Baccarat scam nets $300K from Wind Creek casino, police say
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Four people are being charged for participating in a six-person baccarat scam that cheated the Wind Creek Bethlehem casino out of $300,000, according to police.
Illinois residents Zu Lin, Yuhan Hu, Liping Zhou and Zhencan Chen were part of the six-person team that perpetrated the scam early Wednesday morning, according to court documents. They were detained and questioned at the Wind Creek Gaming Office around 7 a.m. after the two other members of the group — Fuxiang Liu and ringleader Qingyong Zhang — departed the hotel with a rolling suitcase, police said.
The scheme began at 3:52 a.m. on Wednesday, according to police, as the six men sat down at a baccarat table that Zhang had reserved on the Wind Creek casino floor. Using both body and card positioning while the deck was being cut, Zhang recorded the order of the cards by thumbing card corners and using his cell phone in his front-left pocket.
Not long after the group sat at the table, Zhang and Hu went to their individual hotel rooms, met at Hu’s room, then made their way back to the gaming table to play cards. Around 5:10 a.m., Zhang signaled to the other players to start increasing their bets.
Over the next half hour, according to police, the players continue to increase their bets at Zhang’s signal. The full table won bets on six hands, police said. All of them left the table at 5:47 a.m., police said. Zhang returned to his hotel room while the other five played different games around the casino, police said. Zhang and Liu left the casino while the other four were detained, police said.
Hu told police Zhang paid him $5,000 to participate in the scheme, while all the money won at the table went to Zhang. During the investigation, police learned that Hu and Zhou were involved in similar gambling rings in Illinois and Missouri, respectively.
The four that were arrested were hit with a felony corrupt organizations charge. Lin, Hu and Chen posted the $100,000 bail, but Zhou could not and is currently being held in Northampton County Prison. Lin’s lawyer has not responded to a request for comment.
Chen, 33; Zhou, 51; and Hu, 28; are each from Chicago. Lin, 37 is from Mount Vernon, Illinois.
Liu is 50 years old. Zhang is 38. Their addresses are not listed in court records.
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