Eight arrested in Macau over casino card-tampering scheme
Those arrested include five casino employees.
Macau.- Eight Macau residents have been arrested on suspicion of participating in a casino fraud that involved manipulated poker cards. According to public broadcaster Teledifusão de Macau, judiciary police spokesperson Lei Chi Hou said five of the suspects are casino employees working as table managers, supervisors, and dealers.
They were allegedly recruited by the other three people to participate in the fraud, which allegedly took place in late March and again in early May. Investigators allege the group exploited insider access to resequence cards in the poker shoe in a private room before returning the equipment to active play. This enabled designated players to anticipate the sequence of cards and place bets with a near certainty of winning.
Each involved employee reportedly received payments of between HKD 170,000 and HKD 500,000 (US$21,600/ US$63,700) for their role. Police raids on the suspects’ properties uncovered HKD 2.94m (US$370,000) in cash.
The casino targeted in the operation suffered estimated losses of HKD 4.54m (US$579,000). All eight suspects have been handed over to the Public Prosecutions Office to face charges, including membership in a criminal organisation and large-scale fraud. Authorities are searching for more people.
Last summer, eight people, also including casino employees, were arrested for tampering with cards to defraud casinos in Cotai of around US$120,000.
