Leader Of Casino-Cheating Criminal Enterprise Sentenced To 70 Months in Prison

If you’re a gambler who believes that the house always wins, think again. It may take an organized criminal effort to beat them, but casinos aren’t invulnerable. Consider that yesterday, Phuong Quoc Truong was sentenced for his role in a scheme by the "Tran Organization" to cheat casinos across the United States. In his plea agreement, Truong admitted that he and his co-conspirators had unlawfully obtained up to $7 million during card cheats. 

Truong was sentenced to 70 months in prison and three years of supervised release and ordered him to forfeit $2,791,146 and to pay $5,753,416 in restitution, payable to several casinos. The court ordered the forfeiture of Truong’s interests in various assets, including two houses in the San Diego area, two properties in Vietnam, a 2001 Porsche Carrera, a Rolex presidential watch, and a diamond-encrusted pendant.
 
Truong pleaded guilty on April 2, 2008, to conspiracy to participate in the affairs of a racketeering enterprise. Truong was also sentenced on a separate indictment to which he pleaded guilty after agreeing to transfer the charges to San Diego from the Western District of Washington. The indictment related to card-cheating activity at Emerald Queen Casino, which is an Indian gaming establishment in the State of Washington.
 
In his plea agreement, Truong admitted that in approximately August 2002, he, with his co-conspirators, created a criminal enterprise defined in the indictment as the "Tran Organization," based in San Diego and elsewhere, for the purpose of participating in gambling cheats at casinos across the United States.
 
According to three indictments, the defendants and others executed a "false shuffle" cheating scheme at casinos in the United States and Canada during blackjack and mini-baccarat games. The indictments allege that members of the criminal organization bribed casino card dealers and supervisors to perform false shuffles during card games, thereby creating "slugs" or groups of unshuffled cards. The indictments also allege that after tracking the order of cards dealt in a card game, a member of the organization would signal to the card dealer to perform a "false shuffle," and members of the group would then bet on the known order of cards when the slug appeared on the table. By doing so, members of the conspiracy allegedly repeatedly won thousands of dollars during card games, including winning several hundred thousand dollars on one occasion.
 
The indictments also allege that the members of the organization used sophisticated mechanisms for tracking the order of cards during games, including hidden transmitter devices and specially created software that would predict the order in which cards would reappear during blackjack games.
 
To date, 37 defendants have pleaded guilty to charges relating to the casino-cheating conspiracy. These defendants admitted to targeting, with the aid of co-conspirators, a combined total of approximately 27 casinos in the United States and Canada during the course of the conspiracy, including:
 
1) Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Miss.;
2) Casino Rama, in Orillia, Ontario, Canada;
3) Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Conn.;
4) Gold Strike Casino in Tunica, Miss.;
5) Horseshoe Casino in Bossier City, La.;
6) Horseshoe Casino and Hotel in Tunica, Miss.;
7) Isle of Capri Casino in Westlake, La.;
8) Majestic Star Casino in Gary, Ind.;
9) Mohegan Sun Resort Casino in Uncasville, Conn.;
10) Palace Station Casino in Las Vegas;
11) Resorts East Chicago Hotel and Casino in East Chicago, Ind.;
12) Sycuan Casino in El Cajon, Calif.
13) Cache Creek Indian Bingo and Casino in Brooks, Calif.;
14) Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash.;
15) Imperial Palace Casino in Biloxi, Miss.;
16) Argosy Casino in Baton Rouge, La.;
17) Trump 29 Casino in Coachella, Calif.;
18) Isle of Capri Casino in Bossier City, La.;
19) Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, Calif.;
20) Spa Resort Casino in Palm Springs, Calif.;
21) Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif.;
22) L'Auberge du Lac Casino in Lake Charles, La.;
23) Nooksack River Casino in Deming, Wash.;
24) Barona Valley Ranch Casino and Resort in Lakeside, Calif.;
25) Caesars Indiana Hotel and Casino in Elizabeth, Ind.;
26) Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas; and
27) Harrah’s Casino in Lake Charles, La.