{"id":191391,"date":"2021-11-05T15:18:43","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T22:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=191391"},"modified":"2021-11-05T15:33:49","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T22:33:49","slug":"chinese-cops-bust-massive-250m-tigre-de-cristal-junket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/chinese-cops-bust-massive-250m-tigre-de-cristal-junket\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Cops Bust Massive $250M Junket Funneling Gamblers to Tigre de Cristal, Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese authorities say they have disrupted a \u201ccriminal gang\u201d that operated an underground \u201cindustrial chain,\u201d organizing trips for Chinese high rollers to Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal<\/a> casino.<\/p>\n

\"suncity\"
Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal, close to the border with northeast China, is controled by Hong Kong listed mega-junket Suncity. (Image: Suncity Group)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to the public security departments of Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, the capital involved in the junket operation was around 1.6 billion yuan, or about a quarter of a billion US dollars.<\/p>\n

A joint taskforce from the two provinces arrested 142 suspects, following an investigation that spanned more than 30 cities in 12 Chinese provinces.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the operation comprised 18 shell companies, four undergrounds banks, and ten travel agencies. Police seized more than 4,000 bank cards during the investigation and interviewed 2,963 gamblers.<\/p>\n

Gambling Crackdown<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The two provinces are in the far northeast of China and straddle the border with Russia, close to where the Tigre de Crystal is situated.<\/p>\n

The casino opened in 2015 in Russia\u2019s Primorye special economic zone, close to Vladivostok, precisely to attract wealthy Chinese gamblers across the border.<\/p>\n

Except for state-owned lotteries, all gambling is illegal in China. In recent years, Beijing has come down hard on those who offer and promote cross-border gambling to its citizens.<\/p>\n

The central government is determined to prevent capital flight from putting pressure on the foreign exchange rate. And the illegal movement of money abroad for the purposes of gambling has become a big part of that problem.<\/p>\n

\n

China\u2019s Ministry of Public Security said that about 1 trillion yuan (US$145.5 billion) flows out of the mainland into gambling activities every year. This was a \u201cthreat to the country\u2019s economy and national security,\u201d it warned.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Last year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced it had drawn up a blacklist of foreign travel destinations that promoted casino gambling to mainland citizens.<\/p>\n

Suncity Property<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Tigre de Cristal is controlled by Hong Kong-based junket group Suncity<\/a>, which, as of last year, owns an almost 70 percent stake in the casino\u2019s parent company, Summit Ascent Holdings Ltd.<\/p>\n

Suncity is the biggest junket operator in the world. It is not named in any of the reports coming out of China and has declined to comment on the situation.<\/p>\n

Beijing is no fan<\/a> of Suncity. In 2019, the state-run press agency accused the company of reaping billions of dollars through offshore online gambling operations that were illegally targeting the Chinese mainland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chinese authorities say they have disrupted a \u201ccriminal gang\u201d that operated an underground \u201cindustrial chain,\u201d organizing trips for Chinese high rollers to Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal casino. According to the public security departments of Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, the capital involved in the junket operation was around 1.6 billion yuan, or about a quarter of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":191392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChinese Cops Bust Massive $250M Tigre de Cristal Junket<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chinese authorities arrest 142 people for being part of a huge underground junket operation with connections to Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chinese Cops Bust Massive $250M Tigre de Cristal Junket\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chinese authorities arrest 142 people for being part of a huge underground junket operation with connections to Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/chinese-cops-bust-massive-250m-tigre-de-cristal-junket\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-05T22:18:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-05T22:33:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/suncity.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"961\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/chinese-cops-bust-massive-250m-tigre-de-cristal-junket\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/chinese-cops-bust-massive-250m-tigre-de-cristal-junket\/\",\"name\":\"Chinese Cops Bust Massive $250M Tigre de Cristal Junket\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/chinese-cops-bust-massive-250m-tigre-de-cristal-junket\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/chinese-cops-bust-massive-250m-tigre-de-cristal-junket\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/suncity.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-05T22:18:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-05T22:33:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Chinese authorities arrest 142 people for being part of a huge underground junket operation with connections to Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/chinese-cops-bust-massive-250m-tigre-de-cristal-junket\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/chinese-cops-bust-massive-250m-tigre-de-cristal-junket\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/chinese-cops-bust-massive-250m-tigre-de-cristal-junket\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/suncity.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/suncity.jpg\",\"width\":1440,\"height\":961,\"caption\":\"Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal, close to the border with northeast China is controled by Hong Kong listed mega-junket Suncity. 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