A former baccarat dealer at Resorts World Sentosa, one of Singapore’s two casinos, was this week sentenced to 20 months in prison for stealing more than S$124,000 (approx. $90,000) in casino chips from his workplace to pay his debt to loan sharks.
Malaysian baccarat dealer Yeoh Zhong Cheng told court that he owed between S$80,000 and S$90,000 to loan sharks in Singapore and his homeland.
The now former Resorts World Sentosa employee began work at the casino in July 2017. Last summer, he was caught by the property’s overhead surveillance removing three chips from the float, a covered tray attached to a baccarat table that stores the playing chips. Each of the stolen chips was worth S$1,000.
Investigations followed to discover that the stealing dealer had taken chips worth more than S$124,000 on 28 separate occasions between June and July 2019. After taking them from the float and slipping them into his shirt, he would then hide them in his locker during his breaks.
Yeoh was unable to cash the chips himself as an employee at the casino, but he was found to have recruited accomplices – his younger brother, Yeoh Zhong Jie, and friend, Ooi Shi Chao, to do this for him. Yeoh and Ooi met eight times in June 2019 and the latter received chips worth S$30,600, according to court filings.
Yeoh’s brother was found to have received S$35,100 worth of chips in July 2019.
Stealing Dealer Could Have Been Handed Much Tougher Sentence
Yeoh could have received a much larger sentence, if he had not pleaded guilty to a lesser charge relating to breach of trust. The stealing dealer could have been sentenced to up to 15 years of imprisonment for misappropriation of casino chips and up to 10 years and a S$500,000 fine for each abetting charge.
It is unclear whether his brother and other accomplice are also facing charges. According to court filings, just three of all the chips Yeoh stole from the casino have been recovered.
Yeoh is not the only Resorts World Sentosa casino dealer to have been caught stealing chips from the gambling venue in recent years. In June 2019, a former dealer at the property was sentenced to nine months and six weeks in prison after he was discovered to have stolen S$77,000 worth of chips from the casino.
Ding Zhipeng, a Chinese national, also received a S$12,000 fine for his charges. He started work as a dealer at Resorts World Sentosa in July 2017. In November 2018, he was caught by a security officer stealing S$1,000 chips from his table.
He was arrested immediately and surrendered two chips upon his arrest that were hidden in his pants. A police search at his rented room produced 72 S$1,000 chips and S$3,000 in cash. It later on became known that Ding had recruited a friend to cash the chips for him. The stealing dealer was found to have used the money he stole to purchase luxury goods, including a nearly S$6,000 Breitling watch, a pair of Balenciaga shoes, a pair of Chanel earrings, and more.
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