# What was the scam Anjelica Huston was pulling at the start of The Grifters?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-scam-anjelica-huston-was-pulling-at-the-start-of-the-grifters/633069>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 29, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-scam-anjelica-huston-was-pulling-at-the-start-of-the-grifters/633069 "2012-08-29T20:30:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-scam-anjelica-huston-was-pulling-at-the-start-of-the-grifters/633069/21 "2012-08-30T19:06:33Z")

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> [@MikeF](#):
>
> I don’t remember the skim in the movie but all it involves is stealing cash before the drop it actually counted. I think this was depicted in “Casino”. Of course, the people in the count room have to be looking the other way when this happens. I think it’d be pretty difficult these days with cameras everywhere. But, where there’s a will…

In the book, they made it sound like Lefty (the person Robert De Niro’s character is based on) figured out how to skim coin slots. The difficulty with those is the weight of the actual coins. $1M in quarters weighs 21 tons.

Rob

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-scam-anjelica-huston-was-pulling-at-the-start-of-the-grifters/633069/22 "2012-08-30T20:11:18Z")

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> [@sweeteviljesus](#):
>
> If the fix is in, he wants to lengthen the odds on horse that will win. How does he do that by placing more bets? The number of bets change the amount of money bet, but 1000 $2 bets shouldn’t lower the odds as much as 1 $3000 bet, should it?
> 
> Thanks,  
> Rob

No, but 1500 $2 bets should. I think the point of small bets (not necessarily $2) is to avoid attention. I think these bets would be losers, but someone placing a lot of big money bets will get noticed. However, I’m just guessing, I don’t recall the details of the system being revealed in the movie.

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