A team of accomplices diverts attention while consultant Paul Wilson cheats at casino games on the Court TV program "The Takedown." The show airs at 10:30 p.m. Tuesdays on Court TV, cable Channel 54. Paid casino consultant Paul Wilson stars in a new cable television series, "The Takedown," showing him and his team beating casinos' high-tech security systems.

Paul Wilson is a known casino cheat and advantage gambler who is using illegal methods to rip off casinos -- but the casinos and regulators don't seem to care.

That's because Wilson, a paid consultant for several Nevada casinos, has been using his skills on a new cable television series, "The Takedown," that has been sanctioned by enforcement officers and casinos.

The program shows the former advantage gambler and his accomplices as they successfully beat the high-technology security systems that casinos use to catch cheaters.

In the Court TV network show's first episode Tuesday, Wilson and his team beat the Crystal Bay Casino just east of Reno out of more than $7,000 in less than two hours by using magnetically loaded dice at a craps table.

Most of the sleight-of-hand tricks Wilson pulls on camera are against the law, but he gets away without prosecution because he is paid by the casinos to test their security systems and the cable show has been sanctioned by state gaming regulators.

He returns all of his ill-gotten gains.

The show's executive producer, Chris Hammond, said casinos that participate with the show want to test their security systems and get exposure at the same time.

"One of them told us it's like playing war games. We get to test our systems, but there's no live ammo," he said.

"We've made friends everywhere we've gone. This isn't a them-and-us scenario. There's a real effort that goes on to improve security," he said.

In Crystal Bay's case, the owner agreed to participate because it was an opportunity to show the property's high-class amenities and tight security at the same time, Wilson said.

Crystal Bay owner Roger Norman acknowledged that he agreed to do the show to help get some publicity for the casino.

"It was great advertising for us, whether we were able to catch them or not," he said.

But he said he welcomed Wilson and his team because he also thought the show was "really cool, like 'Oceans Eleven.'"

Not all casino companies have been as excited as Norman. Some companies have resisted out of concern that the program is showing viewers how to cheat. Others haven't participated because they're afraid Wilson is too good and will show audiences their security systems are penetrable, Hammond said.

He dismisses any concerns that the series will teach viewers how to beat the casinos.

"If they're already cheaters, we're not going to show them anything new. And we hold some material back. There's no way for an average citizen to figure out how to do it," he said.

"There's an advantage to having people understand," Norman said. "It's like 'Forensic Files.' It makes culprits less likely to get away. And, anyhow, sometimes it's the customers who bring problems to our attention."

Furthermore, any concerns Norman might have had were allayed because he was initially contacted about the show by the gaming department at the University of Nevada, Reno and he worked closely with the Nevada Gaming Control Board to make sure the program was legitimate.

Hammond and his co-producers, MPH, got the Gaming Control Board enforcement division to sign off on the show's activities. They also assured regulators that Wilson and his team would return any money they "won" and that nothing Wilson did would seriously affect legitimate gamblers' odds of winning.

Keith Copher, chief enforcement officer of the Gaming Control Board, said his agency has worked closely with the program's producers and the casinos involved to make sure that the state's gaming regulations aren't violated.

Although he has not seen any of the episodes, Copher said he was told there is no actual cheating going on and that all the players at the tables shown in the show are members of Wilson's teams or casino workers.

"They can't show how to cheat," Copher said. "Everybody at the table is participating in the program and trying to make it as realistic as possible, but they know what is going on."

Although gaming control enforcement officers have signed off on the series, board Chairman Dennis Neilander said he didn't know of the series or the casinos' participation.

"It hasn't arisen to the level of my awareness," he said.

While filming the series' first season, no more than a handful of casino executives were aware that Wilson had been hired to test their casino's security systems.

However, his presence was far from secret because television crews surrounded him and his accomplices while they wandered around the casinos, supposedly to film a different type of television show.

"Most of the staff thinks he's here filming some kind of documentary," explained one casino host who asked not to be named. "That may even make them let down their guard a bit."

Other casinos where Wilson has worked include Fitzgeralds and Lady Luck in downtown Las Vegas, although no major operators agreed to have their casinos featured in the first season of the program, which airs on Court TV cable Channel 54 at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Wilson does not work alone. He trains a team of four to six accomplices whose major role is often to divert attention while Wilson cheats.

His most outrageous stunt in the series will be a six-deck shoe switch that required a massive diversion to get the attention of the entire casino, he said.

Hammond said the idea for the program arose out of his work producing the 2003 film "Shade," for which Wilson was the technical adviser. The film is about a team of poker hustlers who work the clubs and martini bars of Los Angeles and pull off a successful sting that prompts their pursuit by a vengeful gangster.

Filming the movie gave Hammond and Wilson the idea and the contacts they needed to produce the new program, they said.

"(For the TV series), we had a closed world almost no one gets to see and people who were willing to do this on camera. That's entertainment and education, and you've got a winner when you've got them both," Hammond said.