2023 has proved an interesting year for the gambling industry, and even more so with the countless crime stories reported.
As we now count down the days until 2024, let’s take a look back through the last 12 months of crime. Here are the top five most shocking crime stories in 2023.
5. Florida man gambles sports camp funds
In October, a Florida federal jury found Mehdi Belhassan guilty of two counts of wire fraud after he collected $380,000 from at least 303 families meant for sports camp tuition. He used the stolen money for gambling and plastic surgery and is now facing 20 years in prison.
Belhassan also took $190,000 in advance payments from a commercial finance firm and an online payments company. He allegedly said he would be running a sports camp at a college in Boston between July and August 2019.
Belhassan used the funds for plastic surgery, vacationing to Las Vegas casinos, and adult entertainment.
However, when he started collecting the money in 2018, Belhassan used the funds for plastic surgery, vacationing to Las Vegas casinos, and adult entertainment.
4. Gang hides drugs in a slot machine
Finding places to stash drugs is a tough job for dealers, but when one group of criminals thought they had found the perfect spot in a slot machine, police proved them wrong.
In August, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) struck it lucky on a Choy Sun Returns slot machine following a raid on suspected arms dealers in Melbourne. AFP officers found 100 grams of suspected methamphetamines, 4.7kgs of Butanediol, and other chemicals to make illegal drugs within the slot.
The arrest of the two suspected arms dealers, Sime Govic and Ralph Sapin, came as a result of an Australia-US investigation. According to the AFP, Govic and Sapin are part of a criminal syndicate that attempted to import firearm parts from the US into Melbourne over a three-month period.
The AFP said they found fake IDs, drugs, .223 ammunition, and a rifle magazine. The maximum penalty for all the charges against the pair includes up to 10 years in prison.
3. Embezzlement for a luxury lifestyle
South African accountant Hildegard Steenkamp found her luxury lifestyle stripped away from her after she was convicted of embezzling R537m ($27.9m) from her employer, Medtronic to fund her lavish life.
siphoned the money from her former employer by copying payments to real clients
In August, it was reported that Steenkamp allegedly started taking the money six months after joining Medtronic, lasting for a period of 13 years. She’s reported to have siphoned the money from her former employer by copying payments to real clients and paying the money into her deceased husband’s account.
Over the years, Steenkamp used the money to fund overseas travel, jewelry, fashion items, and, most significantly, gambling. In one instance, Steenkamp lost R5m ($260,507) gambling in one night, while some of her thefts topped R20m ($1m) in a single month.
2. Grandfather kidnaps grandchild
In one of the most shocking stories of the year, in April, a 65-year-old grandfather caused a social media storm in China after kidnapping his four-year-old granddaughter. The reason? So he could demand a ransom of ¥500,000 ($72,500) from his daughter to pay off his gambling debts.
she wouldn’t see her four-year-old again if she didn’t pay him the money
The man threatened his daughter, saying that she wouldn’t see her four-year-old again if she didn’t pay him the money. Instead, his daughter reported him to police, who arrested him for extortion. When he was in prison, the man blamed everything on his daughter, claiming that she didn’t want him to get better and that she was “ungrateful.”
Many expressed their outrage on social media, with one person claiming that the grandfather was a “useless father.”
1. Hacker group targets MGM
While all of our other stories are shocking, our final crime headline takes the number one spot in 2023. In September, hacker group ALPHV took responsibility for a cyberattack on MGM Resorts International which caused a shut down of the casino giants systems across its Las Vegas properties.
Causing mass disruption, it left withdrawals inactive, slot machines unusable, and hotel guests unable to check-in. Unwilling to pay the ransom requested by the hacking group, MGM had to work with the FBI to combat the hack and get its systems back on line – all the while the casino giant was losing cash day-by-day. The company reportedly lost around $100m as a result of the incident.
it is unclear if the group has released the sensitive data of guests online
ALPHV said it wasn’t aware if it had stolen any sensitive data from MGM guests; however, it warned that if it didn’t hear from MGM, it would release all data online. According to reports, MGM never paid that ransom, so it is unclear if the group has released the sensitive data of guests online.
Caesars Entertainment also suffered a hack from ALPHV, which saw the casino paying out millions to avoid a shut down similar to MGM’s. In that instance, the hacker group demanded $30m. It was reported that Caesars paid half of this.