A Macau casino in the city’s Cotai district alleges it was defrauded of HKD4.54 million (US$581,498) via player-casino worker collusion.
Police said it involved the bold step of the suspects taking a whole box of cards from a casino-floor card cabinet to a hotel room. They then placed those cards in a pre-sequenced order in the box. Those cards were then to be used in immediate baccarat-game table operations involving the suspects. The players in the fraud team could bet on the sequenced cards knowing the order they would emerge during play.
The alleged scammers also managed to return a substitute set of cards to the card cabinet without detection. They performed this casino floor-to hotel room-and back process with cards, not once, but on at at least two separate occasions, said the city’s Judiciary Police gaming crime investigation division, in a Monday briefing.
The case was first reported to the authorities on May 23, said the police. The force did not name the casino involved.
On Saturday (May 25) eight suspects were detained in the city. Five were said to be locals employed as casino staff at the venue concerned. Of those, one was a dealer; two were table game managers; and two others were described as table game directors. The three others detained were also said to be local residents, with one being described as having a background in casino junket work.
The casino in question told police it suspected the scam had been carried out on March 29 and again on May 5, involving it being defrauded of HKD4.54 million in total, according to the Monday police briefing.
The suspects obtained winnings by being able to anticipate baccarat game ‘trends’, such as a long banker hand, or a long player hand, the police noted to the media.
The police believed that the casino workers identified as suspects in the case were recruited by what police termed a “criminal group”, with a pledged combined reward for the staff of HKD170,000 to HKD500,000 per incident.
Other suspected accomplices of the group are currently at large, the police also noted.
The authorities have so far been able to recover HKD2.94 million of the proceeds from the alleged fraud, with further efforts being made to locate the rest, stated the Judiciary Police.
