Breaking Vegas

Breaking Vegas

(History Channel, 2005) documentary series

Breaking Vegas DVD cover.
(foodnetwork.fandom.com).

An episode entitled "Counterfeit King" takes a look at Louis B. Colavecchio, a former North Providence tool-and-die maker who used his skills for evil. In 1996 he fashioned counterfeit slot machine tokens that were almost as good as the real thing, and used and distributed them in casinos in New Jersey and New England. He was arrested in Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino in December 1996 by the FBI and New Jersey State Police, and earned himself a twenty-seven-month federal sentence.

The episode first aired on April 5, 2005.

Upon his release from prison Colavecchio seemed to go straight for a while, running a business fabricating metal orthotic devices, but in November 2006 he was again arrested for allegedly making dummy slot machine tokens. Rhode Island State Police held an auction of his counterfeiting machinery in September 2008. Colavecchio, out on bail at the time, told a Providence Journal reporter that he might attend, saying, "I could tell [potential buyers] a lot of stuff. They may know how it works, but it's been, let me say, 'modified'... so some things are not exactly as they seem." No word on if the machinery sold, or to whom.

Last Edited
2022-06-30