Did a man die after winning a $4 million jackpot at Marina Bay Sands Casino?

By June 27, 2024 Society

We came across multiple social media posts and news articles making claims regarding an event captured in the following images:

The post on X features a 22-second long video, while some other posts feature a 14-second long video from a slightly different angle showing the same event.

The video shows a man sprawled on the ground next to what appears to be a poker or baccarat table. A few casino tokens are scattered on the floor next to the man, who appears to be unconscious. Worried friends or family are gathered around the man and are exclaiming loudly.

Casino staff appear to be helping to control the crowd and calm the associates of the man. One staff member can also be seen towards the end of the video to be initiating cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in an attempt to resuscitate the man.

The clip ends with unidentified voices with Singaporean accents telling the crowd and the person taking the video to move out of the way.

The event was reported in various international news publications, including British tabloids such as the Daily Mail, The Mirror and The Sun, the conservative American news site Breitbart, Australia’s News.com.au, Indian news outlet New Delhi Television (NDTV) and the Jordanian news site Al-Bawaba.

We also found social media posts about the event on X (where it appears to have originated), Reddit, HardwareZone and the Sammyboy forum.

Inconsistent Reports

When we investigated the story, we found that it had yet to be reported in major local media outlets, including The Straits Times, CNA and Today Online. The New Paper, however, reported on 27 June that the story was fake without providing details to support its assertion. The news has also been reported in Gutzy Asia, formerly The Online Citizen, which now operates from Taiwan. Marina Bay Sands had not yet released an official statement on the matter at the time of writing.

Upon examining the news reports, we found that details of the event varied among the different publications.

All of the news reports directly or indirectly—by quoting other sources—suggested that the man had collapsed as a result of falling unconscious after cardiac arrest (heart attack).

Many social media posts and some news articles, such as the one in the International Business Times, also reported that the man had died after suffering a heart attack ‘caused by the overwhelming excitement’ of winning the jackpot. Almost all sources indicated that the man had won S$4 million in the jackpot.

However, some sources did not include the detail that the man had died, and suggested instead that the man was in recovery. Most of these sources attributed their finding to the industry news sites Casinos.com or Casinos.org.

While Casino.org did not indicate the reasons for their assertion that the man was recovering, Casinos.com reported that a Marina Bay Sands Casino spokesperson had refuted the claims made regarding the man’s ‘death’ and the jackpot win. The spokesperson was quoted as follows:

“We would like to clarify that the news being reported and the video circulating online is factually untrue. It is understood that no guest died in Marina Bay Sands’ casino after winning $4 million or £300,000. There was a guest who had fallen unconscious in the casino, but he is alive and in recovery. The guest did not win $4 million or £300,000. Unfortunately, the fake news has spread, and the video still circulating online is causing some distress to the guest’s family.“

Casinos.com stated that no official statement was provided by the spokesperson, and neither was there any confirmation that the man had suffered cardiac arrest.

While we were not able to confirm the accuracy of the statement quoted by Casinos.com, our investigations did not reveal any sources that corroborated the details of the claim regarding the ‘death’ and jackpot win. Given the inconsistencies in the details reported across the various sources and the quote attributed to the spokesperson, we find that the claims regarding the ‘death’ and jackpot win are likely false.

Based on our observations from the video, while it appears to be true that a man had collapsed and fallen unconscious at a casino in Singapore, there is no evidence to support the key details of the claim, that the man had died and that the cause of his collapse had been due to cardiac arrest from excitement after winning a jackpot.

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