Las Vegas Woman Who Married 14 Men to Fund $300,000 Gambling Habit Sentenced to Jail, Ordered to Repay Victims

LAS VEGAS — A woman who admitted marrying more than a dozen men she met online to swindle them out of money for her gambling habit has been sentenced to nearly a year in jail and ordered to pay more than $280,000 in restitution.

Clark County District Judge Crystal Eller ordered Jiaying Chen, 33, to serve nearly one year in the Clark County Detention Center, with credit for time served, Las Vegas television station KSNV reported.

Eller also placed Chen on probation for two years, with a suspended prison sentence of eight to 20 years. That means Chen could be sent to prison if she violates the terms of her probation.

Chen pleaded guilty in July to one count of bigamy and one count of attempting to obtain $100,000 or more by false pretenses under a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Defense sought probation

Chen's attorney, Thomas Wells, had asked the judge for probation only, arguing that his client truly wants to repay her victims and can only earn the money by working, according to KSNV.

Speaking through an interpreter, Chen told the court she plans to take a job at a friend's sushi restaurant in Florida.

Prosecutors had said the plea deal was structured to help the victims recover their losses.

"It will permit the victims of these crimes to provide restitution reports to the court and, ideally, get reimbursed from this defendant for the money she has taken," Austin Beaumont, chief deputy district attorney for Clark County, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the plea.

Marriage as a money scheme

According to police, Chen met men on social media and quickly suggested they get married. After the weddings, she would ask her new husbands for money, often claiming she needed to help a sick relative in China.

"Once Chen received the money she would break all communications with them," police said in an arrest report cited by the Review-Journal.

Some of the men later filed for annulments, while others told investigators they were still legally married to her.

One man told police Chen asked him for $23,000 to help a sick relative immediately after they wed. Two weeks after receiving the money, she told him she no longer wanted to be married, according to police.

Another man said Chen suggested they save money to buy a house together, so he gave her about $30,000.

"Once he gave the money to Chen, she stopped talking to him and he couldn't find her," police said.

Gambling losses at the Wynn

Investigators said the money did not go to relatives overseas. Instead, authorities said Chen lost more than $300,000 at the Wynn casino on the Las Vegas Strip in a single year.

Police said it "appears the money she has obtained goes to gambling and not relatives overseas."

Chen told police she "could make as much as $20,000 from one marriage," according to arrest records cited by the Review-Journal. She also said she did not always marry the men listed on the marriage applications she filed because "not everyone pays."

Exploiting Las Vegas' easy marriage laws

Las Vegas, known as the wedding capital of the world, has some of the most relaxed marriage requirements in the United States. Couples can obtain a marriage license without a waiting period or blood test and marry the same day.

Chen admitted to police in 2024 that she "only conducts the fake marriages in Las Vegas because it is so easy to get married," according to the arrest report.

From March 2019 to May 2024, Chen obtained seven marriage certificates from the Clark County Marriage License Bureau, the Review-Journal reported, citing a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.

Arrested, released, then vanished

Chen was first arrested in 2024 on multiple counts of bigamy and theft. After she was released, she disappeared, according to the Review-Journal.

Investigators said she then used the alias "Vicky Liang" to obtain seven more marriage certificates from Clark County. Authorities said she had a forged U.S. passport and Nevada driver's license in that name, both bearing her photo.

Police arrested Chen again on June 4 at a restaurant in the southwest Las Vegas Valley after investigators learned she was planning to meet a man there to discuss possibly getting married, according to KVVU-TV.

At the time of her arrest, detectives said Chen was married to six people simultaneously, with most of those marriages taking place within the previous three months.

Chen initially faced five felony counts of bigamy and two counts related to fraudulent checks before reaching the plea deal.

Victims left married

The case has left some victims in legal limbo. One man who gave Chen $30,000 told detectives he would remain married to her, according to police.

Under Nevada law, bigamy is a felony. A marriage entered into while one person is still legally married to someone else is considered void, but victims may still need to go through the courts to formally annul the marriage.

Authorities have not publicly identified the victims.

Restitution ahead

The restitution order requires Chen to repay her victims more than $280,000. It was not immediately clear how quickly payments would begin or how the court would monitor them.

Chen's attorney did not provide further comment on the case following the plea, and the Clark County District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the sentence.