The case of card recording at a casino is believed to be the first of its kind in courts here. - PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): A Malaysian man linked to a foreign syndicate that unlawfully recorded cards during baccarat games at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) casino was sentenced to a year and 10 months’ jail on March 18.
Chai Hee Keong, 46, pleaded guilty to four charges under the Casino Control Act. He was the third person to be convicted in Singapore in the case, which saw the syndicate winning a total of S$433,730 (RM1.53 million) at the tables from Dec 16 to 23, 2022.
Another Malaysian, Tan Kian Yi, 35, was sentenced to three years and four months’ jail in November 2023. Taiwanese Hung Jung-Hao, 28, was convicted the following month and was ordered to spend a year and 10 months behind bars.
All three men have not made restitution.
The case of card recording at a casino is believed to be the first of its kind in courts here.
Three other Taiwanese are said to also be involved in the syndicate. They are: Wang Yu, 22; his girlfriend Hung Yu-Wen, 24; and Hung Jung-Hao’s girlfriend Chou Yu-Lun, 26.
Court documents did not disclose the outcome of their cases.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Zhi Jie said Tan and Chai had known each other in 2019 before becoming close friends.
In August 2022, Tan met Hung Yu-Wen for the first time when he visited a casino in the Philippines.
When they met again in the Philippines in November 2022, Hung Yu-Wen told Tan she had a “formula” that could help them win in baccarat.
The DPP told the court that the formula was developed by a man known only as Kelvin.
Tan agreed to join Hung and Wang in using the formula, which required the use of an Excel sheet, to win at baccarat.
Hung Yu-Wen taught Tan how to use the formula and asked him to memorise a set of codes, which referred to the values and suits of the cards in baccarat games.
She also told Tan he would be keying the codes into the Excel sheet after someone transmitted information to him.
The formula would then generate an output that predicted the game’s next outcome. Court documents did not state how the formula worked.
Tan asked Hung Yu-Wen if Chai could join the syndicate and she agreed, promising to give the two men 20 per cent of the winnings.
Tan later contacted Chai, who agreed to be part of the group, and all six foreigners met in Singapore in December 2022.
The group’s strategy involved a female syndicate member, known as the “sorcerer”, who wore a concealed Bluetooth earphone connected to her mobile phone as she sat at a gaming table in the casino.
She would relay information on the cards to an accomplice, called a “marksman”, who was stationed elsewhere.
The “marksman” would feed the information into the Excel spreadsheet formula to get an answer, and then tell the “sorcerer” how to place her bets. Tan was one such “marksman”.
Chai was assigned to be a “tank”. He was tasked to follow instructions relayed through the “sorcerer” and place bets accordingly. The “tank” usually placed high bets at the table, said the DPP.
Chai was involved in betting sessions between Dec 16 and 22, 2022.
Based on a summary Wang created, Chai worked more than 30 hours and won a total of $118,500 for the syndicate within that time.
Chai was supposed to receive $13,896 as remuneration for his work but he did not receive the monies in the end.
The syndicate members’ antics came to light when the casino’s staff saw their conduct through closed-circuit television footage.
On Dec 24, 2022, Hung Jung-Hao went to the casino alone to gamble and police arrested him soon after.
Suspecting he had been caught when he became uncontactable, the other syndicate members left Singapore the following day.
Tan was arrested in Malaysia in February 2023, while Chai was caught at the Woodlands Checkpoint four months later. - The Straits Times/ANN
