The Macau government said in a statement this afternoon that local police are questioning the boss of a local junket company surnamed Chau who is wanted by their counterparts in the mainland for a string of alleged gambling-related offences.
According to the statement, which did not fully identify the person of interest nor his company, other people "involved" in the case were also being questioned by the local police.
The statement stressed that all those working in Macau's gaming sector "must rigorously abide by the national and local laws," adding that the Macau authorities are pursuing a "zero tolerance" approach" towards suspected breaches of the law.
The statement also underlined that while the current law on junket operators is "relatively perfect", future amendments to Macau's gaming law would further strengthen the supervision of gaming operators and their activities. The government launched earlier this year a public consultation of its amendment bill.
The statement also said that the local government has been notified by the relevant law enforcement agencies in Wenzhou that the people's prosecution office in the city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, issued an arrest warrant for a suspect surnamed Chau.
According to the notification quoted by the statement, Chau's operations in the mainland, which involved huge amounts of money, "caused severe damage to the social order of the country."
Local, international and Hong Kong media reports identified the suspect as Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, who founded and heads Suncity, Macau's reputedly biggest junket company. Macau's top-selling newspaper, the Chinese-language Macao Daily News, published a photo of Chau on the front page of its print edition today. Chau was reportedly born in Macau in 1974. The junket mogul is said to be one of Macau's richest persons.
The media reports said that Chau was being accused by the authorities in Wenzhou of illegal gambling activities in the mainland. Casino gambling is forbidden in the mainland.
Suncity reportedly runs VIP gambling operations in Macau and various jurisdiction elsewhere in Asia.
The reports quoted the authorities in Wenzhou as saying on Friday that Chau had set up a junket network in the mainland to assist mainlanders in illegally joining offshore and cross-border gambling activities. Allegedly, according to the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau (PSB), Chau's network even set up an asset management company in the mainland to enable gamblers to make cross-border remittances. The city's prosecutors urged Chau to surrender to the authorities as soon as possible if he wished to expect "leniency".
Junket operators are intermediaries between high-rolling gamblers, extending them credit and reportedly also collecting their gambling debts. Junkets also run VIP gambling rooms on behalf of Macau's casino operators. Junkets, which are licensed by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), reportedly employ, directly and indirectly, thousands of people in Macau.
Local gaming news outlet GGRAsia today quoted a Suncity spokesperson as saying that "all businesses are normally operating in accordance with the law and under the supervision of the Macau Special Administrative Region Government."
Meanwhile, Reuters pointed out in a report today that Suncity's Hong Kong-listed company, Suncity Group Holdings Ltd (1383.HK), does not include its junket operations.
Alvin Chau Cheok Wa poses in this undated file photo courtesy of MacauNews.
