Given the task definition and input, reply with output. In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

The two men participated in a cheating scheme that involved placing high-risk phantom bets at Bellagio’s craps tables 
  
 Two men have been added to Nevada’s “black book” of banned casino players after scamming Bellagio of nearly $1.2 million by placing the so-called hop bet in a series of craps games, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. 
  
 Anthony Grant Granito and James Russell Cooper will no longer be able to play at any of the state’s casinos after their names have been placed on the list of banned gamblers maintained by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. 
  
 Granito and Cooper were part of a group of four men who jointly carried out a sophisticated scheme to cheat the glitzy Strip casino. The scam took place between August 2012 and July 2014 and also involved Jeffrey Martin and Mark Branco. Branco and Cooper were craps dealers at the Bellagio at the time. According to court papers, it was Branco who led the group of four and concocted the scheme. The scam was discovered and reported by another craps dealer who noticed suspicious behavior and reported it to casino officials. 
  
 The scheme involved Branco and Cooper working at the same table. When a shooter tossed the dice, Martin or Granito had to mumble something that very much sounded like a hop bet (a risky oral proposition in which players wagered that a specific number would fall next). One of the dealers participating in the scam would pay out as if Martin or Granito had wagered correctly on whatever came up next. 
  
 It is important to note that at the time, the felt on the craps tables at the targeted casino had no designated spot for hop bets. To avoid attention and prevent their wrongdoing from being discovered, the two players would lose thousands of dollars on actual bets they placed. However, they would always walk away with a profit thanks to the phantom bets. 
  
 All four participants in the fraudulent scheme were charged with theft and cheating at gambling and sentenced to prison by the Clark County District Court in 2016. As mentioned above, Granito and Cooper have recently been placed on the list of people banned from gambling at Nevada’s casinos. 
  
 How Was the Scam Discovered? 
  
 As mentioned earlier, it was believed that Branco was the mastermind behind the fraudulent plan. The group of four accomplices carried out with the scam for two years between August 2012 and July 2014. 
  
 A third craps dealer at the Bellagio reported suspicious activity to the casino’s management. Casino authorities themselves noticed a winning streak of wagers they said defied 452-billion-to-1 odds. According to a statistician employed by MGM Resorts International, Bellagio’s parent company: 
  
 Granito’s average bet was $4,400. He played 1,624 rounds and wagered $7.1 million. He would have been expected to lose $459,539. Instead, he won $498,500. Martin wagered $5.1 million over 2,295 rounds. Bellagio should have expected to come away with $252,490 of his money. Instead, he won $587,900. Overall, they would have been expected to lose $712,029…but they won a total of $1,086,400. 
  
 Casino officials examined every roll of the dice visible on surveillance while Branco and Cooper were at the tables to find enough evidence about their wrongdoing. Cooper eventually cooperated with authorities, revealing the scam’s details. 
  
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 Related News ||||| Two men who were part of a group that scammed Bellagio of an estimated $1.2 million in craps games have been placed on Nevada’s list of excluded persons, commonly called the “black book.” 
  
 James R. Cooper Jr. leaves the courtroom at the regional Justice Center on Oct. 8, 2015. (Erik Verduzco/Las Vegas Review-Journal) 
  
 Anthony Granito appears before Judge Valerie Adair at Regional Justice Center Tuesday, April 12, 2016, in Las Vegas. Granito was sentenced to prison for his role in a two-year $1 million craps scheme at the Bellagio. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review-Journal) 
  
 Two men who were part of a group that scammed Bellagio of an estimated $1.2 million in craps games have been placed on Nevada’s list of excluded persons, commonly called the “black book.” 
  
 Anthony Grant Granito and James Russell Cooper became the 33rd and 34th persons to be placed on the state Gaming Control Board’s list of people banned from entering Nevada casinos. 
  
 Granito and Cooper were part of a group of four men who teamed up between August 2012 and July 2014 to cheat the Strip casino. Granito, Cooper, Jeffrey Martin and Mark Branco were convicted of theft and cheating at gambling in 2016 in Clark County District Court and sentenced to prison. 
  
 Branco, a former Bellagio craps dealer who led the scheme, is still incarcerated, but Granito, Cooper and Martin have since been placed on probation. Granito and Cooper declined a commission hearing, but Martin requested one and it’s expected to be conducted at the commission’s December meeting. 
  
 The cheating was discovered in 2014 when casino authorities noticed a series of winning wagers that defied 452 billion-to-1 odds. 
  
 Cooper cooperated with authorities and explained before a grand jury how the scam worked. 
  
 Cooper and Branco would have to be working the same table, according to Cooper’s grand jury testimony. As a shooter tossed the die, Granito or Martin would mumble something that sounded like a hop bet — a wager that specific numbers would come up on the next roll — and one of the dealers would pay out as if they had correctly wagered on whatever fell. 
  
 At the time, the felt on the craps table at Bellagio had no designated spot for such bets. 
  
 The team lost thousands of dollars on fair wagers they placed to distract attention, but always walked away with a profit because of the phantom bets. 
  
 This is a developing story. Check back for updates. 
  
 Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter. |||||

Thirty-two people appear in Nevada's "black book"—the Gaming Control Board's list of personae non gratae in the state's casinos. Anthony Grant Granito and James Russell Cooper just became Nos. 33 and 34, thanks to their role in scamming the Bellagio out of $1.2 million or so at the craps table, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Granito, Cooper, and two other men—Jeffrey Martin and Mark Branco—were convicted in 2016 of theft and cheating in gambling for a nearly two-year scheme in which they placed something called a "hop bet" at the craps table Branco ran at the Bellagio. All four men ended up being sentenced to prison (Branco is still behind bars; the other four are now on probation), and Cooper ended up cooperating and telling the grand jury exactly how the foursome pulled off the cheat, which ran from August 2012 to July 2014. How it worked: Branco, said to be the mastermind, and Cooper, also a craps dealer, would be working the same table when Granito and Martin would wander over and mumble a hop bet, what Casino News Daily describes as "a risky oral proposition in which players wagered that a specific number would fall next." Branco and Cooper would pretend that whatever was mumbled was what came up on the thrown dice. The problem: There was no designated spot at the Bellagio craps table for such bets. The men, who would also purposely wager and lose thousands of dollars on fair bets to make the scheme look more legit, were busted when another craps dealer became suspicious and made a report. The casino itself had already begun wondering about the men's streak, which had 452 billion-to-one odds. (The gambling "nerd" with the winning algorithm that reportedly netted him a billion dollars.)