Former Macau junket head and Suncity Group founder Alvin Chau says there is no truth to the assertion that he facilitated “multiplier bets” in Macau casinos, or wagers made under the table for VIP players.
Chau was imprisoned in Macau’s Coloane Prison last December on charges of illegal gambling, criminal association, fraud and money laundering. During a recent session before the city’s Court of First Instance, prosecutor Lai U Hou introduced a number of conversations and text messages that seem to implicate Chau in placing the bets.
According to Inside Asian Gaming, Chau acknowledged the existence of multiplier bets, but said he had no part in them.
On the stand, Chau asserted his innocence. “What I was handling was regulating the credit and monitoring the risks,” he said. “I took no part in the interests related to multiplier activities.
“We found out there was betting under the table and that it was happening in all the VIP halls and the halls of the concessionaires in Macau. Usually when a customer was betting under the table, there would be many people around him.”
He added, “There would be law enforcement officers who would come to the scene to evict customers or ask them if they were involved in betting under the table, but betting under the table is a promise made verbally between the gambler and the junket. Whether the verbal promise is a cash transaction or not, whether it is legal or not, I am not a legal person and cannot answer that.”
Chau said he was “not involved in gambling (with customers), and I am not familiar with gambling,” and said he only ran a junket.
Later in the week, however, a former Suncity IT executive testified that the company did indeed track multiplier bets via a computer program.
Ali Celestino—one of 21 defendants charged in the case—had been vice president of Suncity Group’s IT department, according to documentation accessed by GGRAsia. Celestino said the system was already in place when he was hired and had been developed by Cheong Chi Kin, another junket rep who did not work for Suncity.
The evidence in the case is more than 10,000 pages long, and the witness list includes the names of more than 100 people.
