Sunday, August 07, 2016

Huge Baccarat Cheat Scam Trial in Singapore Results in 13 Jail Sentences

Bac Cheat Group Reconnaissance
It lasted almost four months and the defendants were charged with cheating the Singapore Marina Bay Sands casino out of $1.4 million in what the judge called the biggest and most sophisticated casino cheat scam in the history of Singapore gambling.

Of course there is no surprise that it was a baccarat scam and that it occurred at the Singapore Marina Bay Sands, which is by far the most cheated casino in the world.

The details are a bit unclear, at least to me, but the description of the massive cheat scam is that 14 Thai nationals, 10 men and four woman, somehow obtained a key to a cabinet containing a "playing card carrier," removed the cards, photographed them, replaced them into the carrier without disturbing the sequence, put the carrier back into the cabinet, and finally hit the baccarat table knowing how the cards would fall and won the $1.4 million over a single three-hour baccarat session.

According to reports, they purposely lost a few hands to conceal their scam.

They were supposedly caught when their "suspicious" behavior was caught on surveillance tape.

And they had made at least one reconnaissance trip to the casino to test the key and even conducted dry runs at a casino in Manila.

And if that's not enough intrigue to this casino-cheat case, the alleged mastermind, 53-year-old Soum Sengmanivong, is supposedly dead in Laos...care to take a bet on that!!

Well, first of all, is a "playing card carrier" the same thing as a card shoe? Or is it a contraption that holds cards when they're delivered to the casino from the manufacturer?

It also appears from numerous articles on the scam that the group stole the card carrier from the baccarat room where actual games where in progress. They crowded the area so no one would notice.

If I am reading this correctly, I am having lots of trouble believing it...and as far as their suspicious activity caught on surveillance tape goes, when did that come into play and where is the evidence of their abducting the card carrier and then putting it back in the cabinet?

Well, whatever happened there, the results of the trial were generally minor prison terms ranging from one year to a year and and a half.

And one more thing: where did they get the key to the cabinet? There was no mention of an inside employee in on the scam, so did they have the key made? If so, was a locksmith involved in the scam to do the fitting work that would have been needed to make the key??

There's only one thing I can say for sure about all this: The Marina Bay Sands, if they actually store live cards right in the baccarat room and not somewhere else inside the building, is even more of a casino game protection nightmare than I previously thought!

If anyone can give me some clarifying details about this case, I would surely appreciate it!