A bizarre incident occurred at a casino where a customer was mistakenly given 100 million won in cash by a staff member, despite having already exchanged the exact same amount for gaming chips.
The customer, who received the money, even remarked to the staff at the time, "This doesn't seem to be mine." However, they ultimately kept the 100 million won and used it to pay off debts. An initial acquittal in the first trial was overturned to a guilty verdict in the appellate court.
According to legal circles on the 24th, the Chuncheon District Court Criminal Division 1-1 (Presiding Judge Lee Geun-young) overturned the acquittal of A (38), who was charged with embezzlement, and sentenced them to one year in prison, suspended for two years. The court also ordered 80 hours of community service.
The incident took place at the Kangwon Land Casino in April 2024.
A had deposited money at the casino, received a cash deposit certificate, and then exchanged 100 million won of it for gaming chips.
The problematic 100 million won was converted into chips just three minutes after the cash deposit certificate was issued.
Under normal circumstances, the settlement for that specific deposit certificate should have been considered complete at that point.
However, the incident began when a casino employee, while verifying the cash deposit certificates held by the company, failed to realize that the amount had already been exchanged for chips and mistakenly paid out 100 million won in cash to A.
As a result, the same 100 million won was paid out twice—once in chips and once in cash.
A was brought to trial on charges of failing to return the money and using it for personal purposes, such as paying off debts.
The first trial resulted in an acquittal.
The court reasoned that because A had deposited a total of 368 million won at the casino and had repeatedly received deposit certificates and exchanged them for chips, it was difficult to conclude that A definitively knew the additional 100 million won was money that had already been settled.
However, the appellate court's judgment was different.
The court placed significant weight on the fact that A exchanged the full amount for chips immediately after receiving each deposit certificate, including the 100 million won in question, which was converted just three minutes after issuance.
In particular, the fact that A told the employee "This doesn't seem to be mine" before accepting the cash became a key basis for the guilty verdict.
It was reported that A claimed to have been in a dazed state from gambling for three days and two nights without sleep.
However, the appellate court rejected this claim, noting that the VIP area closes every day at 6:00 AM.
The court cited the large amount of 100 million won, the fact that most of it was spent shortly after receipt, and the failure to reach a settlement with the victimized company as aggravating factors.
On the other hand, the court opted for a suspended sentence rather than prison time, taking into account that A had repaid approximately 77 million won in several installments between September of last year and August of this year, and had no prior criminal record for property crimes.
Beyond the issue of the customer's embezzlement, this case draws attention to the process that allowed 100 million won, already settled and converted into chips, to be paid out again in cash.
It raises questions about whether the procedures for verifying settlements—from the issuance and retrieval of deposit certificates to chip exchanges and cash payouts—are functioning properly in a casino where large sums of cash and chips change hands daily.
