Trapped by a sting that won too much
Steve Bird
Dealer beaten 34 times in an hour
Hidden cameras used to film cards
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2548952,00.html
London’s high-class casinos may be used to hosting moments of outrageous fortune, but when a woman at one three-card poker table won 34 times in an hour, staff began to suspect a little more than luck.
The Chinese woman won with such regularity, and played crucial high-stake hands with such confidence, that security staff decided to investigate — leading to the discovery of Britain’s most sophisticated casino sting.
In scenes reminscent of a James Bond film, the woman and two accomplices were found to be using minature cameras woven into a suit sleeve and a handbag, hidden earpieces and a van full of video monitors to win thousands of pounds at poker tables.
Southwark Crown Court heard yesterday how the gang pocketed a total of more than £250,000 at a total of six casinos by filming cards as they were dealt. The images were transmitted to a van parked outside, where they were played back in slow motion, revealing the croupier’s cards. The details were then relayed back to the players via hidden earpieces.
The jury was told how Bit Chai Wong, a respected player among London’s gambling community, had decided to wreak revenge on casinos by devising the scam after suffering heavy losses. She would sit at the table, relying on cameras in her handbag and in the suit sleeve of her accomplice, Yau Yui Lam, to film the dealer from different angles. Fan Leung Tsang played back the footage in the van to establish exactly what hand the croupier had.
With the element of luck and skill gone, the pair could choose to fold or dramatically raise the stakes. It is the first time that anyone has been caught using such technology to cheat in British casinos.
At one point Wong was winning 80 per cent of the games she played. In just one week she turned a £31,000 stake into £69,000. But it was that success that led to their undoing. A number of casinos had reported seeing a parked white van on nights that the house had suffered severe losses.
Shortly after midnight on September 13, 2005, Wong and Lam walked confidently into the Silver Room at The Mint casino in Kensington, West London. Sitting directly opposite the croupier they played three-card poker — a game that pits them solely against the croupier.
Wong, who arrived with a float of £2,500, rested her handbag on her lap leaving the filming to Lam.
The court was shown video footage captured by Lam’s sleeve camera as he rested his arm on the table at an angle below the woman dealer’s hands. When the pictures were slowed down the suit and value of each card the croupier placed on the table were clearly visible. When security staff spotted the van parked outside they contacted police.
All three were arrested. Wong was found to be wearing a transmitter and earpiece and carrying the surveillance camera in her handbag. Lam had a harness fitted with the microcamera, two transmitters and an earpiece.
In the van, officers found torn-up video tape, two monitors, one for a “live feed” and the other to play video recordings of the croupier’s cards.
In just 40 minutes Wong, a mother of one, had made £3,520, winning 34 times and losing just ten times. When arrested she had £6,020 in chips and Lam had £525 in cash.
All three admitted a single charge of cheating at play under the 1845 Gaming Act.
Lam, 45, a chef, with a previous conviction for dishonesty, was jailed for nine months. Wong, 39, a waitress from Sandy, Befordshire, and Tsang, 41, a restaurateur from Paddington, were given suspended nine-month sentences, ordered to do 150 hours’ community service and banned from entering a casino for two years.
Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said: “The method used by you could never have been conceived at the time Parliament drew up this Act.” He added: The crime of cheating at play may well be over 150 years old, but as has been demonstrated in this case it is still alive and kicking.”
Jason Cross, defending the trio, said that Wong had not considered her behaviour morally wrong because she had lost vast sums of money in casinos. All three had suffered gambling debts, he said.
Fast and loose
In 2005 a Hungarian woman and two Serbian men made £1.3 million at the Ritz in London with a scanner hidden in a mobile phone. The device calculated the speed of the roulette ball and where it was likely to land. Although the trio were arrested they were never charged, and as there had been no interference with the table they kept the money
Paul Kennedy, duty manager of Portsmouth’s Stanley Casino, and David Ho were found guilty last May of conspiracy to defraud. Their four-year scam got them more than £1,000 a day. Kennedy would steal chips with a barely detectable sleight-of-hand move and leave them in the lavatory for Ho to pick up
In 2005 Kwong Lee, Martin Fitz and Shuhal Miah became the first people to be found guilty of “cheating at play” under the 1845 Gaming Act. They used a trick called “top hatting” to drop chips on to the roulette table after the ball had settled
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(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation