Four men were recently arrested at the port of Miami, Florida, on charges they used fraudulent credit cards to gamble at a cruise ship’s onboard casino.
Michael F. Emmanuel, 35; Tyrish Delgato, 38; Devin Jones, 28; and Quentin Marcellus Tuck, 32, were arrested upon disembarking the MSC Magnifica on Friday, August 23, police documents said.
The four were each charged with organized fraud, grand theft, and fraudulent use of a credit card. They were booked in Miami-Dade County Jail.
Police reports say the four are suspected of using fraudulent credit cards to book the cruise trip and to pay for chips on the ship’s onboard casino. The four seemingly got away with the illicit booking, but not the gambling. They were only discovered after their third attempt to get casino chips with a different card.
The Alleged Crimes
The four-day Mediterranean Shipping Company cruise departed Miami on August 19. It headed out to various islands in the Bahamas before returning to Florida.
Two of the men, Emmanuel and Delgado, arrived at the ship from the Boston area. Tuck and Jones are from Beaumont, Texas.
General casino gambling is illegal in Florida, outside of tribal operations, so the ship’s casino didn’t open until it reached international waters. That’s 12 miles off the coast.
Once on board, the four suspects apparently used three different credit cards to try to purchase casino chips. But their cards were declined each time.
That led staff to look into their financial history. They contacted the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, who found fraudulent activity related to several of the cards used.
The Bahamian authorities were then alerted, and the men were not allowed to disembark during any of the cruise’s stops. They were then arrested by Miami police upon returning to home port.
Upon searching the devices some of the suspects had brought aboard the ship, police found more evidence of fraud, including personal identifiable information from others.
It is not clear if any of the four have posted bail. Court video posted by NBC6 Miami shows Emmanuel being offered $10,000 bail. The charges could see each of the four spend up to 50 years in prison, depending on how much cash was involved.
Elsewhere this year in cruise ship gambling news, one man lost more than his freedom when he jumped to his death from a cruise in Sydney, Australia. That was after allegedly racking up $10,000 in debts at the onboard casino.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
