The Mafia And Me
TLWR: Met the mafia; lost $20; still alive.
This is not a normal blog post. It doesn't have pretty pictures, and the story takes place over the course of 24 hours.
As I headed out to the riverside in
hopes of finding a French café with actual coffee, I was
stopped by a pair on a motor bike asking where I was from. The
woman, Ember, asked to speak with me about Canada as her sister was scheduled to
travel there as part of a nursing exchange program. After chatting for a bit
about housing prices and other living costs on the street corner, they invited
me for lunch and to talk to the sister. A windy route through Phnom Penh
sandwiched between two Filipino’s yelling questions through the wind eventually
led to a gate, followed by a set of stairs with a little apartment at the top.
During the ride, the thought of
disappearances in big cities did occur, and I momentarily wondered if I was on
my way to being sold in to sex slavery. That said, everyone seemed normal and
warm smiles and hellos were exchanged all around.
Upstairs I found myself seated on a
white couch and matching chairs set with a horror movie– possibly Carrie–
playing on a little TV in the corner.
A simple but delicious meal of rice
and pork followed by mango saw us through a number of topics, from Canada's
population to life in Phnom Penh, and eventually to work.
Now here's where things get
interesting. Uncle, or rather Rudi, seemed to be in charge. He told me he
was a dealer at a local gambling house, but ran his own little side business in
which he hosted games for 2% of the winnings as opposed to the usual 5% that
his workplace took. It seems both Rudi and the local casino specialized in BlackJack–
or 21 as he perfered to call it. For those who don’t know, the highest hand, up
to the number 21, wins the round.
He then offered to teach me the system
he used that guaranteed a win. Starting my defense now, I’m Canadian, I’m
polite, and I think I was on drugs. Back to the story: While playing a few friendly rounds–
no money involved– Rudi told me about how one of his clients had recently
played a game at his place in which he won 60K. However, instead of paying the
proper 2%, the man had paid him $200 and told him to be happy with that.
I was then asked to participate in a
little game to win Rudi's money from the business man; Ember would be playing the
game as my “tourguide”– I was able to help– and we both would know all the
cards and therefore know when to bet and when to fold.
I have no idea how I agreed, but in
any case, a few minutes later the 'business man', Mr. Asis, showed up.
Before starting we promised all
smiles. Thus the light banter carried over the entire playing period.
[A quick note: Most of this text is taken straight from
one of my journal entries, thus I apologize if it’s a little jumpy and the
tense is occasionally confusing and continually changing]
The game numbers started going up; I
gave my last $20– I kept $5 for dinner that night– then "borrowed" money
in credit written on paper.
I wish I could say for certain
something was in the food or drink they gave me– which I might note they barely
touched– because I really would like to think I'm not a complete idiot.
We went into the last round all
smiles, three of us exchanging winks, then the road bump surfaced. I’d thought
we were just playing to win the $2K that was, as Rudi would tell it, entitled
to him, and then we’d stop. Turns out that wasn’t the case and Mr. Asis
suddenly pulled tens of thousands of dollars from his briefcase. Rudi and Ember
were both nodding at me to continue as we had a guaranteed win– I had 21 and
Mr. Asis had 20. Also, backing out at this point would mean owing Rudi his $200
and likely all of the borrowed credit as well.
Before turning the cards Mr. Asis
wanted to see the counterpart of his money upfront. In cash.
At this point I really wished I’d continued
on my way to the riverside, sat down at a nice café, and been re-enacting an
entirely different kind of movie scene. I'd also like to note here that when we started I didn't believe I was getting anything for playing Robin Hood and helping the poor take their due from the wealthy.
Self defence over now, back to the story.
Of course I didn't have that kind of
money – note were talking over $38K… I did say I was intelligent earlier,
right? After some debate we put the game on hold for a few hours during which I
–that is to say, Rudi and I– was supposed to procure the money to show Mr.
Asis.
Sonny and Ember took me to a Canadia
bank where they tried to get me to take money out. When that didn’t work they
took me to a sketchy “Gold store” where we tried again to take money out.
Thankfully I had my accounts set up so well that even I could barely ever
access funds, and so nothing came of that. They told me to call my bank. It was
midnight at home. My bank was closed.
I was eventually returned to a corner
right by my hostel after agreeing to keep trying overnight to contact my bank
to increase my limit so I could take out 10K. The plan was to get the money,
meet in the morning, and finish the game.
Back in the hostel I looked up
"Cambodia Blackjack Scam". That quick Google search revealed me
to be insanely naive, and, most likely a result of the extremeness of said
naivety, lucky.
I called my mother. Twice.
The second time was to tell her to
delete the panicked and likely incomprehensible voicemail I left her.
Then, as I’d promised the Fillipino
Mafia, I called my bank. I called the bank more times than I called my mom.
A huge thank-you to Katherine, who
accompanied a terrified stranger to a box on the road– I was worried I was
being watched, either so that I couldn’t escape, or so that they could rob and
kill me the moment I got money out.
After all that, I had two canceled
bank cards, a probably not at all reassured mother, and a terror of sleeping.
The calls began at 7:23am and
continued until I finally put my phone on airplane mode. The first text was from
Ember at 9:28am telling me that they were at the corner to pick me up– this
came just as I was leaving the hostel.
Despite their intentions, I felt
badly for ignoring a few dozen calls and wrote a text– which I sent once I was
finally out of Phnom Penh. It read:
Thank
you for lunch but I'm unable to continue playing your game.
I'm sure your friend with the money will
understand. I'm sorry you only made $20 off of a day’s worth of acting, but I'm
also quite glad I only lost that. Assuming my bank info has been recorded I'll
save you the trouble of trying to get anything; the cards are canceled.
One last note: the Internet knows about you so
consider taking it easy for a bit to avoid being caught.
Morale of the story: while people are
generally good at heart, be cautious, and if invited for lunch in exchange for
talking to a sister/niece about your country, don't go; or if you do go for the
free lunch, hope there's nothing in it, and whatever you do, DO NOT GO IN TO THE
BEDROOM. Did I mention the game was played in a bedroom behind a closed door?
If you know anyone traveling to SEA please share this with them. This scam seems to be extremely common
xoxo –EmmaSkye
Note: While my story takes place in Phnom Penh, these guys, or at least others like them, are active throughout much of SEA. For more reading on this scam see Laurelbury's Holiday In Cambodia post which details a nearly identical situation to my own, but with larger losses. There's also an article on CNN Travel on the Blackjack scam in Vietnam, and another more personal story written by Kristin on Take Your Big Trip.
1 comments
I had to read more after you told me! This sounds so similar to my friend's story. Apparently it happens a lot now that I Googled it and they're really really good at what they do. That's a lot of effort they put into scamming, too bad they can't use that effort on something more helpful to society :\
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