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Croupier and patron jailed for rigging roulette game
Casino employee Ng Wuey Kiang (above) and punter Leong Teck Leong carried out their ruse over five days last October
View more photos
A CROUPIER and a punter hatched a scam to cheat the Resorts World Sentosa casino in the game of roulette last September.
It was planned that casino employee Ng Wuey Kiang, 24, would throw the ball so that it ended up within the 20 numbers grouped on one side of the roulette wheel.
He and Leong Teck Leong carried out their cheating over five days from Oct 2 to 9, until their ruse was discovered via closed-circuit TV footage.
Leong bet a total of 88 times. As Ng was unable to control the roulette ball, it landed on the wrong side of the wheel 48 times. To cover these losses, he would overpay Leong when he won.
Ng, a Malaysian, and Leong, 39, a Singaporean, were jailed for one year and nine months each yesterday by a district court, for criminal breach of trust and cheating.
They each pleaded guilty to eight charges, with 88 charges taken into consideration for sentencing for each man.
Agreeing with Deputy Public Prosecutor Ruth Wong that a deterrent sentence was necessary, District Judge Jasbendar Kaur said the scam was well-planned and both men were equally culpable.
'The plan required a croupier and a punter, so each played a crucial role,' the judge said.
Out of their winnings of $30,570, Ng received a cut of $1,700.
He returned $500 worth of chips to the casino on one of the days they committed the offences.
Asking the court to consider a lenient sentence, Leong's lawyer Michael Yap Gim Chuan said his client had quit his job as a planner for a transport firm to gamble full-time after the casinos opened early last year.
He went there daily and initially won between $300 and $1,000 on most days. However, his luck changed and he started losing up to $10,000 in a single night.
The court heard that Leong had gambled away some $50,000, and he and his wife have sold their car and flat. They have an eight-year-old son.
Mr Yap called the scam 'stupid' since, after deducting the losses in the 88 tries, Leong's profit was a mere $105.
Calling the punter the 'mastermind', Ng's lawyer Siva S. Krishnasamy said the croupier was 'young and naive', and allowed greed to get the better of him.
This is the second case of a casino patron being jailed for working in cahoots with a casino employee to rig games.
Earlier this month, Tan Tiong Loon, 32, was jailed for 10 months for cheating the Marina Bay Sands casino of $31,500 by conspiring with Keith Yong Kee-Hwei, 24, a former pit supervisor, to manipulate a 'money wheel' game last October. Yong has yet to be dealt with.
The maximum punishment for theft is a seven-year jail term and a $10,000 fine, and there is a maximum 10-year jail term and a similar fine for cheating.
KHUSHWANT SINGH
Casino employee Ng Wuey Kiang (above) and punter Leong Teck Leong carried out their ruse over five days last October
View more photos
A CROUPIER and a punter hatched a scam to cheat the Resorts World Sentosa casino in the game of roulette last September.
It was planned that casino employee Ng Wuey Kiang, 24, would throw the ball so that it ended up within the 20 numbers grouped on one side of the roulette wheel.
He and Leong Teck Leong carried out their cheating over five days from Oct 2 to 9, until their ruse was discovered via closed-circuit TV footage.
Leong bet a total of 88 times. As Ng was unable to control the roulette ball, it landed on the wrong side of the wheel 48 times. To cover these losses, he would overpay Leong when he won.
Ng, a Malaysian, and Leong, 39, a Singaporean, were jailed for one year and nine months each yesterday by a district court, for criminal breach of trust and cheating.
They each pleaded guilty to eight charges, with 88 charges taken into consideration for sentencing for each man.
Agreeing with Deputy Public Prosecutor Ruth Wong that a deterrent sentence was necessary, District Judge Jasbendar Kaur said the scam was well-planned and both men were equally culpable.
'The plan required a croupier and a punter, so each played a crucial role,' the judge said.
Out of their winnings of $30,570, Ng received a cut of $1,700.
He returned $500 worth of chips to the casino on one of the days they committed the offences.
Asking the court to consider a lenient sentence, Leong's lawyer Michael Yap Gim Chuan said his client had quit his job as a planner for a transport firm to gamble full-time after the casinos opened early last year.
He went there daily and initially won between $300 and $1,000 on most days. However, his luck changed and he started losing up to $10,000 in a single night.
The court heard that Leong had gambled away some $50,000, and he and his wife have sold their car and flat. They have an eight-year-old son.
Mr Yap called the scam 'stupid' since, after deducting the losses in the 88 tries, Leong's profit was a mere $105.
Calling the punter the 'mastermind', Ng's lawyer Siva S. Krishnasamy said the croupier was 'young and naive', and allowed greed to get the better of him.
This is the second case of a casino patron being jailed for working in cahoots with a casino employee to rig games.
Earlier this month, Tan Tiong Loon, 32, was jailed for 10 months for cheating the Marina Bay Sands casino of $31,500 by conspiring with Keith Yong Kee-Hwei, 24, a former pit supervisor, to manipulate a 'money wheel' game last October. Yong has yet to be dealt with.
The maximum punishment for theft is a seven-year jail term and a $10,000 fine, and there is a maximum 10-year jail term and a similar fine for cheating.
KHUSHWANT SINGH
