Fake Chips Scam: Macau Casino Loses $700K to Fraudsters
Xenia Luch
28 August 2023
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A casino in the Cotai district of Macau was the target of a scam that cost it at least $700,000, as a group of fraudsters used fake chips to play and exchange with other patrons.
The Macau police have nabbed two Chinese fraudsters who used fake chips to scam a casino in the Cotai district, and are hunting for 6 more. The group raked in at least 5.675 million patacas (about $700,000) in just 2 hours at the casino. The police are still digging into the case, and the casino’s losses could be even bigger.
The scammers, who came from mainland China, had hundreds of fake chips with them. They used them to play and exchange with other patrons.
The scam was busted by a sharp-eyed dealer who noticed that the chips had a rough surface. He also found out that the chips lacked the electronic chips that verify genuine gaming tokens.
When the fraudsters realized that they were caught, some of them quickly left the casino and escaped to mainland China. The police arrested 2 of them and found 182 unused fake chips worth 10,000 patacas (about $1,240) and 19 real chips that they had obtained. Ten casino patrons were affected by the fake chip exchange.