Sydney casino workers face court after stealing thousands
A Sydney casino worker has been caught stealing $11,000 from a gaming table and stuffing them into his socks.
7News reports the Star Casino Sydney employee was found stealing the money as none of two incidents brought to light at the casino, resulting in the dismissal of two employees.
Footage of the incidents was played in court as the dealers faced the music.
The first incident saw a seated baccarat dealer shuffle chops onto the table using his right hand.
He then transfers them to his right hand before reaching under the table and stuffing them into his sock.
He reemerges, shows the camera there is nothing in his hands and carries on with his shift.
Over the course of a week last July, he took $11,000 off the table.
In a separate incident, another dealer overpaid a patron he knew $5000 on several occasions.
The customer handed him $1000 in cash but received $6000 in chips.
This took place on four separate occasions, meaning the customer was deliberately overpaid $20,000.
Both incidents were reported to the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority and resulted in court proceedings.
Their licences were also cancelled by the ILGA.
“A casino special employee is a licensee engaged to supervise and facilitate gaming activities,” ILGA chair Philip Crawford said in a statement.
“These people help safeguard the integrity of casino operations from criminal influences, serious misconduct or exploitation and a special degree of trust is placed in them.”
RSL manager who stole from pokies avoids conviction
A Victorian woman who stole money from an RSL pokies machine said she was diagnosed with a mental illness that led to her thieving.
The Herald Sun reported in February that Georgina Connell was sentenced to a 24-month adjourned undertaking to be of good behaviour at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on January 18, having pleaded guilty to stealing and falsifying a record.
Ms Connell was Watsonia RSL sub-branches gaming manager when she siphoned $13,000 out of the business between June 2018 and May 2019 by pocketing coins intended for the gaming business.
The dodgy employee took the coins instead of adding them to the machines, then updated the sub-branches online system so the records appeared as if the machines did contain the cash.
For the 12 months she was committing the crimes, 12 to 14 of the club’s 103 gaming machines were each found to have contained $300-600 less cash than records showed.
Ms Connell’s deception was uncovered when a fellow employee found her notebook in May 2019, which contained notes about which machines had the falsified records.
The Coburg woman then confessed to the crimes when she was confronted.
Ms Connell told police she had used the stolen cash to pay off her credit card bills and debts, but when she fronted court, her lawyer said she had been diagnosed with kleptomania, as well as depression and anxiety.
The lawyer said the diagnosis of kleptomania was very rare, with Magistrate Ian Alger agreeing it wasn’t often seen before the courts.
It is a condition when individuals are compelled to steal, even when there is little to gain.
The lawyer said Ms Connell didn’t know why she had stolen the money, with the theft purely motivated by the condition.
“She wasn’t doing this willingly, this was almost a drive to commit this offending, of a compulsive nature, of an obsessive nature,” the lawyer said.
It was submitted that Ms Connell had done everything she could to remedy the situation since being caught, having undertaken monthly counselling and repaid the entire $13,000.
