New Multi-Million Dollar Casino Cheating Scam in Macau!

Macau has become the king of major casino cheating scandals, usually engineered by or involving casino employees. But this one was pulled off by a man pretending to be a casino employee...none other than a junket promoter.

Oldfashioned junkets that have long gone by the wayside in Las Vegas are still very much in the mode in Macau, and this article from the Macau Daily Times explains how the clever cook did it. Well, I should say "clever" only before he got caught.

Article:

A 42-year-old man from Hong Kong who allegedly cheated a gaming room out of HKD5.3 million was caught by the Judiciary Police (PJ). According to the PJ spokesman Chau Wai Kuong, the suspect, surnamed Ip, first obtained the personal information of a junket promoter from the ringleader. He then claimed himself as the junket promoter, called the telecom company and said to them that he had lost his mobile phone. The company hence invalidated the previous phone number and issued a temporary number to the suspect. During this period, the 42-year-old went to the gaming room and said it was the junket promoter who told him to come to take the HKD5.3 million gaming chips he stored there. The accounting department called the victim for confirmation, yet the call was diverted to the temporary number and received by the suspect who allegedly pretended to be the junket promoter, the PJ said. Since the ringleader requested the suspect to get cash instead of gaming chips, he returned to the casino to change them into cash. During which, police said the victim called the accounting department saying his phone number went invalid. It was at this time the fraud was revealed. Chau said the suspect got 6,000 patacas from the ringleader. The PJ is tracking down the ringleader who they believe should also be from Hong Kong. The suspect was sent to the Public Prosecutions Office yesterday pending pre-trial.