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Kansas City Man Rips off Casinos and Collects Food Stamps

The July 17, 2023, By Zane Plate

A former Kansas City man was driving a Hummer H3 and ripping off an area casino while at the same time collecting food stamps, according to an indictment.

Zhe Li, also known as Kevin Li, passed more than $100,000 worth of counterfeit gambling chips at the Argosy Casino in Riverside over a two-month period in 2008, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Kansas City. Li, now of Wichita, made his first court appearance earlier Wednesday in U.S. District Court there.

The three-count indictment alleges that Li, a 37-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from China, presented more than 1,000 counterfeit chips that were made to look like the distinctive, black $100 chips used by the Argosy Casino. The indictment says Li exchanged some of the chips for cash and used others to play table games such as blackjack. Li allegedly deposited thousands of dollars from the scheme into checking accounts for him and his wife and transferred more than $15,000 to a bank in Florida to pay off the Hummer that he had purchased.

The government alleges Li made a series of bank deposits in amounts of $10,000 or less to avoid triggering a requirement for the bank to report transactions greater than that to the federal government. The indictment says Li falsely told a Missouri Department of Social Services worker that his family didn’t have any money or vehicles, and the family received $2,547 in food stamp benefits.

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