Wynn Macau staff charged with spreading $6m chip thief identity

Wynn Macau’s $6m chip thief remains at large, but three people who spread his face on social media are under arrest.

On Tuesday, an unidentified Macau casino croupier reportedly walked out of a Wynn Macau VIP gaming room carrying a paper bag containing HKD47.9m ($6.1m) in stolen chips. On Thursday, Macau Business reported that the suspect was a 50-year-old male named Lei, who made off with 30 chips worth HKD1m apiece, plus an assortment of smaller-value chips.

Word of the internal theft first broke via social media posts that included a ‘wanted’ style poster with Lei’s name, photo and other personal data. The police denied releasing this information themselves, and on Thursday announced they’d arrested three individuals responsible for circulating the images.

Macau Business reported that these three individuals also worked at Wynn Macau, including a male administration clerk and two female croupiers. Macau’s Judiciary Police (PJ) said the identifying document in question “was sent exclusively to the security department in charge of overseeing casino incidents [and was] not for public access.”