70 seconds to place wagers
Macau’s Judiciary Police have arrested seven Chinese gamblers and charged them with using the ubiquitous social messaging service WeChat to place illegal bets.
GGRAsia reports that the suspects conspired with gamblers to place their bets on the results of VIP baccarat games in the city’s casinos, with the bets and results communicated via WeChat text.
“According to the evidence we collected, we estimated that this gang had had on average at least 40 gamblers that placed bets with them on a daily basis. Through the messenger WeChat on mobile phones, they communicated with the gamblers from China and for each game gave them about 70 seconds to place the bets,” said Judiciary Police spokesman Tam Weng Keong in a press briefing following the arrests.
Tam said the suspects may have recruited their co-conspirators prior to their arrival in Macau via a WeChat group in Mainland China.
“They took on a minimum bet at HKD300 (US$38.58), and set no upper limit for the wager,” Tam said. “So far, we haven’t found any signs of a collaboration between these suspects and the local junkets.”
The arrestees hailed from Zhejiang Province and are believed to have operated the betting ring for at least a month, with total wagers of no less than HKD10 million (US$1.29 million). The suspects supposedly made their profits by charging player commissions and hedging bets in baccarat, Tam told GGRAsia.
