Macau casino junket magnate to await trial behind bars after being deemed flight risk in cross-border gambling, money-laundering case
- Alvin Chau and 10 others stand accused of being part of syndicate that facilitated gambling in mainland China
- The ring is said to have set up an illegal betting platform in the Philippines that allowed Chinese gamblers to place bets online
The head of Macau’s biggest casino junket operator will await trial behind bars after he was deemed a flight risk following his arrest, along with 10 others, over illegal cross-border gambling and money-laundering activities.
Alvin Chau Cheok-wa, 47 – the founder and CEO of the Hong Kong-listed Suncity Group – was placed in compulsory detention with four other suspects over the alleged offences, which are punishable by up to 12 years in prison, according to Macau’s Public Prosecutions Office.
The remaining six suspects have been released on bail, but are barred from leaving the casino hub, and must regularly report to authorities.
The compulsory detention order was revealed in a statement issued on Monday night that also gave details of the alleged operations of the Macau-based criminal gang.
According to the prosecutors’ office, the syndicate – which Chau stands accused of leading – set up an illegal betting platform in the Philippines featuring live video feeds of casino games that allowed mainland gamblers to place bets online, often for large amounts of money.
“The group used the bank accounts of companies in Macau to funnel illicit funds through underground banks,” the prosecutors’ statement said.
An initial investigation indicated members of the syndicate were involved in four offences: offering illegal gambling, money laundering, leading a criminal syndicate and being a member of a criminal group.
In Macau, being a leader of a criminal syndicate carries a maximum penalty of 12 years in prison, and being a member of a criminal gang is punishable by up to 10 years. Money laundering carries a maximum penalty of eight years, and offering illegal gambling is punishable by up to three.
The prosecutors’ office said the alleged activities had a serious impact on the lawful operations of Macau’s gaming sector and the stability of its financial order.
Macau police arrest casino junket king, 10 others over alleged gambling offences
Based on the interrogations of the 11 and the seriousness of the offences, “to prevent the relevant suspects from absconding, the criminal court accepted the prosecutor’s recommendation and imposed compulsory detention against Chau and the other four suspects”, the statement said.
The prosecutors’ office, which only identified Chau by his surname, did not clarify whether the criminal case had any link to Suncity Group.
A government source said Chau had been transferred on Monday to Coloane Prison, where he would be detained until his trial.
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Chau and the other 10 suspects were arrested on Saturday following a two-year investigation by Macau Judiciary Police. The arrests came a day after police in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou issued an arrest warrant for the junket magnate.
Prosecutors in Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province, accused Chau of being in charge of a gambling syndicate that “causes severe damage to the social order of the country”.
The syndicate was alleged to comprise 199 shareholder-level representatives and over 12,000 agents tasked with promoting gambling, and was said to have developed a network of more than 80,000 mainland bettors, according to Wenzhou authorities.
