Crime & Safety
Last 2 of 5 Alleged Joliet Harrah's Gambling Cheats Jailed
All five members of an alleged cheating ring that took the Joliet Harrah's for as much as $500,000 have been captured.
The final two members of an alleged ring of casino-cheats who took the Joliet Harrah's for as much as $500,000 have been captured.
Randy Binning, 48, and Svetoslav Dorobanov, 38, both of Las Vegas, were booked into the Will County jail Tuesday.
Dorobanov, a Bulgarian chess master who also competed in the World Series of Poker, along with Binning, an accomplished poker player in his own right, and the rest of the crew of gambling cheats made their score by manipulating video keno machines, according to court filings.
Two of the alleged keno cons—husband and wife Rande and Virginia Thorpe—were booked into the Will County jail last month. Both were released after posting $50,000 bond.
Rande Thorpe, 57, is the former superintendent La Porte, IN, schools. He and Virginia Thorpe, 58, also were charged with ripping off the Harrah's in Tunica, MS.
The fifth alleged cheat, 42-year-old Paul Jovenich of Las Vegas, was arrested March 28. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department apprehended Jovenich during a traffic stop.
Las Vegas Police Officer Larry Hadfield said Jovenich will be held at the Clark County, NV, jail until police from Will County come to pick him up. Jovenich has yet to arrive in Joliet.
Indictments against the four men and Virginia Thorpe include such charges as burglary, the unlawful structuring of a currency transaction, money laundering, computer fraud, cheating at a gambling game and computer tampering.
The alleged cheating scheme apparently unraveled when Binning was pulled over in Arizona and turned out to be carrying more than $400,000 he claimed to have "won on keno machines that were malfunctioning at Harrah's casinos in Joliet, Illinois, and Tunica, Mississippi," according to a court filing.
Dorobanov has accused Harrah's of trumping up the charges in retaliation for his triumphs in the casino. He called the charges against him "phony" and "preposterous." Dorobanov also said Harrah's is simply "very bitter for losing money to" him.
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