{"id":2711,"date":"2016-08-06T13:54:58","date_gmt":"2016-08-06T17:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/?p=2711"},"modified":"2016-08-07T14:00:16","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T18:00:16","slug":"cocktail-waitress-pleads-guilty-slots-cheating-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/cocktail-waitress-pleads-guilty-slots-cheating-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Cocktail Waitress Pleads Guilty in $420k Slots Cheating Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/mohegan-sun-pocono-slot-machines-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"mohegan-sun-pocono-slot-machines\" width=\"270\" height=\"152\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2715\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/mohegan-sun-pocono-slot-machines-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/mohegan-sun-pocono-slot-machines.jpg 641w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/>A former cocktail waitress at the Mohegan Sun Pocono Casino will plead guilty in a slots scam that netted her and two accomplices $420,000.<\/p>\n<p>The waitress, Rochelle Poszeluznyj, conspired with a gambler and another employee to cheat slot machines at the northeastern Pennsylvania casino. <\/p>\n<p>According to federal prosecutors in Scranton, PA, Poszeluznyj collected player&#8217;s club information and gave it to the accomplice, Mark Heltzel, who used it to tally over $478,000 in free slots play.<\/p>\n<p>Heltzel then used this free play to win over $422k in real money, which he split with Poszeluznyj and Mark Pellegrini, Mohegan Pocono\u2019s vice president of player development. <\/p>\n<p>As we <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/mohegan-sun-employees-steal-slots\/\">reported in January<\/a>, Pellegrini was responsible for duplicating player&#8217;s club cards with the free play and distributing them to Poszeluznyj.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPellegrini had access to create duplicate cards using their name, card number and PIN,\u201d the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/national\/casino-thieves-steal-420k-mohegan-sun-slots-scam-article-1.2503014\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow\">New York Daily News<\/a> explained. \u201cIf 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcall.com\/news\/local\/police\/mc-pa--casino-free-slots-scam-20160802-story.html\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow\">McCall<\/a> reports that the signed plea agreement shows that the waitress will plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/mohegan-sun-pocono-slots-300x170.jpg\" alt=\"mohegan-sun-pocono-slots\" width=\"270\" height=\"153\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2716\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/mohegan-sun-pocono-slots-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/mohegan-sun-pocono-slots.jpg 566w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/>The maximum penalty for money laundering under federal guidelines is 14 years in prison, although this largely depends on the amount of money stolen.<\/p>\n<p>Poszeluznyj and her accomplice certainly stole a lot of money. But it&#8217;s unlikely enough to draw anywhere close to a maximum penalty. Plus, by striking the plea deal, she should see her incarceration time drastically reduced.<\/p>\n<p>Slots cheating incidents have gone down as computerized machines have become more advanced. But when there are employees working together to cheat a casino, it becomes much easier due to the inside access that they have.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, Pellegrini used his access to player club information to conspire with Poszeluznyj and Heltzel to bilk the Mohegan Sun Pocono casino.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former cocktail waitress at the Mohegan Sun Pocono Casino will plead guilty in a slots scam that netted her and two accomplices $420,000. The waitress, Rochelle Poszeluznyj, conspired with a gambler and another employee to cheat slot machines at the northeastern Pennsylvania casino. According to federal prosecutors in Scranton, PA, Poszeluznyj collected player&#8217;s club &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,11,4,82],"tags":[676,677,679,678,490],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2711"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2719,"href":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions\/2719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slotsmamma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}