Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, who arrest in November triggered a crackdown on junket operators in Macau, was indicted last week by the SAR’s Public Prosecutions Office. He was charged with illegal gambling, fraud, criminal association and money laundering. Chau has been in pre-trial detention since his arrest. In addition to Chau, 21 other people have been charged in the case, according to GGR Asia.
Chau was the chairman and executive director of the SunCity Group, at the time of his arrest, the largest and most important junket operators in Macau. He resigned on December 1 and recently sold all his assets in the company to Andrew Lo, a senior executive of the company
The sale included the controlling shares co-held by Chau and his partner Cheng Ting Kong via an entity called Fame Select Ltd., according to GGRAsia. Chau and Cheng previously controlled 74.85 percent of Suncity.
Lo also acquired Suncity Group Holdings’ convertible bonds held via an entity called Major Success Group Ltd, the filing shows.
Lo is an executive director at Suncity Group Holdings and deputy chairman and executive director at Summit Ascent.
Through the acquisition, Lo also has gained a controlling interest in the firm’s associated Hong Kong-listed company Summit Ascent Holdings Ltd., which controls the Tigre de Cristal resort in Russia’s Primorye casino district, near Vladivostok. Suncity is also part of a joint venture that opened integrated resort Hoiana in Vietnam in mid-2020 and is developing a US$1 billion hotel and casino at Westside City Resorts World in Manila’s Entertainment City precinct.
Suncity’s junket entity, which was not directly linked to the listed company, officially closed its junket business in December.
The charges against Chau allege he committed fraud against Macau’s six casino as well as the SAR government. The illegal gambling charge is related to the operation of a “proxy betting” scheme, where a player does not have to be physically present at a gaming table, but communicates with a “proxy” who places bets for the player. Proxy betting is illegal in Macau but accepted in several other Asian gaming venues.
The arrest of Chau began a crackdown on Macau junkets, and precipitated the arrest of Levo Chan Weng Lin, the head of junket operator Tak Chun. It is alleged that Chan was the boss of a Macau organized crime triad, but he has yet to be indicted.
