Discovered: Amazing Al Capone fixed roulette table shows how Chicago mob rigged casinos to make millions

Rigged roulette wheel almost certainly used by Al Capone's Chicago gangster mob is discovered by UK games expert  by Stephen Jones

Rare table discovered packed with hidden wires, trip switches under tiny screws and batteries secreted in its legs enabled 'Scarface' to cheat gamblers spinning the wheel.

It will come as little surprise that notorious mafia boss Al Capone not only didn't pay his taxes fairly but also his gambling addict customers.

But the lengths the gangster went to cheat them are exposed with the amazing discovery of a rigged roulette wheel that was used in Chicago casinos in the 1920s - at the height of the reign of the criminal infamously known as Scarface.

The rare table used by the underworld was the unlikely 'once-in-a-lifetime' discovery of a games company owner from Chertsey in Surrey, UK.

A restoration he ordered revealed it was fitted with four hidden buttons powered by batteries encased in the table legs which nudged the spin of the ball - technology that in some ways was ahead of its time, so few players would suspect.

It gave the croupier the power to decide where the ball fell on the roulette table by activating tiny pins, invisible to the human eye of a 'well-oiled' gambler.

These actions vastly increased the odds of the House to win and subsequently helped make Capone and his Chicago Outfit their vast fortune during the prohibition era

Alexander Walder-Smith, of The Games Room Company , only discovered the table's hidden secrets when it was taken apart for restoration. Constructed from American walnut, he bought it in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, from a man who'd stored it in his barn for decades unaware of its dark secret

The restorers discovered two pressure pads and two push buttons disguised as tiny screw heads alongside a number of hidden channels for wires. It was a highly-sophisticated invention which allowed the croupier to wander around the edges of the table yet still be able to affect the course of each game.

Somewhat ironically the four Ever Ready batteries were wrapped in newspapers of the day regaling lurid tales of The Mob's activities - helping date the table to having been used in the city from 1929-1931.

Finding such a table is incredibly rare as they were usually destroyed by authorities or The Mob themselves.

Mr Walder-Smith, who makes two or three buying trips to the US every year, said: "It was quite a find - and it's been a real labour of love getting it working again - but it's incredibly dodgy! No one expects to see this again.

He added: "In those days The Mob was generally acknowledged to run the casinos but many a punter must have left the table cursing his misfortune, little realising that the mafia had gone to such great lengths to ensure that he never stood a chance."

Capone, aka Scarface, ordered the murder of seven of his rivals in the infamous St Valentine's Day Massacre. He was eventually arrested for tax evasion in 1931 and died in 1947 - a story retold in the Robert De Niro film The Untouchables.

The fully restored table has now been bought by an unnamed wealthy American collector - with the cheat-mechanism made fully operational using modern batteries.

Mr X added: "He has assured us that he will not be using it to cheat his friends!"

You have been warned!