When the house doesn’t win: Crown croupier busted stealing $85K from tables

The house always wins, but apparently that’s not always the case at Crown Casino in Melbourne.

One of the casino’s croupiers, Tony Che, pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges of five counts of obtaining property by deception, The Age reported. Authorities said the 21-year-old was the mastermind of a scheme that netted him and his friends more than $85,000 from the Crown Casino’s Sic Bo tables.

According to the report, Che, who had worked at the casino since he was 18, orchestrated a series of wins, in which he concealed the actual result of dice in his hand and then manually entered his preferred number—17—on a board. Che’s friends allegedly pocketed more than $6,000 each time they bet $100 of 17 coming up, since the house pays out a rate of 60:1 for that number.

Che took 65 percent of the winnings, or about $55,000, until he was busted by the casino’s security, who “found irregularities in the Sic Bo results.” A review of the casino’s CCTV cameras revealed Che’s scheme, the news outlet reported.