Singapore Casino Dealer Gets Prison Time for Sleight of Hand Scheme

Posted on: October 2, 2024, 04:32h. 

Last updated on: October 3, 2024, 10:16h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

A croupier at one of Resorts World Sentosa’s approximately 450 live dealer table games will spend the next year and three weeks in a Singaporean prison after he pleaded guilty to theft.

Singapore casino dealer Resorts World Sentosa
Women play a table game inside Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore in a 2010 file photograph. A former dealer at the Genting casino has been sentenced to a year in prison for stealing gaming chips while on the job. (Image: Reuters)

Prosecutors in the Southeast Asia island city-state say Oumnakil Thanakorn, 35, a migrant from Thailand who had worked at the casino since December 2022, orchestrated a scheme to steal tens of thousands of dollars from the integrated resort casino.

Thanakorn recently pleaded guilty to three charges, including the most serious offenses of criminal breach of trust by dishonest misappropriation and criminal breach of trust as a servant. Thanakorn was facing 25 years in prison and fines. However, prosecutors sought a lighter sentence of 12 to 14 months after Thanakorn agreed to enter a guilty plea.

After serving his sentence, it’s expected that Thanakorn will be deported back to Thailand.

Casino Swindler

Singapore law enforcement didn’t detail how Thanakorn’s illicit scheme was exposed, but in the indictment, evidence of how the table game dealer siphoned money from the casino owned by Malaysia-based Genting Group came to light.

Prosecutors said Thanakorn used sleight of hand to regularly slide gaming chips that the house had won into his hand. Utilizing a piece of paper in one hand, the dealer reportedly slipped the gaming tokens into his pants.

He approached two female gamblers whose table game play he was facilitating to help him launder the money by giving them the chips to cash out in exchange for a commission. An investigation determined that the risky operation went unnoticed by the casino’s vast security surveillance from May through July 2024.

In hindsight, casino footage captured Thanakorn reportedly performing the brazen act on at least 29 occasions. The croupier is thought to have pocketed at least S$55,000 (US$42,572) that rightfully belonged to Resorts World Sentosa.

Thanakorn dealt baccarat, roulette, and blackjack. The two women — Buengloy Ananyaporn and Techawattanasakul Warattharin — were also charged in the sting. Ananyaporn is allegedly caught on camera exchanging S$32,500 of the chips and Warattharin S$4,500. Their cases will next be tried in court.

During a raid of Thanakorn’s residence in Singapore, police found the remaining Resorts World Sentosa chips. Thanakorn conceded that much of the illegal proceeds were sent to Thailand to help his family pay down debts.

Prosecutors and Resorts World don’t expect restitution other than the chips seized. 

Dealer Scandals 

The Resorts World Sentosa casino dealer theft is the latest criminal scheme to hit a Singapore gaming floor.

Last fall, Casino.org reported on a roulette dealer at Marina Bay Sands conspiring with a gambler to tip the odds in the player’s favor and share in the winnings. Sands dealer Soh Xuan Rong and gambler Daniel Koh Tze Zhou were each sentenced to 28 weeks in prison for stealing S$3,545 ($2,744).

Soh pleaded guilty to approaching Koh after seeing him only betting on the numbers 32, 15, and 19. Soh said he could spin the wheel a certain way to make it likelier that those numbers hit.

Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands control a duopoly on Singapore’s highly regulated casino industry.