A US woman who married 14 men in Las Vegas to fund her gambling addiction has been handed a jail sentence and ordered to pay over $280,000 (Rs 2.7 crore) in restitution. The woman, identified as 33-year-old Jiaying Chen, took advantage of Las Vegas’ lax marriage laws by tying the knot with men she met online before swindling them out of tens of thousands of dollars.
On Tuesday (Oct 6), Judge Crystal Eller ordered Chen to serve nearly one year in Clark County Detention Center, with credit for time served, in addition to the fine. Judge Eller said the punishment would be the best course of action to address Chen’s gambling addiction and prevent anyone from becoming a victim in the future.
“That having been said, I also do think that it would be appropriate for her to finish her one year in Clark County Detention Center so that she understands what looking at eight to 20 [years] in prison really looks like,” Eller said.
“In addition of the devastation that she’s caused so many families and so many people, I need to make sure that she understands the extent of this and what’s waiting for her if she does it again.”
Chen’s modus operandi involved meeting the men and quickly suggesting that they get married. She would then ask for money, often claiming she needed to help a sick family member in China, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Once she received the money, she would break all forms of communication with them
From March 2019 to May 2024, Chen received seven marriage certificates from the Clark County Marriage License Bureau. After being arrested in 2024 on multiple counts of bigamy and theft, Chen was released.
Afterwards, she used the alias Vicky Liang to obtain seven more marriage certificates from Clark County. After duping the men, Chen lost more than $300,000 (Rs 2.9 crore) at the Wynn casino on the Las Vegas Strip in the last year.
