SINGAPORE: A card dealer at the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) casino pocketed at least S$55,000 (US$42,800) worth of chips by covering his hand with a piece of paper and slipping the chips into his pants.
To avoid suspicion, he roped in two women to help exchange S$37,000 worth of chips for money.
Oumnakil Thanakorn, 35, was sentenced to a year and three weeks’ jail on Tuesday (Oct 1).
The Thai national pleaded guilty to three charges including criminal breach of trust by dishonest misappropriation and instigating others to help convert his criminal proceeds, with another two charges taken into consideration.
The court heard that Thanakorn began working as a card dealer at the RWS Casino in December 2022. He was assigned to tables to deal cards and collect and distribute chips for games like pontoon, roulette and baccarat.
In April 2024, he began pocketing casino chips from the float, which is a dealer’s stack of chips on a game table.
At the time, he was the sole person entrusted with dominion over the casino chips in the floats of the gaming tables where he worked.
He would place one hand on the float and shield his hand from view by covering it with a piece of paper.
He would then remove a chip from the float – usually a S$1,000 chip, but occasionally a S$500 one.
After this, he moved his hand to his trousers and slipped the chip into his waistband, or through the zipper of his trousers.
Between April and July 2024, Thanakorn pocketed at least S$55,000 of casino chips in this manner on at least 29 occasions.
After obtaining the chips, Thanakorn wanted to exchange them for cash but knew it would arouse suspicion if he tried to do it himself.
He looked for people willing to help him and offered them a commission to secure their assistance.
Between May and July this year, Thanakorn met two women on seven occasions – Buengloy Ananyaporn and Techawattanasakul Warattharin.
He passed them casino chips at RWS, and they would enter the casino to exchange them for cash before handing the money to Thanakorn and receiving their commissions.
Ananyaporn helped exchange S$32,500 worth of chips, while Warattharin exchanged S$4,500. The money was not recovered.
At first, Thanakorn used the money to repay debts he had accrued in Thailand, and to support his daughter there.
However, even after repaying his debts and remitting money for his daughter, he continued committing the crimes and used the spoils for his personal expenses.
Court documents did not indicate how he was uncovered. He was arrested in July 2024, with the police recovering casino chips worth S$10,000 from his home, locker and on his person. No restitution was made.
The prosecutor sought 12 to 14 months’ jail for Thanakorn, noting that RWS had placed significant trust in him.
The penalties for criminal breach of trust as a servant are a maximum jail term of 15 years and a fine.
For converting criminal proceeds or instigating someone to do so, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to half a million or both.
