Editor
An alleged baccarat cheating ring was broken up by Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, which says the crew had managed to steal upwards of $700,000. Six arrest warrants were issued from Lake County, Indiana, and criminal charges were filed on June 2 in a larger scheme to defraud more than ten casinos of $1.5 million.
Jianchu Liu, Fuxiang Liu, Qingyong Zhang, Honghui Wu, Daiqi Wang and Yuhan Hu have been charged with felony theft and cheating at gambling.
The crew is accused of manipulating the cards such that one member of the team could see the cards while they were being cut and record them with a phone or other device. Other conspirators would allegedly use paraphernalia like a score card or pack of cigarettes to block the view of surveillance cameras. One member would then leave the table, during which time the casino believes that they would review the footage and determine the order of cards in the deck.
Authorities say that after that player returned, two other members of the ring would increase their bets substantially, to $10,000 or $20,000.
Investigators observed the crew scouting for weak dealers. At first, they say they suspected one dealer of being a part of the crew. However, that dealer was determined to be inexperienced. They were absolved of any wrongdoing by cell phone records.
Alleged Targets Include Casinos Other Than Hard Rock
Illinois Gaming Agents banned the same six individuals from Bally’s Casino in Chicago. Casinos in five other states have confirmed that they lost substantial amounts of money by the same crew using the same method from July 2023 through March 2024.
Baccarat is a popular target for casino cheaters. It is often played for high stakes, and casinos may tolerate “superstitious” behavior that can mask cheating.
The poker world is familiar with that phenomenon. Phil Ivey and Cheung Yin Sun were caught in a baccarat scandal in 2012 that relied on a technique called “edge sorting.” Ivey and Sun won millions of dollars from London’s Crockfords Casino and the Borgata in Atlantic City.
Ivey and Sun didn’t face criminal charges of cheating, as their scheme exploited a pre-existing flaw in the cards’ manufacturing. However, civil courts sided with the casino. Ivey lost suits against Crockfords in 2012 and the Borgata in 2016 after both courts found he acted dishonestly.
Baccarat differs from many games in the casino by allowing players to handle the cards and even destroy them during play. The cards in Ivey’s case were printed with asymmetrical backs. Sun, feigning superstition, would rotate certain cards 180 degrees. That allowed Ivey to tell high cards from low ones after they were reshuffled, and thereby identify opportunities to bet profitably.
