The Clermont Club, Mayfair, is one of the most elegant gambling establishments in the world, once a favourite retreat for Ian Fleming, the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Lucan. Today, the club operates a strict policy that requires players to apply for membership 24 hours before visiting, but its management wasn’t always so diligent.
In fact, the club’s first owner, John Aspinoll, teamed up with some of London’s most notorious gangland figures – including one Mr Billy Hill, who was fond of carving a V into his victim’s faces with a razor – to take his patrons for vast sums of money with a scam known as The Big Edge.
They ran the Clermont’s decks through a machine that fractionally bent the cards to denote their value, then wrapped them back in their cellophane and delivered them to the club. Readers were trained to interpret these tiny bends, and the house’s advantage increased to a 60:40 percent edge.
Over a few months this added up to millions. One of the gangsters involved described the scam as ‘like robbing Fort Knox and the Bank of England at the same time – just a lot easier.”
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