HONG KONG – Shares in Macau casino operators plunged yesterday after police said the head of the gambling enclave’s largest junket operator had admitted to running illegal betting activities overseas.
Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, head of Suncity Group, was taken in for questioning on Saturday after mainland authorities announced they had issued a warrant for his arrest. He was remanded in custody yesterday.
Macau police said their investigation was separate from the mainland’s and was the culmination of their own two-year investigation into the group’s activities.
It is the first time such a high-profile figure from Macau’s gaming industry has been arrested, with plans announced by the government in September to strengthen the sector’s regulatory framework.
Suncity Group Holdings Limited, which reportedly accounts for some 40 percent of the mostly mainland Chinese high-rollers who come to gamble in Macau’s casinos, suspended trading in its shares yesterday, according to a statement filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Macau’s six major casino operators also saw their share prices dive.
MGM yesterday led losses at nearly 10 percent down, followed by Melco and Wynn at some eight percent down. SJM closed down seven percent while Galaxy and Sands closed down five percent.
The vast majority of gamblers in Macau are mainlanders and junket operators like Suncity arrange for high-rollers to come to the special administrative region for gambling.
But Macau police have accused Chau and 10 others of setting up an illegal cross-border gambling and a money-laundering syndicate that enabled mainland Chinese to illegally place bets online.
Prosecutors in the mainland city of Wenzhou have launched a separate investigation accusing Chau of running an illegal gambling syndicate and causing “severe damage to the social order of the country”.
Junket operators in Macau have their licences renewed annually and Suncity’s is reportedly due in January.
President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign has seen increased scrutiny of high-rollers and corrupt officials who might travel to Macau both to place bets and launder money.
In September the government announced plans to put its representatives on gaming operators’ boards to oversee their dealings, and to put an end to underground banking in the industry, a move that caused a plunge in casino operator share prices at that time.
Macau’s three gaming concessions and three sub-concessions are slated to expire next June. – AFP, MPD
