Tuesday, June 29, 2010

South African Casino Cheat Gets 7 Months in Singapore Slam!

Apparently, Sibongile Arthur Mgxashe, a 33 year-old South African businessman, came to Genting Highlands, Malaysia last May to buy clothes for his clothing business in South Africa. But he stopped off at Resorts World Sentosa Casino to play a little roulette and blackjack and dropped two grand. Evidently he was pissed off about the loss and decided to return to Resorts World and get his money back the easy way--pastposting!

He not only got his two grand back but ended up cheating the Sentosa casino out of $14,000 by twice pastposting two black chips ($200) straight up on inside numbers. But then he got caught and ended up in front of a Singapore judge, who's been quite busy these days sentencing Singapore casino cheats. Facing ten years in prison, the judge decided to go easy and gave Mgxashe seven months in prison, just enough time to get accustomed to the prison variety of Singaporean cuisine.

The judge heard from the prosecutor that Mgxashe's casino cheats were premeditated and therefore warranted a tough sentence. However, the accused's lawyer said that Mgxashe is a legitimate businessman who couldn't cope with having lost his $2,000 and desperately tried to cheat to win it back...ha-ha-ha! Then why did he do the second move after he got paid $7,000 after the first? Seems more like greed or professional cheating than a regretful man trying only to recoup his losses.

Actually, the prosecutor claimed that Mgxashe cheated the casino out of more than $30,000 and that only a fraction of that amount was recovered. In any case, the South African "clothing cheat" copped out to three counts of theft and one count of attempted casino cheating in exchange for his seven months in jail.

My take: Mgxashe got off cheap! And how the hell do you pronounce his name?