It seems that baccarat scams are contagious the last few years. Last year, of course, we saw the biggest known casino scam in history flourish across baccarat tables in casinos across the US and Canada, resulting in dozens of arrests and plea deals, including those of the current Mayor of Seattle, Washington´s son. This time the locale for the latest major baccarat scam bust is Macau, which undoubtedly leads the "world league" in baccarat scam. It happened last June and the details are now coming out.

Two dealers from a Cotai casino were arrested by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Monday for allegedly being trained to remember cards sequences and then telling their accomplices before they were to place bets. The PJ’s gaming-related Crime Division received a report from the casino which suspected their dealers of cheating out money from baccarat tables, police spokesman Chan Kin Hong said. Five men were arrested including a 22-year-old and a 23-year-old dealer with one of the three masterminds coming from China’s Shangxi province. Mr. Chan said one of the dealers admitted to police that he was “invited” to participate in the scam and taken to a unit where he was trained on how to remember the sequence of about 10 cards when shuffled. The dealer also said he would text the cards’ order to his accomplices whom he’d never met and then they would come to the gaming tables as a customer and place bets according to the information given. Police believed the illegal organization had been operating for a few months, adding the dealer told them he received a 20 percent share each time and had accumulated about HK$600,000 of illegal earnings in total.

Great find! I did more research and I found out that the police spokesperson said the scam involved at least HK$3 million and the casino was still calculating the total loss. The three purported gamblers arrested were all from Shangxi province aged 34, 36 and 37, while the 37-year-old surnamed Ma was one of the masterminds, Mr Chan said. The other two masterminds were still on the run. Police said the two dealers had no financial problems and believed that they were attracted to participate in the scam because of “greed”. The five suspects will be sent to the Public Prosecutions Office and charged with organised crime and fraudulent gambling. The Dealers were arrested for casino card cons. Police are showing the “loots” seized including gaming chips and cash from the mainland suspects and cards from the dealers which they used to practice for the crime.