rings in the 1960s-1980s, particularly in Las Vegas before corporate ownership tightened controls.

Published as a detection reference for surveillance, compliance and gaming-operations professionals. Thresholds and tuning are set by the property. Nothing here is instruction — the method is described so it can be recognised.