Gaming monitor's motives queried

A new US-based website which promises to expose what it claims are 'dangerously weak' regulatory curbs on the influence of organised crime in Macau casinos has provoked an angry response from the city's gaming regulators, who accuse it of having 'questionable motives'.

Aping international online whistle-blowing organisation WikiLeaks, CasinoLeaks-Macau.com went live last month. It promises to expose links between organised crime and Macau's junket operators - the highly lucrative businesses that bring in the high-rolling gamblers who generate the bulk of revenue in the word's richest gaming destination.

The website says it spent almost a year gathering publicly available documents on the companies and individuals who own and run junket operations for the big American casino operators and their Asian competitors.

Last week it sent a 600-page dossier to US gaming regulators calling for an investigation into a specific junket operator. The website - which is backed by the International Union of Operating Engineers, a US trade union representing casino maintenance engineers - also accused the Macau authorities of 'disinterest in pursuing triad influence and involvement in the territory'.

In a letter sent with the dossier to Nevada Gaming Commission chairman Peter Bernhard and Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman Mark Lipparelli, website project leader Jeff Fiedler wrote: 'Our study, which is ongoing, reveals that the Macau regulatory regime is completely without rigour.

'In our opinion, the Macau system is dangerously weak and its acceptance as legitimate threatens to undermine the integrity of regulation in Nevada since Las Vegas casino companies are permitted to operate in both jurisdictions.'

The letter called specifically for an investigation of the Neptune Group and its affiliated organisations, which, says CasinoLeaks-Macau, have business relationships with five of the city's six casino 'concessionaires'. Calls to the Neptune Group for a response were not returned.