ABERDEEN, S.D.-Three men who were part of an elaborate $10,000 blackjack table scam on New Year's Eve at the Dakota Sioux Casino near Watertown, S.D., have been sentenced.
Pit boss Lito Bolocon, 44, of Sisseton, S.D., and frequent casino blackjack player Jordon Rondell, 29, of Lennox, S.D., appeared before U.S. District Judge Charles B. Kornmann in federal court on Monday, Nov. 20, and each received a sentence of six months in custody and were ordered to pay $8,700 in restitution to the gaming establishment.
Blackjack dealer Jeremy Kris Brown, 43, of Sisseton, was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution for his role in the conspiracy.
The three were all convicted of conspiracy involving theft by employees of a gaming establishment on Indian land.
According to plea agreements, the South Dakota U.S. Attorney's office said that in December 2015 the defendants devised a plan to cheat the casino five miles north of Watertown on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation and operated by the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Sioux Tribe.
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The plan was for Rondell to make a large sum of money from illegitimate winnings paid by Brown and Rondell would then pay off the others.
Rondell cashed out about $10,000 in chips from the casino early New Year's Day in 2016 after playing on New Year's Eve and into that morning at Brown's blackjack tables, which were supervised by Bolocon.
Bolocon, as pit boss, oversaw Brown's dealing to Rondell.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI, the United States Attorney's Office, and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Sioux Tribe's Gaming Commission