Australian Casino In 'Ocean's Eleven' Scam

Australia's largest casino has been scammed out of a reported $32m AUS (£22m) in an Ocean's Eleven-style heist.

Melbourne's Herald-Sun newspaper said a foreigner staying at the Crown Casino used the venue's own surveillance cameras in the sting.

The paper claims information taken from the high-resolution cameras was apparently signalled to the high roller as he played cards - a similar method to that used by George Clooney's character in the crime caper.

In the 2001 movie Brad Pitt and Clooney recruit someone familiar with security to rob a series of Las Vegas casinos.

Crown (Other OTC: CWLDF - news) said a member of staff in the VIP gambling area had been sacked and the patron involved banned after the scam was uncovered several weeks ago.

Victoria state police said they had been informed of the incident.

Deakin University's Linda Hancock, who has written a book about Crown, said surveillance cameras were throughout the casino but even more intensified in the premium areas.

"There's someone in monitoring rooms looking at them in real time," she told the broadcaster ABC (Taiwan OTC: 1780.TWO - news) .

"So they must have picked up that there was a winning streak here that looked suspicious and zoomed in on it and then been able to look at what was going on in real time in the room."

Reports said Crown believed it could recover a significant portion of the money.