This wasn’t a good weekend to attempt to cheat Singapore’s two casinos, as evidenced by the arrests of two separate gangs of scofflaws.
In the first instance, Singapore police arrested five individuals accused of cheating at table games in Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands property. The arrested individuals include a 23-year-old casino dealer who stands accused of overpaying his accomplices.
Police said they were alerted to the scam by a different dealer on Saturday, leading to them placing the suspects under observation. Apparently discovering all the evidence they needed, police pounced on Sunday and Monday, arresting the dealer, three other men and a woman. The cops also seized cash totaling over $118k they suspect was generated via the scam.
Should they be convicted, all five accused are looking at up to seven years in prison and fines of up to $150k apiece. The dealer, who also faces charges of criminal breach of trust, could be hit with an additional 15 years in stripes.
In the other case, six foreigners – three men, three women – have been detained based on the suspicion of “using electronic devices” to cheat both Marina Bay Sands and its crosstown rival, Genting Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa.
Police said the six – four Russians, a Czech and a Filipino – were reportedly observed using mobile devices to film the action of slot machines at the two casinos. Alerted to the suspicious activity on Saturday, police arrested the six on Sunday, seizing 16 mobile phones in the process.
Five of the six have been charged with obtaining an advantage for themselves by the fraudulent use of equipment, an offense under Singapore’s Casino Control Act. The Filipino woman has yet to be charged, but police said their investigation is ongoing. Police didn’t specify the precise method by which the gang allegedly hoped to obtain an advantage over the machines via their cinematic exploits.
If convicted, the five are facing up to seven years in prison and individual fines of up to $150k.
