January 20, 2016—Mohegan Sun Pocono Casino located in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania has suffered a loss due to an employee conspiracy. Two casino employees and a slots gambler allegedly cost the casino $900K in total losses. The former vice president of player development was charged Tuesday with conspiring with a cocktail server and a frequent casino guest to defraud the casino. The trio started with $478,100 in free slot play. They generated nearly $419k in winnings. This occurred between May 2014 and April 2015.
On January 20, 2016 it was announced Robert Joseph Pellegrini, Rochelle Poszeluznyi, and Mark Joseph Heltzel were charged. Pellegrini was the vice president. Poszeluznyi was a cocktail waitress. Heltzel would frequent the casino from Dallas, Pennsylvania.
The three individuals are facing 177 counts of theft, criminal conspiracy, identity theft, winning by fraud, misapplying trusted property, and computer trespassing.
According to a new paper report the scheme worked by Poszeluznyi collecting player card numbers and pins when she served drinks. She passed these numbers to Pellegrini who would duplicate the cards. He added free slot money to each one. The cards were then passed to Heltzel. Heltzel would use the cards at the casino slot machines and split the winnings with the other two. This is allegedly how the scheme worked.
The investigation began in April 2015 due to a tip off by a table dealer. Matthew Crane told officials of a scheme to defraud the casino, according to newspaper reports.
With the charges being brought against the three individuals the court case will begin soon to determine if the defendants will face consequences. This is one of the largest schemes in the US to affect a casino outside of Las Vegas. At this time, it is unknown if any of the individuals involved will try to plea out.