Casino cheats

Student colluded with MBS dealer for extra chips

A Chinese national who colluded with a casino dealer to pay him extra cash chips while playing at the casino tables was jailed for 15 weeks yesterday.

Li Zhifen, 25, a student, had admitted to 20 charges of colluding mostly with Jiang Kaiwan, 24, then a dealer with Marina Bay Sands (MBS) casino, to get money from playing at Baccarat and Sic Bo tables at the casino between April 14 and May 3 last year.

Fifty-nine other charges were taken into consideration.

Jiang, who was dealt with earlier, was jailed for about 10 months for criminal breach of trust and colluding with Li and Chinese national Dong Hao, 23, also a student, to overpay them chips.

He had pleaded guilty last year to 20 of 90 charges involving $138,275.

Dong has been dealt with, having served eight weeks' jail on six of 19 charges.

A district court heard that Jiang would either overpay winning wagers to Li at casino tables he operated or omit to take his losing bets, and might even pay out on Li's losing bets.

Whenever Li wanted to change chips, Jiang would give him extra chips.

The chips would then be converted to cash at the casino.

In April last year, Li roped Dong into the fraudulent practice.

After each scam, the trio would meet in the toilets of MBS' hotel tower to split the proceeds.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Randeep Singh Koonar said that some time in March last year, Jiang told Li he had unintentionally overpaid a patron at one of the tables and it was not discovered by MBS management.

After a discussion, the duo hatched the fraudulent practice to overpay chips.

In total, the three men caused the casino to lose $19,700.

Restitution amounting to $20,275 was made collectively by the trio on May 30 last year.

In mitigation, Li's lawyer Alagappan Arunasalam said his client was a "passive follower" of Jiang, who was the mastermind and had used his client to take revenge on his employers.

He said Jiang was unhappy with the casino for the way it had handled and sided with unruly patrons whenever disputes involving Jiang occurred.

Li, he added, is remorseful for his actions, is of very good character, and has spent his free time helping out in charitable institutions.

The maximum penalty is a $150,000 fine and seven years' jail on each charge.

Two Russians used high-tech tools for slot-machine scam

Student from China, Russian syndicate members jailed; others involved in the scams have already been dealt with

Two more syndicate members were jailed yesterday for using sophisticated technology to record gaming machines at casinos and later predicting the next mass payout of the machines.

Russians Vladislav Logachev, 41, and Andrei Egorov, 33, were sentenced to 45 months and 30 months in prison respectively.

Their accomplice, Czech national Radoslav Skubnik, 41, was jailed for 22 months last year.

Logachev had pleaded guilty to six of 16 charges while Egorov had admitted to three of 13 charges.

Over three days in May last year, the trio won $108,995 from cheating at play at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and Resorts World Sentosa casinos.

The court heard that some time in 2012, Skubnik joined a Russian syndicate operating in casinos in the United States, Europe and Macau, targeting slot machines from certain manufacturers.

Syndicate members would form teams consisting of "a master" (team leader) and "players".

After using the devices to record the play patterns of slot machines, the master would upload the information to an unknown server for analysis and decoding.

The decoded data was then sent back to the master, who in turn distributed it to the players.

Armed with the decoded data, players returned to the same slot machines with the devices, which would alert them to when the next big payout was going to be made.

Logachev taught Skubnik and Egorov how to use the devices in Russia.

Skubnik was then sent to carry out the scam in casinos in Europe and Macau.

At the end of each job, each player would get 10 per cent of the winnings while the master would get 15 to 20 per cent, with the remainder going to the syndicate.

Some time in March last year, Logachev arranged for some syndicate members to travel to Singapore.

The members used their devices to record the play patterns on specific slot machines at the casinos.

These recordings were then analysed and the data was given to Logachev while he was in Russia.

Logachev then brought the analysed data in a laptop to Singapore.

All three arrived in Singapore on May 5 last year to commit cheating at play.

An MBS security officer alerted police to the scam on May 8.

All the winnings have been recovered by the police.

Logachev and Egorov's sentences were backdated to May 10.

They could have been fined up to $150,000 and/or jailed for up to seven years on each charge.

elena@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on April 13, 2017.
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