Twelve ex-employees of the Golden Crown Daegu Casino in South Korea have received sentences for cheating foreign customers during dishonest games.
Included are the former CEO and two additional executives from the casino, located in the Hotel Inter-Burgo in Daegu, a city in the southeast region of the nation.
The defendants were not identified in local media articles due to South Korea's stringent privacy regulations, which deter the naming of individuals, including those found guilty.
Piled Cards
According to local reports, the group plotted to swindle two wealthy Chinese baccarat players out of $4.5 billion won (US$3.5 million) in September 2017 by employing rigged decks and a card manipulation method referred to as “bottom dealing.”
This is when a deceitful dealer extracts a card from the bottom of the deck with skillful manipulation to create the illusion that the card was dealt from the top. Prosecutors characterized the fraud as “extremely professional.”
The group employed the same method to swindle a Japanese tourist of 54 million won (US$42K) in July 2017, as stated in the allegations.
The defendants were further charged with abusing the casino’s free services to persuade dealers to take part in the scheme. This happened 732 times, costing the casino approximately US$160K, which constituted embezzlement.
Prosecutors stated that the three executives headed the illegal gambling operation and directed the other defendants, who were their subordinates, to engage in the criminal activity. This group consisted of sales directors, managers, pit bosses, and dealers.
No Remorse
“The crime was carried out very intelligently, with considerably egregious methods, such as employing prearranged card sequences or playing the game using cards that were shuffled to the disadvantage of foreign victims, deceiving them into thinking that they had used normal cards,” said Chief Judge Lee Jong-gil during sentencing. He also noted that the main perpetrators had shown “no remorse.”
The judge handed down prison terms varying from one year to three years. Some were given probation terms lasting as long as five years or community service requirements that varied from 160 hours to 200 hours.
This isn't the first occasion the casino has faced issues due to rigged games. It was previously charged with stealing roughly US$2 million from three baccarat players between May 2012 and April 2014 through card manipulation.
It was also penalized US$8,000 for permitting South Korean citizens to wager on the site from September 2011 to March 2012. The sole exception is the government-run Kangwon Land, located about 80 miles from the capital, Seoul.
