Nine Thai nationals charged over the weekend for their involvement in a high-tech card-cheating scam at Poipet’s Star Vegas Casino have confessed to their crimes and agreed to return an undisclosed sum to the casino’s owners, officials said Monday.
But only three out of the nine have provided assurances regarding their ability to return their portions of the money, with the status of the other six still undecided, police said.
“Three [of the nine] gamblers who confessed to cheating will compensate the money they cheated from the casino,” Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said Monday, adding that all nine would be released once the agreed-upon funds were returned to the casino.
“We have never seen such high-tech equipment being used to cheat,” he added.
A casino manager who requested anonymity confirmed that the Star Vegas Casino had negotiated a settlement with three suspects.
He also provided details on the amount of money won by the nine at a baccarat table, and how casino management had identified the scam.
“They put down bets of $20,000 a go…winning and losing intermittently in their first eight tries. But we became suspicious after they won 20 subsequent bets in a row,” the manager said. “We then asked to check their bodies and found high-tech equipment concealed within their shoes.”
The nine had pocketed just under $3.5 million over four separate visits to the casino, the last one on Jan 14, when the scam was uncovered.
“They had already won more than $1 million dollars on their first visit, but were aiming to collect $1.5 million before leaving,” he said.
Had the culprits continued to win and lose intermittently, he added, they would most likely not have been caught.
