Casino operator Las Vegas Sands has been accused of violating US federal anti-money laundering (AML) rules by a pair of Chinese housekeepers.

Sands is attempting to collect $6.4m it claims are gambling debts run up at the company’s Venetian and Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas by Xiufei Yang and Meie Sun, Chinese citizens who work as housekeepers in Nevada.

But attorneys representing the two women claim Yang and Sun were acting as ‘shills’ who solicited credit from the casinos on behalf of Chinese high-rollers who didn’t want their names associated with gambling activity.

In court documents viewed by Reuters, Sun claimed that a VIP host at the Palazzo told her in 2009 that she could receive between $2k to $3k in exchange for signing her name to casino markers and sitting beside Asian high-rollers who bet big on baccarat in Sands’ VIP rooms. David told Sun that she wouldn’t be held liable for the IOUs. Yang said she was offered a similar deal in 2011.