Authorities have uncovered a plot at Mohegan Sun Pocono Downs (Luzerne County, PA) that netted two employees and a third person almost $420k in illegitimate slots winnings.
From May 2014 to April 2015, employees Rochelle Poszeluznyj and Robert Pellegrini colluded with Mark Heltzel to run an elaborate scam involving free sots play.
Poszeluznyj, a cocktail waitress, would have some customers pay for drinks with their player’s card. She then handed the cards off to Pellegrini, Mohegan Pocono’s vice president of player development, who’d create duplicate cards and give them to Heltzel.
“Pellegrini had access to create duplicate cards using their name, card number and PIN,” reports New York Daily News. “If the player had $300 worth of comped free slots play on the card, Pellegrini would increase the amount higher, say to $800. Pellegrini would then give that card to Mark Heltzel.”
The money was made by Heltzel playing slot machines with the free play and racking up winnings. NY Daily reports that Heltzel was careful not to exceed the free play added by Pellegrini to avoid alerting the cards’ owners.
The trio spent around $480,000 in free play to collect $419,000 in fraudulent money. All three suspects are expected to turn themselves in for arraignment very soon.
People have used many ways to cheat slots over the years, including Tommy Carmichael and his various methods. But rarely is slots cheating the work of an inside job, as in the case with Pellegrini and Poszeluznyj.
It’s unclear exactly how Pennsylvania State Police and Mohegan Sun were able to figure out that the trio was cheating. However, it seems that investigators are satisfied enough that cheating did indeed occur to charge the three individuals.