A Nepalese man who visited the two casinos here and marked playing cards to increase his chances of winning was yesterday sentenced to five months in prison.
Limbu Aadarsh, who is here on a social visit pass, used the "card daubing" technique on high value cards so he would know which ones to bet on when playing games such as poker and blackjack.
The 30-year-old applied coloured powdery substances to the back of playing cards when he got the chance to handle them. This was done either by hand, or using modified cash chips that would deliver the substances. In this manner, Aadarsh managed to win more than $6,000 from the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa casinos between last November and March this year.
But the ploy was discovered after he used a modified chip in a losing bet and a croupier noticed the irregularities on it.
A raid of his hotel room turned up numerous items used in the scheme, such as bottles of greenish and greyish powdery substance, tape, needles, playing cards and instruction books.
Aadarsh yesterday admitted to one charge of possessing a device that facilitates cheating, and four charges of using an item for the same purpose. Nine other counts of the latter were also taken into consideration.
Urging the court to impose various jail terms for each of the five charges, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ailene Chou said he had not acted opportunistically.
The DPP said he had gathered the items, some of them from overseas, and "methodically" proceeded to cheat while gambling.
District Judge Toh Yung Cheong agreed, noting Aadarsh needed to get various raw materials to hatch the plan. Aadarsh could have been jailed seven years and fined up to $150,000 for each of the charges he faced.
