Using 77 fake casino chips with “a low-fidelity simulation”, three mainland men cheated a casino in Cotai, 11 illegal currency exchange dealers and gamblers out of a total of HK$600,000 in just two hours or so on New Year’s Day, but their scam was quickly uncovered by the casino.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Un Hong announced the case during a special press conference on Friday, during which he identified the three suspects, aged between 29 and 33, by their surnames – Guo, Tu and Lin. The trio arrived in Macau on January 1 and started their scam at 8:30 p.m. by mixing their bogus casino chips with real ones and exchanging them with gamblers and illegal currency exchange dealers in and around the casino. Their scam was uncovered at about 10 p.m. when a dealer exchanged a gambler’s fake chip into several genuine chips worth HK$10,000, after which the casino reported the case to the Judiciary Police.
According to Cheong, the Judiciary Police, in conjunction with the casino security guards, arrested the trio at the casino later that day. Under questioning, all of them refused to cooperate with the police, but a PJ investigation found that among them, Lin had mixed fake chips with real ones and exchanged them at the casino’s cage, while Tu had exchanged fake chips with gamblers for yuan in the casino’s toilets.
In the operation, Cheong noted, the Judiciary Police seized a total of 77 counterfeit casino chips with a face value of HK$10,00 each, two from the casino, 58 from gamblers and illegal currency exchange dealers as well as 17 from Tu and Lin. PJ officers also seized 12 genuine casino chips – six worth HK$1,000 each and six worth HK10,000 each, as well as HK$17,000 in cash from the two suspects.
The Judiciary Police transferred on Friday the trio to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), where they were facing fraud involving a considerable amount of money and illegal currency exchange charges respectively.
Meanwhile, the Judiciary Police have also filed separate cases against four of the 11 victims for running illegal currency exchange businesses at local casinos.
Evidence seized from the three mainland fraud suspects, including fake casino chips, is displayed during Friday’s special press conference at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters. – Photo: Maria Cheang Ut Meng
