Police are hunting a baccarat cheating ring that is thought to have made $1.5 million after targeting at least 10 casinos across the country.
Arrest warrants have been issued for six men in Indiana, named as Jianchu Liu, Fuxiang Liu, Qingyong Zhang, Honghui Wu, Daiqi Wang, and Yuhan Hu. The men, who are believed to be Chinese nationals, reportedly won over $700,000 at the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana.
Additionally, Liu is wanted in Pennsylvania on a warrant that charges him with two misdemeanor counts of winning by fraud or trickery. The group allegedly targeted Mohegan Pennsylvania, and Liu was caught on camera using his smartphone to launch an app that is believed to have been recording the order of cards.
After Liu placed the phone under a stack of baccarat scorecards, the dealer shuffled and allowed Liu to cut the deck. The player was seen to move the dealer’s hands around to “dictate how [the dealer] should be holding the deck,” according to police.
In addition to Indiana and Pennsylvania, the group is thought to have targeted New York casinos, as well as establishments in California, Illinois, and Mississippi.
Gang targeted inexperienced dealers
Investigators in Indiana interviewed a dealer at Hard Rock and suspected he may have been involved in the scam, however, after quizzing the casino worker, they concluded the group had targeted him due to his inexperience.
An affidavit filed in Indiana on June 2 explained that the dealer had been with the Hard Rock Casino for one year and had only learned weeks before that he was mistakenly allowing the group to cheat by briefly exposing the cards at the beginning of the game. Phone records showed he had never communicated with any of the members of the gambling ring.
The Times of North Western Indiana also reported that the men manipulated dealers when they were cutting cards, supposedly rifling or fanning the cards in a manner that was against casino procedure. This allowed the men to capture the order of the cards on secret devices; the operation then relied on using earpieces to relay information to players at the table, informing them when to place bets.
The group reportedly went around various Baccarat tables inside the casinos, searching for dealers that they could target. Suspicions were raised by casino staff when two of the men placed very large bets of $10,000 or $20,000 at the end of games.
The men remain at large, and it is not known whether they are still in the US or not. If they have returned to China, extradition back to the US may be complicated, particularly given current tensions between the Trump administration and China. The alleged crimes are said to have taken place between July 2023 and March 2024.
Adam is an experienced writer with years of experience in the gambling industry. He has worked as a content writer and editor for five years on sites such as Oddschecker, CoinTelegraph and Gambling Industry News, bringing excellent knowledge of the world of sports betting and online gambling. Adam focuses on emerging stories in the ever changing landscape of betting in the US. Read the latest on prediction markets, changing legislation, and sweepstakes.
