{"id":243077,"date":"2022-11-14T20:02:49","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T02:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=243077"},"modified":"2022-11-14T20:25:35","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T02:25:35","slug":"suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Suncity Took $920M in Illegal Proxy Bets, Macau Cops Tell Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defunct Macau mega-junket Suncity generated US$920 million in illegal proxy bets between August 2017 and June 2020, according to the gambling hub\u2019s judiciary police.<\/p>\n

\"Alvin
Alvin Chau and Suncity did not fully divest themselves of proxy betting operations in 2016, as claimed, according to Macau police.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s despite its on-trial former boss, Alvin Chau, telling a Macau court<\/a> his company got out of the proxy business when the enclave’s government issued a guideline to ban it in 2016. It was officially outlawed in 2018.<\/p>\n

Proxy betting is where gamblers use a third party to place bets at a live casino. Bets are often arranged through mobile apps, and the results are relayed or video-streamed in real-time. As strange as it sounds, it\u2019s an attractive proposition for gamblers in mainland China, where there are no casinos.<\/p>\n

Underground Banking Channels<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ho Ka Weng, an investigator for Macau\u2019s Judiciary Police (PJ), testified Friday that Suncity facilitated illegal cross-border capital transfers equivalent to around US$165 million through underground banking channels for proxy betting. This was to circumvent strict laws against cross-border gambling and the movement of cash out of the mainland.<\/p>\n

\n

Chau, 48, is charged with 20 other defendants with illegal gambling, criminal association, fraud, and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As chairman and CEO of Suncity, he was one of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Macau until his arrest last November. The now-defunct junket company was responsible for an estimated 25% of Macau\u2019s VIP market segment revenue, which in 2014 alone would have been US$11 billion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Proxy Betting by Proxy?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Earlier in the trial, Chau admitted Suncity had been involved in proxy betting. But he claimed he had transferred the operation to a company called UE Group, owned by Chinese-Malaysian junket operator and poker player Richard Yong Seng Chen.<\/p>\n

Yong was arrested in 2014<\/a> in Las Vegas and pleaded guilty to operating an illegal World Cup betting operation out of a luxury villa at Caesars Palace.<\/p>\n

But Ho claimed this had now become a proxy betting operation by proxy, and that Suncity retained a 50% stake in the operation. He produced a financial statement prepared by a director of the Suncity accounting department, which he claimed proved this.<\/p>\n

Billion Dollar Tax Dodge<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Chau and Suncity are also accused of cheating the Macau government out of more than US$1 billion in gaming taxes by offering illegal side-betting operations.<\/a><\/p>\n

This involved the junket group allowing VIP clients to multiply stakes on bets placed at Macau casinos. These would be settled later, tax-free, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\n

The court heard last week that 62,588 multiplier bets for the total rolling turnover of around US$10 billion were processed. Those took place in 229 Suncity VIP rooms and gaming areas between 2013 and 2021. The figure was hotly disputed by Chau\u2019s lawyers.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On Friday, another PJ investigator, Lei Siu Ieng, testified that documents from the Suncity servers showed that 17 Suncity development projects were linked to the debt repayment of under-the-table betting.<\/p>\n

Final arguments are scheduled to be heard November 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defunct Macau mega-junket Suncity generated US$920 million in illegal proxy bets between August 2017 and June 2020, according to the gambling hub\u2019s judiciary police. That\u2019s despite its on-trial former boss, Alvin Chau, telling a Macau court his company got out of the proxy business when the enclave’s government issued a guideline to ban it in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":243078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069],"tags":[82344,51,82652,13692],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSuncity Took $920M in Illegal Proxy Bets, Macau Cops Tell Court<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alvin Chau and Suncity did not fully divest themselves of proxy betting operations in 2016, as claimed, according to Macau police.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suncity Took $920M in Illegal Proxy Bets, Macau Cops Tell Court\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alvin Chau and Suncity did not fully divest themselves of proxy betting operations in 2016, as claimed, according to Macau police.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court\/\" \/>\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=\"2022-11-15T02:02:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-15T02:25:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/sun.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\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=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court\/\",\"name\":\"Suncity Took $920M in Illegal Proxy Bets, Macau Cops Tell Court\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/sun.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-15T02:02:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-15T02:25:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Alvin Chau and Suncity did not fully divest themselves of proxy betting operations in 2016, as claimed, according to Macau police.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-took-920m-in-illegal-proxy-bets-macau-cops-tell-court\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/sun.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/sun.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Alvin Chau, pictured in 2016 above, was once one of the most powerful men in Macau. 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