The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested two mainlanders in their thirties on Wednesday for using fake gaming chips to cheat a casino in Cotai and a gambler out of at least HK$150,000, a PJ spokesperson said during a special press conference yesterday.
According to the spokesperson, the duo are siblings surnamed Wang, with the man aged 34 and the woman aged 37. Both told the police that they are jobless.
The casino fraud, according to the spokesperson, was not discovered until Tuesday by an on-duty dealer, who told PJ officers arriving at the scene upon receiving his or her report, that when he or she collected chips from the gaming table, he or she found that one chip with a face value of HK$50,000 was counterfeit, while other gaming tables’ dealers in that casino also discovered two fake chips.
The dealer’s gender was not revealed during yesterday’s press conference.
The follow-up PJ investigation showed that one of the fake chips came from a mainland gambler who then told the police that they had received that chip from the illegal currency exchange duo.
After scrutinising the casino’s CCTV system, according to the spokesperson, the Judiciary Police picked up the duo and found HK$150,000 in chips and HK$7,000 in cash on one of the siblings.
PJ officers believe, according to the spokesperson, that the duo had worked as illegal currency dealers since August, and also discovered that they had exchanged currency totalling HK$800,000, resulting in a profit of HK$8,000.
Under questioning, the duo refused to cooperate with the police.
The casino reported a loss of HK$100,000, while the gambler reported a loss of HK$50,000.
The duo were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of illegal currency exchange acitivities and fraud involving a considerable amount of money.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the two hooded fraud suspects to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: MPDG
