Blackjack dealer convicted of theft from casino
Theft for Love

A Mystic Lake Casino blackjack dealer was caught on security camera cheating the casino by paying attractive women for loosing hands.

On January 20, Judge Diane Hanson sentenced Mr. Jacob Christensen, a blackjack card games dealer at Mystic Lake Casino, Minnesota to 80 hours of community service and three years of probation. Mr. Christensen was ordered to return $18,720 to the casino after pleading guilty to gambling fraud on January 6 in a Scott County District Court.

Casino cameras caught Mr. Christensen, who at the time worked as a blackjack dealer, paying women who played blackjack at his table, on loosing hands. Police examined the surveillance tapes and a pattern was quickly uncovered of Mr. Christensen repeatedly paying women on loosing hands as if they were winning hands. Mr. Christensen quickly confessed, claiming he only rewarded women he felt were ‘good-looking’ on the hands they lost even if he did not know them.

The investigation revealed that Mr. Christensen gave a total of $3,875 to one woman, $9,500 to another who was the daughter of his landlord, and $5,075 to a third woman, as reported by casino gambling news. Mr. Christensen claimed that he wanted to impress and meet attractive ladies and that greed or criminal intent were not part of his motive.

Police experts brought into evidence a large number of suspicious checks written from the daughter of the suspect’s landlord to himself over a number of months. The judge eventually chose to believe the love struck suspect by giving him a lenient sentence. In addition Mr. Christensen has been placed in the ‘Black Book’, which bans him for life from traditional casinos excluding online blackjack casinos. All other individuals police suspected of being involved were not charged with any crimes.