Former Baccarat Dealer from Star Sydney Bags 2 Years Prison Term. This was for his involvement in a betting scam worth $368,000. (Image by Jarosław Kwoczała on Unsplash)
A Star Casino dealer bags 2 Years Prison term for cheating at baccarat. He is a former employee at Star Sydney in Australia working regularly as a baccarat dealer. For his involvement as the mastermind of the rip-off, the Australian courts handed down a 2-year jail term for his involvement in the betting scam.
According to the announcement by the ILGA (Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority), the illegal scam targeted at the property last year involved a whopping sum of 368,000 dollars playing the popular table game Baccarat.
As a result of the scam, Hieu Duc Lam, the former baccarat dealer, got a two-year prison sentence which will run from the 9th of July 2021 to the 8th of July 2023.
In addition to the prison term, the sentence also includes the former Star Sydney employee serving two hundred and fifty community service work hours. Lam was convicted on a 15 count charge of dishonesty for obtaining a financial advantage. The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority has also cancelled Hieu Lam’s gaming license as requested by the NSW Liquor and Gaming.
Footage from CCTV Expose Betting Scam
Star Sydney was able to discover the betting came through CCTV footage which revealed that Lam teamed up with a casino patron and another employee in the casino to carry out his scamming activity. The scammer would memorize the cards before the start of a baccarat game and will then send the details of the card to his accomplice using a secure messaging application. On his part, Lam’s accomplice would then take part in the upcoming game since he already knew the cards that will come up. Lam and his two accomplices made about 345,000 dollars in one month.
The last Baccarat scandal we heard about was way back when in London’s Crockford’s casino when the famous poker play Phil Ivey was said to be cheating, playing Punto Banco. A scandal that resulted in a court case from the Ivery camp which resulted in a loss meaning Ivey could not claim his £7.7m ( $10.2m) baccarat winnings. Maybe because Ivey was caught red-handed asking the dealer no shuffle the deck, was partners with a known baccarat scammer, and the cards used by Crockfords Casino were known by Baccarat players that understand the scam because of the patterns.
ILGA Cancels Lam’s License
Philip Crawford, Chairman of the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority disclosed the incident was self-reported by Star Sydney itself in line with its obligations. Crawford added that:
The ILGA acted in the right direction by sacking the scammers who are employees of Star Sydney because of the special responsibility positions they held in the industry.
The Chairman further noted that the primary goal of casino special employees is to maintain and defend the integrity of casino operations for which they are licensed. In his words, Crawford pointed out that a special employee of an online casino has been licensed to facilitate and supervise gaming activities.
Crawford equally explained that these special employees have a responsibility to protect the casino operations from exploitation, criminal influence, and misconduct, which is why the firm has placed a special level of trust in their hands. In his last remark, the ILGA Chair stated that this current case is a breach of that trust placed in the hands of special employees. This news about the betting scam that was discovered comes many months after 2 other employees of Star Casino were convicted. Two employees of Star Casino were sacked and later sentenced in March after they tried to steal 30,000 dollars in gaming chips.
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