Are Singapore Casinos This Desperate To Catch Poker and Roulette Cheats?

An unemployed 32 year-old auto mechanic named Lai Boon Ngee was fined $1,500 after he pleaded guilty in front of a Singaporean district court judge to three counts of stealing roulette chips from two different roulette players at the Resorts World Sentosa casino. Upon reading this you might think this chip-thievery amounted to some serious money, right?...

Wrong! It turns out that Ngee stole just $25 worth of chips from the two players. His method was the same method I had used to "borrow" other players' roulette chips when I needed them for camouflage while doing pastposting moves. He placed his chips on top of the victims' chips as if betting the same numbers they had but then made believe to change his mind and took back his chips...and thiers as well. Most roulette players don't notice when some of their chips get snatched when they are spreading them all over the layout in various skittered patterns. And these two apparently didn't either, but someone else did, probably another player at the table who ratted out the chip thief.

My take: I think a little slap on the wrist would have been appropriate here. After all, Ngee is not a professional casino cheat and was probably acting out of desperation. It appears that Singapore casino surveillance and security departments are trying to show the world that no one can get over on them by cheating. But the truth is they're only catching the rank amateurs for the most part. The real pros are taking them to the cleaners!