Swiss casinoThe punishment has been meted out, fines and jail sentences up to two years for 6 casino gamblers. Over the period of a year from 2008 to 2009, conmen obtained about a half a million euros by using marked cards. A long jail sentence of two years was given to an Italian living in Tessin. He used to gamble in the casino and he lied all the time he was being charged. In contrast, his accomplices received sentences of between 300 days and 21 months with a 30 Swiss franc fine.
During the court case, they all admitted what they had done except for one person who worked in security in the casino. This person didn’t succeed in convincing the judge, Rosa Item and so he was sentenced to 14 months in prison. It was also decided that this person would be involved in reimbursing a part of the stolen money. His lawyer appealed this. The others have also all been sentenced to reimburse part of this amount. None of the accused couldn’t justify their actions and they each were severely punished in court.It was established that four of the accused were casino employees at the time of the events. One was a supervisor and the others worked in security. They claimed to be under the influence of the Italian. However that didn’t change what they were accused of. In fact, the judge said that at any point they could have alerted the administration or the police but they didn’t and so they would still be sentenced.

Roulette and Blackjack

Whereas they should have alerted the management, they preferred to get a part of the winnings. A choice that they paid for with more than a prison sentence. In order to win they played with marked cards and they allowed themselves to be voluntarily taken on a blackjack table by the dealer. The conmen already knew the cards played since marks were placed on these so they could easily recognise them. So it was a well thought out plan by the conmen.

In another way, there was also collaboration between the players and security at the roulette table. They had a particular way of cheating. A player said an incomprehensible colour or number and after that the supervisor would confirm that he had won at the table. Nobody noticed this fraud at the beginning. This co-operation between the players and the security men lasted almost a year before the casino spotted the cheating.

Some of the accused have come to agreements with the Lugano casino in order to reimburse the winnings they obtained. The casino made its accusations as a private entity during this court case. The court decided that each of the accused would reimburse a sum of up to 60 000 Swiss francs.