An executive assistant is the first among 18 employees of Australia’s Crown Resorts to be released from jail in China. The staff members, who included the head of Crown’s international VIP team, Jason O’Connor, were rounded up last month and accused of “gambling crimes,” reportedly for marketing to high rollers in Mainland China.
Jenny Chiang, also identified in news reports a Jenny Jiang, is a 33-year-old Chinese national who worked for Crown as an executive assistant based in Shanghai. She was released on bail.
Gambling is illegal everywhere in China except Macau. Chinese law expressly forbids foreign operators from “organizing groups of more than 10 Chinese citizens to gamble abroad,” reported the Associated Press. The crime is punishable by up to three years in prison, and the AP reported that some in the gaming industry have tried to sidestep the rule by selling “destination packages.”
In 2015, Chinse police arrested 13 South Korean casino managers and 34 Chinese agents for peddling the packages.
According to a report in Reuters, John O’Neill, chairman of rival Star Entertainment in Australia, said in October that VIP gambling comprised “less than 30 percent”
