Norristown man pleads guilty in casino slaying

Mark Magee didn't trust Atlantic City casinos.

Yet the 58-year-old Pennsylvania resident regularly gambled at Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort.

On Monday, Magee admitted in court he stalked a Taj Mahal shift manager in May 2009 and shot him to death because he felt the city's casinos cheated customers by electronically controlling table games, authorities said.

The Norristown man pleaded guilty to murder in Superior Court in Atlantic County in the shooting death of veteran Taj Mahal employee Ray Kot, 57, the state Attorney General's Office said Monday.

"My belief is casinos, not just the Taj Mahal, but all the casinos in Atlantic City, are cheats," Magee said, the Associated Press reported. "I believe the tables are electronically controlled. I base that on 25 years of experience."

Magee is to be sentenced on Aug. 12. He was being held in the Atlantic County jail on $1.1 million bail.

Kot, his wife, and their teenage son lived in the Shires, an Egg Harbor Township development. On Tuesday, an Atlantic City street corner near the casino will be renamed in his honor.

In 1970, Kot arrived in the United States from China at the age of 18, without any family, unable to speak English.

He worked menial jobs at Boardwalk gift shops and in hotel restaurants, and saved money to bring his parents and two sisters to the United States.

He learned English at a community college and later earned an accounting degree from Rowan University.

In 1990, he took a job at the Taj Mahal, as one of its original employees. He worked his way up to gaming floor supervisor.

Magee knew Kot was the shift manager, officials said.

"I followed him all day, stalking him," Magee told the court about the shooting on May 27, 2009. "I was going to kill him."

That morning, Magee confronted Kot. He shot him three times in the torso with a five-shot .38 Special revolver loaded with hollow-point bullets, inside a card and dice room off the Taj Mahal casino floor, authorities said.

"I asked the security guard to move. I just walked in and shot him three times. I take full responsibility," Magee said.