Employee of Online Casino Company Accused of Cheating to Win $50,000 on Blackjack
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A 23-year-old Norwalk man who worked for a gaming company in Fairfield that hosts online casino dealer games is accused of cheating and defrauding DraftKings out of at least $47,000 by manipulating blackjack hands and placing bets, according to state police.
State police said the Department of Consumer Protection Gaming Division contacted the Statewide Organized Crime Investigative Task Force in January about an alleged cheating scam involving a dealer at Evolution in Fairfield.
Evolution is licensed by the state Department of Consumer Protection to host online casino dealer games within the DraftKings and FanDuel platforms, where players can play casino games virtually, but have the experience of a live dealer, through live video feeds, state police said.
The Department of Consumer Protection alleged that an Evolution employee who worked as a shuffler, preparing decks of playing cards while the dealer interacts with the players over the video feed, would use his access to card decks to memorize a series of cards or even manipulate a series of cards to then place favorable bets on the outcome, using three separate DraftKing accounts, state police said.
According to police, records showed one or more of the three DraftKings accounts he is suspected of controlling had a pattern of placing abnormally high bets after he had handled the cards.
State police said Evolution was alerted when one of the accounts the employee was believed to control was flagged for suspicious gaming activity from around July 2022 through December 2022 and they said records indicated that the flagged account was accessed through the same device the employee used to log into Evolution’s employee portals and view information like his work schedule or time sheets.
In all, Evolution estimates that the employee exploited his role as a shuffler during at least 26 different games, police said.
Detectives went through video surveillance and internal gaming documents and determined that he was manipulating blackjack hands to “facilitate advantageous online bets on multiple DraftKings accounts that he was operating” and was responsible for defrauding the platform out of at least $47,000, according to state police.
State police said he admitted to using his position to tamper with cards and place wagers on blackjack games as well as to controlling the three DraftKings accounts allegedly used to place bets on the blackjack hands.
He has been charged with larceny in the first degree and cheating and was released on a $50,000 bond. He is due in Bridgeport Superior Court on April 20.
