If there’s one thing that we’ve come to understand about how casinos run, it’s that you can’t cross them on large sums of money. Sure, you can probably get away with a few knicks and knacks here and there, but for the most part, the house will get you back. They always do.
Such was the case recently when three Malaysian brothers were sentenced to jail for rack jacking the Marina Bay Sands of S$344,350 worth of gaming chips. A quick calculation on our heads – ok, we used a calculator – converts that to a little over $282,000 based on current exchange rates.
Of the three brothers, the one who got slammed with the biggest hammer was Matthias Ng Kjay Yeek, 24, who, incidentally was an employee of the casino, having worked as a croupier at the time of the crimes. For violating the Criminal Breach of Trust, Matthias was sentenced to 40 months in the can. Meanwhile, his brothers Mark Ng Khay Shuean, 21, and Matthew Ng Khay Shean, 25, were both sentenced to 30 months in jail for abetting the crime.
As an employee of Marina Bay Sands, Matthias operated a variety of casino games and was tasked with large quantities of casino chips, a responsibility that eventually gave way to greed. According to Channel News Asia, Matthias had his brothers serve as his accomplices, where he would overpay them on winning bets while also turning their losing bets into winning ones. The scheme seemed to work for a while as the brothers racked up their stolen chips all the way to six-digit figures.
But eventually, the casino caught up to their ruse after the amount won at the table where Matthias was the croupier in charge showed anomalous discrepancies from the actual figures that were reported. A quick review of CCTV footage was all she wrote for Matthias and his brothers, and on October 1, Matthias and Mark were arrested with Matthew surrendering on the same day.
