Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' Son Allegedly Involved in Baccarat Casino Scheme

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, on May 24, 2007, a plan to steal a total of $1 million from the Emerald Queen Casino Facility and the Nooksack River Casino Facility resulted in the indictment of several suspects living in Washington.

Among those people involved in the scandal is the son of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. The U.S. government alleges that the suspects paid casino employees to fix games by pretending that they are carefully shuffling the cards, thus, embezzling the casino out of millions of dollars in total profits.

In one indictment case, the government accused the suspects of bribing the mini-baccarat dealers at the Emerald Queen Casino in Fife to perform false card shuffles during the mini baccarat games.

In another case, 2 indicted suspects were at the Nooksack River Casino in Deming, which is managed by the Nooksack Indian Nation to do the false shuffling of the cards, according to government officials. However, when some of the cards in the decks are not properly shuffled, it is easier for the conspirators to know the placement of the cards and win money from the casino without any trouble.

The indictment also states that Jacob Dyson Nickels was the head boss at the Nooksack River Casino. He was given $5,000 to introduce the casino dealers to those that are indicted for joining the illegal false shuffle scheme that earned over $90,000.

The federal grand juries in Seattle and San Diego identified the 24 suspects as part of the cheating ring that targeted casinos in Southern California and Washington.

In the indictment filed by the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Jacob Nickels was included in the case, along with 2 other casino dealers and 2 additional suspects.

Mayor Nickels and his wife, Sharon Nickels issued a statement saying that they will continue to support their son in this difficult time and do all they can to convince and encourage him to fully cooperate with the investigators.

Thursday, June 07, 2007
Kate Foster