CHICAGO — A California man accused final yr of dishonest Chicago-area casinos out of $219,000 has lower a cope with prosecutors. Jianchu Liu, 48, who confronted a felony depend of dishonest at a playing sport, pleaded responsible to a lesser cost of misdemeanor theft on Friday.
Liu was initially accused of working with at the least one confederate to swindle the brand new Bally’s on line casino in River North and the Hollywood On line casino Aurora between September 12 and November 26, 2023.
Decide Laura Ayala-Gonzalez ordered him to pay $10,000 restitution to Bally’s and positioned him on a 12-month conditional discharge, in keeping with courtroom clerk entries.
Liu was additionally arrested for allegedly dishonest at a on line casino’s baccarat desk in Pennsylvania in February 2024. Safety officers on the Mohegan Solar on line casino in Wilkes-Barre keyed in on Liu when he launched an app on his telephone at a baccarat desk and darkened the display screen so safety couldn’t see what he was doing, in keeping with a report by On line casino.org. The outlet stated he positioned the telephone below a stack of scorecards that baccarat gamers use to maintain observe of video games.
When a seller supplied Liu the chance to chop the playing cards, he manipulated the deck, rapidly fanning it out so his telephone may seize a picture of the cardboard values and sequence, in keeping with the allegations.
Liu walked away from the desk after getting right into a “verbal alternate” with a baccarat seller about how the deck ought to be dealt with, On line casino.org reported. A couple of days later, Liu returned and allegedly “tried to forcefully fan [out]” a deck of playing cards.
The gaming information outlet stated officers imagine Liu despatched pictures of deck sequences to an confederate, who examined the photographs and offered Liu with betting directions by way of a hidden earpiece.
On line casino safety recognized him by means of his loyalty card and discovered he was suspected of being a part of a “skilled dishonest ring” that conned two casinos in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Days later, Liu was arrested at O’Hare to face expenses involving the brand new Bally’s on line casino downtown.
If Liu completes his probation efficiently, the misdemeanor cost might be dropped.
He was at the least the second particular person to be criminally charged with dishonest on the Chicago Bally’s on line casino because it opened in September 2023.
Early final yr, prosecutors charged Isaias Garcia-Martinez with putting a 200-to-1 wager at a Bally’s baccarat desk after the playing cards had been dealt and the end result of the hand was identified. The seller, not realizing he had positioned the wager after the sport was over, paid him $5,000, and he walked away, in keeping with the allegations.
Gaming brokers arrested him when he returned to the on line casino two days later. Garcia-Martinez pleaded responsible to felony theft final yr and acquired two years of probation, in keeping with courtroom data.
