Casino cashier caught on video stealing P1M worth of tokens

An employee of a casino in Pasay City who just wanted to get back at his bosses ended up in jail after he was caught on camera stealing more than P1 million worth of chips and a gaming plaque.

Jay-Ar Quilaton, a 28-year-old cashier working at Resorts World Manila, was charged with qualified theft at the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday.

Chief Insp. Raymund Liguden, head of the Pasay City Police investigation division, said Quilaton was seen in a surveillance video taking a gaming plaque worth P1 million from a casino safety deposit box and hiding it in the sleeve of his uniform.

Another security camera showed him dropping and picking up the plaque and hiding it in his underwear in an apparent bid to avoid detection by security personnel.

Gaming plaques and chips are used in casinos instead of money. While chips are circular in shape, plaques are usually rectangular and commonly used for high stakes table games.

An investigation showed that Quilaton took the gaming plaque while he was conducting an inventory of deposits placed inside the safety box at 6:40 a.m. on July 8.

In a complaint affidavit, Fritzgerald Padilla, vice president for security of Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. which owns and operates Resorts World Manila, said they learned about the crime when they discovered that the deposits were short of one plaque worth P1 million.

He added that when Quilaton reported for work on July 11, he admitted that he was the one who took the plaque after he was shown the surveillance video.

“He also admitted to taking chips worth P100,000 apart from the casino plaque worth P1 million,” Padilla said in his complaint-affidavit.

Quilaton was placed in the custody of casino security personnel who later turned him over to the police.

In a written statement in which he confessed to stealing the plaque and gaming chips, he apologized to his superiors and the casino management.

Quilaton said he had no intention of exchanging the chips and plaques for cash. “I even thought of throwing it away at the Pasig floodway,” he added.

According to him, he was just mad and wanted to get even with his managers after they scolded him and embarrassed him in front of other people.