{"id":100538,"date":"2025-10-11T06:03:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T06:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/live-casino-maryland-vip-host-pleads-guilty-to-comp-scheme\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T06:03:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T06:03:04","slug":"live-casino-maryland-vip-host-pleads-guilty-to-comp-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/live-casino-maryland-vip-host-pleads-guilty-to-comp-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Live! Casino Maryland VIP Host Pleads Guilty to Comp Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"post-content__sub-title\">\n        Posted on: October 10, 2025, 05:40h.\u00a0\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"post-content__sub-title\">\n        Last updated on: October 10, 2025, 05:40h.\n    <\/p>\n<div class=\"post-info-panel\">\n<div class=\"post-info-panel__author-holder js-open-close\">\n<div class=\"post-info-panel__author-logo\">\n                <img alt=\"Avatar photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-4-1-50x50.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-4-1-100x100.png 2x\" class=\"avatar avatar-50 photo\" height=\"50\" width=\"50\" decoding=\"async\"\/>            <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A former VIP host at Live! Casino Hotel Maryland has pleaded guilty to theft<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The host loaded free promo play on phony rewards cards and gave them to accomplices\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr\/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A former VIP host at Live! Casino Hotel Maryland in Anne Arundel County near BWI Airport has pleaded guilty to his involvement in a comp scheme that cost the resort over $20,000.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_364836\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-364836\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-364836\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_1188459586-858x572.jpg\" alt=\"Live! Casino Hotel Maryland promo theft\" width=\"858\" height=\"572\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_1188459586-858x572.jpg 858w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_1188459586-430x287.jpg 430w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_1188459586-302x200.jpg 302w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_1188459586-238x158.jpg 238w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_1188459586-194x128.jpg 194w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_1188459586.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-364836\" class=\"text-description\">Live! Casino Hotel Maryland is pictured. A former VIP host at the casino near Baltimore\u2019s international airport has admitted to stealing promotional play through a conspiracy with three other bad actors. (Image: Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In May, <i>Casino.org <\/i>reported on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/live-casino-maryland-hosts-accused-of-stealing\/\">criminal complaint<\/a> filed in Anne Arundel County District Court charging Sonejah Richards, 27, of Forestville, and Allen Hill, 26, of Washington, DC, with felony and misdemeanor theft and identity fraud.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Prosecutors alleged that Richards and Hill created at least 30 phony My Live! Rewards accounts and loaded the bogus cards with more than $20,000 in free slot play. Charging documents accused the duo of conspiring with two others, who then used the cards on slot machines at the casino.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This week, Richards conceded his involvement and pleaded guilty to two counts of theft of between $100 and $1,500. In exchange for his plea, Richards will not serve any prison time but two years of supervised probation. He\u2019ll also need to pay the casino $9,848 in restitution by Oct. 7, 2027.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/10\/10\/live-casino-theft-scheme-guilty-plea\/\"><i>The Baltimore Sun <\/i><\/a>first broke the news of Richards\u2019 plea deal.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scheme Cost Casino<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It\u2019s unclear if Hill is also working with prosecutors to resolve the similar charges against him. Hill\u2019s county court records do not show any scheduled hearings or events. The two unnamed individuals who played the free slot money have not been charged.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Casinos regularly provide their loyal patrons with complimentary slot credits. Some states, including Maryland, allow casinos to deduct promotional revenue, or free credits won back by the casino, against their gross revenue.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Maryland State Lottery Commission and Gaming Control Agency has proposed amending its regulations that allow the six video lottery casinos to deduct up to 20% of the total promotional play they win back from players. According to the proposed statutory change, as published in the Maryland Register last December, there would be \u201ca significant increase in gaming taxes paid\u201d if the promotional credit tax deduction were eliminated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The state gaming regulator is also of the opinion that casinos will continue to issue similar levels of promotional play without the tax deduction benefit.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Commission and Agency believe that the Video Lottery Facility Licenses will continue to offer non-tax-deductible promotional play to players as a marketing and customer acquisition tool to attract and retain customers. If Video Lottery Facility Licenses maintain their current levels of promotional play or even reduce their promotional play spending without eliminating it entirely, even though they can no longer deduct it, players will still be able to enjoy promotional play offerings by the licensees,\u201d the proposed action read.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The state gaming agency fielded input from operators and the public earlier this year. No final action has been taken. The promo reduction would also apply to online sportsbooks.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\">Live! Slot Taxes<\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The state taxes slot revenue at Live! Casino Hotel Maryland at 51%. Of the state tax money, 36% to the Education Trust Fund. About 6% goes to horse racing, 5.5% is earmarked for local impact grants in Anne Arundel County, and 1.5% goes to small, minority, and women-owned businesses. A racetrack fund and the state lottery each receive 1%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Live! keeps the remaining 49% of its slot gross gaming revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/live-casino-maryland-vip-host-pleads-guilty-comp-scheme\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posted on: October 10, 2025, 05:40h.\u00a0 Last updated on: October 10, 2025, 05:40h. A former VIP host at Live! Casino Hotel Maryland has pleaded guilty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gambling"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}