The house always wins in the end, but that rule of gambling didn't stop a young croupier and five friends stealing more than $85,000 from Crown Casino's tables.

Exploiting his position of trust as a dealer on the casino's Sic Bo tables, Tony Che ensured his friends made a series of wins by rolling the game's three dice inside a tumbler, concealing the actual result and then falsely recording the rolled total as 17.

Tony Che was 'too smart by half' according to his lawyer. Credit:Eddie Jim

In Sic Bo the odds of rolling 17 with three dice — two sixes and a five — are long enough that the house pays out at a rate of 60:1. So when Che's friends bet $100 on 17 coming up, they pocketed more than $6000 each time.

Over five shifts in September and October last year, Che and his co-accused — who were all friends from either high school or university — won $85,848, Melbourne Magistrates Court heard on Thursday.