Four local men – one of them a dealer – were arrested on Monday for their alleged involvement in a fake HK$100,000 casino chip case, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a regular press conference on Wednesday.
The four suspects are a 28-year-old casino dealer surnamed Pun; a 30-year-old man surnamed Man who told the police that he’s a real estate agent; a 56-year-old businessman surnamed Lok; and a 66-year-old retiree surnamed Wong.
According to Lei, the security department of a casino in Cotai called the police at about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday saying that they had intercepted three males for their suspected involvement in a fake HK$100,000 cash chip case.
Under questioning, Man told the police that his friend, Pun, the casino dealer, contacted him on August 27 and told him that he had a HK$100,000 cash chip. Pun told Man that due to new casino regulations he was unable to cash the chip as it had no gambling record in the casino. So Pun asked Man if he could use the chip to gamble in the casino and cash it after gambling, for which he offered Man HK$20,000 as “commission”, according to Lei.
According to Lei, Man discussed the offer with his friend, Lok, and both agreed that they wanted to take this chance to earn the “commission”.
Man and Lok met Pun in a casino in Zape to get the chip on Sunday, after which Lok went to gamble with another friend, Wong, in a casino in Cotai. They used the HK$100,000 to get 10 HK$10,000 chips and then started to gamble. They won HK$36,000.
Lei said the cage cashier later discovered that the HK$100,000 chip was a counterfeit. They alerted security guards who then intercepted Lok and Wong in the casino, and later they also caught Man who had gone to the casino to join his two friends. Afterwards, the security department reported the case to the police.
According to Lei, PJ officers arrested Pun at his flat in Zape on Monday. Pun claimed that a few days ago someone told him during an online chat that he wanted to sell a HK$100,000 cash chip as he needed to urgently pay back some debts. Pun said he had bought the chip for HK$50,000. At the time of Wednesday’s press conference, PJ officers were still investigating the origin of the bogus chip.
The quartet have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge, according to Lei.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei poses during Wednesday’s regular press conference. Photo: Camy Tam
