Agents probe six accused of card marking

Karen Zekan

Monday, Feb. 8, 1999 | 11:33 a.m.

Gaming Control Board agents are continuing their investigation into the activities of six men accused of orchestrating a playing card-marking scheme to cheat at a Harrah's casino blackjack table.

The board will seek charges of burglary, cheating at gambling and conspiracy to cheat against the men, authorities said. A court date is pending.

The evidence against them includes more than $27,000 in cash and chips that agents say they seized from the men when they were arrested Wednesday about 5:30 p.m.

Gary Orton, deputy chief of the enforcement division, declined to comment on the board's next steps in the investigation for fear of jeopardizing the case but confirmed that agents' work isn't over.

At the time of their arrest last week, at least two of the six men were wanted on warrants for allegedly passing bad checks in 1996 that drained $40,000 from four Las Vegas casinos.

More than 90 cards had been marked at the table where the gamblers allegedly attempted to rip off Harrah's last week, officials said.

During routine observations that evening, board agents claimed to have seen two men at a blackjack table mark 10 high-value cards -- an illegal act of tampering with the cards so that, when recirculated, each can be visibly distinguished in the deck before being dealt.

The two men, identified by the board as Jing Bing Liang, 34, of New York, and Kwong On Wong, 38, of Las Vegas, eventually left the table and met up with four other men briefly before the four men headed off to gamble at the same blackjack table.

Jing and Kwong were arrested moments later as they attempted to leave Harrah's. Arrested at the table with the marked cards were Kwok Cheung Chow, 34, of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Ing Ting Chan, 32, Liang T. Chan, 45, and Song Lin He, 36, of New York.

The cheating and burglary charges carry maximum six-year prison sentences and maximum fines of $10,000. The state's gaming statutes call for between one- and six-year sentences for felony conspiracy offenders.

Kwok was additionally booked on a warrant accusing him of passing bad checks worth $30,000 at the MGM Grand hotel-casino in June 1996. Kwong was wanted for allegedly passing non-sufficient funds checks totaling $10,000 at the Rio, Harrah's and Desert Inn hotel-casinos in 1996. He was released on his own recognizance on the charge this morning after a Justice Court hearing.

The cheating crimes for which the six men have been accused are how Orton said most card-marking schemes typically work.

"The process can take some time, depending on the amount of decks in the game at the time," Orton said. The card markers will leave the table and then the others will move in.

Card-marking is frequently attempted at local casinos, Orton said, "and some are more successful than others."

As many as six decks might be in play at any particular table. Card stacks are typically changed at the beginning of each shift and at any time a problem appears to have developed with the deck, Orton said.