Interesting Insider $3 Million Baccarat Cheating Scam in Australia

Unidentified Baccarat Cheat in Australia

Over a ten-day period in July, 2016 at the Star Casino in Sydney, Australia, two unidentified baccarat players won some $3 million at the baccarat tables. Soon afterwards, they were charged, along with an unidentified baccarat dealer, of a collusion cheating scam that allegedly allowed them to win the money. The dealer was accused of manipulating the cards by "sleight of hand" so that he could see their values and then signalling those values to the two players who used the information to be able to bet with a large advantage.

According to reports, bet they did! Their maximum bets reached $250,000.

What makes this case more interesting than most cheating cases in the plethora of insider baccarat scams is that the court apparently agreed that the cheating took place the way the prosecution said it did but acquitted them and let them walk with the $3 million because somehow "no particular person had been deceived by their actions."

What the heck does that mean!

So if I understand this correctly, a dealer and two players scammed the Star Casino for $3 million by way of the dealer illicitly signalling the values of the cards to the players, who, based on that information, made their bets and won three million bucks!

How can this not be cheating worthy of a guilty verdict? Who the hell cares that no particular person was deceived by the cheating? How does that matter? The victim is clearly the casino, not any person, therefore this is a slam-dunk casino-cheating conviction.

Well, the outcome of this trial, whose verdict the prosecution will appeal, will not do much good for Australian and Pacific Rim casinos. Already plagued by insider baccarat scams for nearly two decades now, this ridiculous decison sends a bad message that will probably make more victims out of more casinos in that part of the world.

The message is simply: if you cheat by collusion in an Australian casino and get caught, there is a plausible way out of it by claiming no casino employee in particular was victimized, or whatever other excuse there might be.

Ridiculous!