Sometimes the house doesn’t win. Recently the Casino du Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, Quebec was defrauded out of $1 million by two con men who reportedly employed much the same scam across Canada.
The police report described how in August one of the men pretended to be a high roller asking for a cash advance—one that would be guaranteed by a bank draft. The con man’s partner pretended to be the financial institution guaranteeing the advance.
The advance was given and both men vanished. One person has been arrested in the case, a 52-year-old resident of Ontario, who will have his first day in court on December 12 on charges of fraud and using forged document.
However, there are apparently dozens of others involved in “The Sting” like operation. Although they duped casino officials in several other Ontario casino, they ran up against a brick wall in Alberta and British Columbia.
Loto Quebec is the state-owned monopoly that oversees gaming in the province. It did not go public with the fact that it had been hit. An internal investigation determined that the fraud was not committed in house. Instead, the casino was vulnerable due to neglecting security protocols already in place.
This led to both disciplinary measures and some firings, said a spokesman for Loto Quebec. This is not the first time that Casino du Lac-Leamy has been duped in this way. In 2009 it lost $100,000 to a gang from Sri Lanka who used fake debit and credit cards.
