The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) fined Casino Woodbine $80,000 following allegations of a cheating and dealer collusion scheme at the Toronto property.
The fine comes after an April 2023 investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Investigation and Enforcement Bureau that included embedding within the AGCO. As a result, five people were charged and authorities allege a Woodbine electronic craps dealer worked in collusion with four other players.
“The AGCO’s Regulatory Compliance Branch subsequently conducted an in-depth compliance review to assess Casino Woodbine’s adherence to the Gaming Control Act, 1992 and Registrar’s Standards for Gaming,” the AGCO noted in announcing the penalty. “The Registrar found that Casino Woodbine failed to detect or take appropriate action on available information to prevent the cheat-at-play and dealer collusion scheme.”
Details on the Investigation
As part of the investigation, AGCO found internal Woodbine financial reports and emails indicating substantial and atypical losses from the electronic craps game over a six-month period of time. The commission indicated that those reports weren’t effectively acted on.
The report also notes that table games supervisors were often absent from the craps table in question when the cheating and collusion may have occurred. Video surveillance recordings show that the craps game failed to follow required rules and procedures, according to the AGCO, and lacked effective supervision.
“Although Casino Woodbine had issued the dealer with seven procedural violations for inappropriately pushing dice to patrons before closing bets, the dealer was allowed to continue dealing electronic craps during that time,” the report says.
Regulators said Casino Woodbine fully cooperated with the review and has committed to working at improving its control efforts. Ontario casino operators are required to implement effective controls to limit the risk of criminal activity, including cheating and collusion with staff. The AGCO will continue monitoring the property to make sure management addresses controls to better detect and prevent cheating.
This follows another recent cheating and collusion incident in Ontario. In August, the OPP arrested four people including a dealer allegedly involved in a similar scheme Pickering Casino Resort. Police allege the dealer “was in collusion with patrons.”
That investigation was also conducted in cooperation with the AGCO with Toronto’s Sandeep Sogi, 24, charged with criminal breach of trust, four counts of cheat at play, and four counts of fraud over $5,000.
Three more alleged accomplices were also arrested and charged with four counts each of cheat at play, fraud over $5,000, and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000. The Criminal Code describes “cheat at play” as when someone “cheats while playing a game or in holding the stakes for a game or in betting” with the intent to defraud another person.
Second Fraudster Sentenced for Bilking Ontario, Quebec Casinos
In other Canadian gaming news, 45-year-old Yuan Wang received a suspended sentence and three years of probation last week in Quebec for fraud charges related to scams conducted at several casinos in 2018.
The OPP investigated a series of frauds and attempted frauds at gaming properties in Ontario and Quebec involving Wang and at least one accomplice, and noted several similar incidents in Alberta and British Columbia, all totaling more than $2 million.
“The frauds would involve a casino patron (including at Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort) faxing or emailing a casino a copy of a bank draft from National Bank of Canada,” the Niagara Falls Review reports. “The casino would verify the drafts by calling the number written on the note, at which time a person posing as a bank employee would claim the draft was authentic.
“The funds would be deposited and the individual would then attend the casino and withdraw the funds in both cash and chips. The casino would later be notified the bank drafts were fraudulent. By then, the money was long gone.”
Wang, of Markham, Ontario, was taken into custody in 2019 along with Daud Srosh, of Brampton, Ontario. Srosh, 51, previously pleaded guilty to defrauding Fallsview Casino of $890,000, also receiving a suspended sentence and probation.
Defense attorneys for both argued that Wang and Srosh were dealing with major gambling addictions. Srosh is believed to have gambled away $4 million at Fallsview over the last few years. Wang also lost about $3 million as well. She also signed a self-exclusion agreement in Ontario, but instead traveled to Quebec to gamble.
Prosecutors noted that the pair caused serious damage to the casinos financially, even leading to a reduction in some staff.
“The Crown filed a letter from the Quebec casino, detailing the impact of the fraud, including financial losses, damages to its reputation and loss of jobs following an internal inquest,” the Review noted.
