Hieu Duc Lam, a former baccarat dealer at Star Sydney Casino, was caught colluding with another employee and patron to cheat the casino. He was captured on CCTV memorizing cards and using a secure messaging app on his phone to inform his accomplice of the card order. This scam resulted in a loss of AUD467,700 (£249,939/€291,843/US$343,905) for the casino in less than a month.
Lam was sacked and convicted of 15 counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage in the Local Court of New South Wales – Downing Centre. He was sentenced to an aggregate term of imprisonment of two years, starting from 9 July 2021 to 8 July 2023, and was ordered to perform 250 hours of community service work. Furthermore, the New South Wales Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) cancelled Lam’s gaming licence.
ILGA chair Philip Crawford stated, “A casino special employee is licensed to supervise and facilitate gaming activities. Their role is to help safeguard the integrity of casino operations from criminal influence, serious misconduct, or exploitation, and a special degree of trust is placed in them. This case demonstrates a clear breach of that trust.”
This incident follows the dismissal and conviction of two other employees in March for attempting to steal over $30,000 in gaming chips. In December last year, two other staff members at the facility were banned from casinos in New South Wales for five years due to serious misconduct. One gaming attendant, who admitted to having gambling issues, was found to have placed 28 bets on a gambling app while on shift, while an off-duty games dealer was caught disposing of illicit drugs in a public area of the casino.
