A casino dealer was arrested last Tuesday for stealing gambling chips totalling HK$1.43 million from gaming tables since April and hiding them in her shoes or socks while on duty, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a press conference on Friday.
The 48-year-old local suspect is surnamed Lo. She started to work for the casino in Cotai in May 2016.
According to Leng, a surveillance department staff of a casino hotel in Cotai reported to the Judiciary Police last Monday that a female dealer was suspected of stealing chips from a baccarat table while on duty. PJ officers arrested Lo when she left the gaming table at the end of her shift on Tuesday morning. The officers took her to a police station for questioning.
Lo told the police that she started stealing chips in April, admitting that she stole chips worth HK$10,000 each time she was on duty. After grabbing the chips she let them fall onto the floor. She then each time crouched near the table and hid the chips in her shoes or socks before leaving the table at the end of her shift.
She told the police that she had stolen chips worth HK$1.43 million, of which she used HK$700,000 to pay off debts, while she kept the remaining chips worth HK$730,000 in the helmet box of her scooter. PJ officers later retrieved the chips from the box, Leng said.
PJ officers scrutinised the casino’s CCTV footage and confirmed that since June Lo had stolen chips on 24 occasions, stealing a number of chips worth HK$10,000 each time totalling HK$620,000, Leng said.
According to Leng, Lo has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing an embezzlement charge punishable by up to eight years behind bars, based on her situation as the employee of a public concession company, according to Article 336 and Article 340 of the Macau Penal Code.
