Encore Boston Harbor Casino dealer, card player stole $15K in cheating scheme, AG says

An Encore Boston Harbor Casino dealer and a gambler were found guilty of stealing $15,000 in a cheating scheme, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office announced Friday.

A Middlesex County jury convicted Jianming Li, a card dealer from Delaware, and Jun Na Zhang, a baccarat player from New York, on two counts of cheating and swindling more than $1,000 and one count of larceny over $1,200 by a single scheme, according to the AG’s office.

The cheating scheme occurred on two different dates in late October and early November 2019 in the high-limit section of the Everett casino, an indictment indicated.

“The scheme involved Li fanning exposing cards to himself, memorizing the sequence of cards, and then communicating that sequence to Zhang,” the AG’s office said in a news release.

Zhang’s illegal winnings on the two nights were said to be about $15,000.

The court imposed a 364-day committed house of correction sentence, suspended for two years for Li, and a 364-day committed housing of correction split sentence, six months to serve in the house of correction, suspended for two years for Zhang.

The AG’s office said that the casino was cooperative with the multiple law enforcement agencies that investigated the cheating scheme.

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