Dealer at Sydney’s Star Casino Convicted for $500,000 Scam

08:23
08 Aug

A former baccarat dealer at The Star Casino has been convicted at Sydney’s Downing Centre local court for his involvement in an illegal betting scam. Hieu Duc Lam is starting a two-year stretch after pleading guilty to 15 counts of dishonesty, including scamming almost half a million Australian dollars from his employers. He will also carry out 250 hours community service.

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Simple but Effective

Anybody who has ever been inside a casino has wondered if there exists a foolproof strategy that will guarantee a long-term profit. Hieu Duc Lam thought he had such a plan but, like many before him, was wrong.

To be fair, if his execution was better, then he might have got away with this for a long time and made a fortune before packing it in before he got caught.

Lam would simply look at the top cards in the deck and then send a message to his friend who would bet accordingly. Ziu Liu would read the messages on the Wickr app and then join his accomplice at the table.

In one period of less than a month, Ziu Liu won $467,700. Of course, casino management knows exactly what natural variance for each game looks like and as soon as the figures look even slightly iffy there was an investigation.

CCTV footage showed exactly what Lam was up to; both scanning the shoe and sending messages on his smartphone.

After cancelling Lam’s license to work in the industry, Philip Crawford, Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority chair, said:

“A casino special employee is licensed to supervise and facilitate gaming activities,” Crawford said on Saturday. “Their role is to help safeguard the integrity of casino operations from criminal influence, serious misconduct or exploitation, and a special degree of trust is placed in them. This case demonstrates a clear breach of that trust.”