Losing gambler in Naga City holds up cashier but nabbed an hour later

NAGA CITY, Philippines—Dogged by a streak of bad luck all night long at a local online casino, a 51-year-old gambler decided to recoup his losses by holding up the establishment’s cashier at gunpoint and making off with P30,000 early Tuesday, police said.

But Domingo Abelinde could not shake off his bad luck. Senior Supt. Antonio Gardiola, Naga City police chief, said Abelinde was collared by police at a checkpoint in Barangay Balatas an hour after allegedly robbing the E-Games online casino establishment at the CBD Hotel here.

Gardiola said Abelinde, who had lost about P30,000 at the casino, was driving an old blue Mitsubshi Lancer (PJL-167) and was flagged down at the checkpoint. Police confiscated a .45-caliber pistol and two sachets of shabu from him.

A police source who requested anonymity as he was not authorized to give a statement, said that Abelinde felt that he was being cheated by the casino’s computer program so he decided to take his money back by forcing the cashier to hand over to him the cash in the drawer.

With help from two companions, Abelinde was able to disarm the security guard and take away the latter’s service firearm, police said.

The E-Games,  licensed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), has 20 computer terminals for its online games and operates from 10 a.m. to 6 a.m. daily, offering all casino card games among its 120 online games.

Gardiola said two persons aided Abelinde but police believe they were dropped off before Abelinde was flagged down at the checkpoint.

Police said an embarrassed Abelinde asked the establishment and the police not to inform the media about the caper, but the local media somehow got wind of it.