A former member of the marketing team at Macau junket Suncity Group says that her department was asked to promote illegal “under-the-table bets” by gamblers.
Lei Cho Ieng testified in the ongoing trial of junket king Alvin Chau, who has been charged with 20 others with illegal gambling, running a criminal syndicate, fraud and money laundering.
From the stand on October 10, she said pushing under-the-table bets, also called side bets or multipliers, was a requirement of her job, and this side of the business accounted for 40 percent of the department’s key performance indicators (KPIs).
The bets were “part of the business of Suncity,” she said, but added that neither she nor the clients she served were involved in side betting.
Another witness, Ng Sio Man, who also worked at the marketing department, testified that his superiors did not ask anyone to promote the bets. “We could mention to our guests that there was such an ‘operation,’” he said, “but we didn’t promote it.”
But both witnesses said Suncity provided training about side betting, proxy betting and online betting at employee orientations.
Under-the-table bets are “formally denominated at a casino gambling table, but represent only a fraction of the amount of a private bet made between gamblers and junkets to avoid gaming revenue levies,” according to Macau Business.
Chau has testified that neither Suncity nor he engaged in the business of multipliers, which he said was run by Cheong Chi Kin, another defendant in the case. He said Cheong was not linked to Suncity.
As a result of the illegal operations, the defendants allegedly cost the Macau government HK$8.2 billion (US$1 billion) in gaming tax revenues between March 2013 and March 2021, and also created losses for the city’s gaming operators.
Junkets are still permitted for government-licensed promoters in Macau, but the sector saw a big drop in business after Chau’s arrest in November 2021 and the arrest of Levo Chan of the Tak Chun junket in January.
A longtime promoter of VIP gaming in Macau told GGRAsia that he’s still doing business with concessionaire MGM China Holdings at its two properties, MGM Macau and MGM Cotai.
U Io Hong, who has many years of experience in junkets, said that to his knowledge, only a few similar junket-casino partnerships currently exist in Macau.
“The Macau government, the concessionaires and we junkets are all still trying to explore a way for how VIP gaming of Macau can work in the future,” U said. At least two other Macau concessionaires are hosting gaming promoters at their casinos, GGRAsia reported.
After Chau’s arrest, the junket group he led was dismantled. His trial continues in Macau’s Court of First Instance.
