Security in Vegas to detect casino cheating is now far more sophisticated that it used to be. But so are those looking to game the system. Three experts spoke Wednesday night at the Mob Museum about the decades-long arms race between cheaters and casinos.

“As long as there has been casino gaming there have been people who have tried to cheat it,” said James Taylor, deputy chief of Special Investigations and Support Services for the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, to a crowd of about 100 people.

Taylor has sent chips flying as he tackled tricksters to the floor and nabbed swindlers so prolific in their deceit that they’ve landed in Nevada’s Black Book, which is a list of people banned from casinos.

The Gaming Control Board arrests about 500 people a year for trying to cheat, according to Taylor. About a third of those arrests are casino employees, he said.

Speakers took the audience through old school tricks of the trade, such as false shuffles, to more modern-day feats of subterfuge, such as infrared contact lenses that let the wearer see marked cards.

The event, dubbed “Beating the Odds — an Inside Look at Casino Cheating,” included three speakers: Taylor, Bill Zender and George Joseph.

Joseph, the president of Worldwide Casino Consulting, a Nevada-based corporation that does casino game protection training, got his start in Las Vegas gaming as a dealer and entertainer in 1974. He went on to work as the corporate director of surveillance for the Bally Corp. Casinos for 10 years.

Read more about casino cheating when you visit the Las Vegas Sun.