Macau gambling celebrity Alvin Chau has been arrested by Macau police. It is reported that Beijing believes that the act of operating cross-border gambling and absorbing mainland funds seriously endangers China’s economic security, so it leads to his arrest.
Hong Kong media “Sing Tao Daily” reported on December 6, Alvin Chau was arrested by the Macau police, and the Wenzhou prosecutor’s office in mainland China also formally approved the arrest earlier, behind the incident involves China’s national security issues of great importance.
The report quoted sources as saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping has given instructions at least six times on combating cross-border gambling, including pointing out that cross-border gambling “is a major problem that seriously affects our economic security, social stability and national image”.
And China’s Ministry of Public Security officially deployed a crackdown on cross-border gambling in early 2020, under the specific direction of Executive Vice Minister Wang Xiaohong, who was recently promoted to Party Secretary of the Ministry of Public Security shortly after the high-profile announcement by the Wenzhou police in Zhejiang Province that they had broken up a “cross-border gambling crime syndicate headed by Alvin Chau.”
The report said, “It is clear that although the Macau police are responsible for the arrest, the whole heavy-handed operation is actually led by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China”.
The report pointed out that in recent years, foreign gambling groups have infiltrated into mainland China on all fronts, causing widespread influence, and Alvin Chau’s activities have long been on Beijing’s radar.
According to preliminary statistics, the annual outflow of gambling funds from mainland China exceeds RMB 1 trillion, raising economic, social and other national security issues.
To combat cross-border gambling, China’s Ministry of Public Security made a deployment in February 2020, with Chinese State Councilor and Public Security Minister Zhao Kezhi at the helm and Executive Vice Minister Wang Xiaohong actually running the show, with the participation of several ministries, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Central Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the People’s Bank of China.
Zhao Kezhi once pointed out in a relevant meeting that “the Party Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, attaches great importance to combating cross-border gambling” and asked to “make every effort to maintain our economic security, social stability and national image”.
However, while Beijing’s heavy hand is waiting to strike, some Macau casino operators have not yet restrained themselves and continue to solicit mainland residents for online gambling.
It is reported that Alvin Chau, the director of Sun City Gaming, is known as the “junket king” of Macau.
On November 26, China’s Wenzhou Public Security Bureau official release said that in July 2020, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province Public Security Bureau according to the law on the case of Zhang Ningning and others to open a casino investigation. It has been identified that the cross-border gambling criminal group headed by the suspect Alvin Chau, with Zhang Ningning and others as the backbone, is suspected of committing the crime of opening casinos in China with serious circumstances. Recently, the Wenzhou People’s Procuratorate approved the arrest of the suspect Alvin Chau in accordance with the law.
Macau SAR police said on November 27 that the suspect Alvin Chau and other persons involved in the case had been brought back to the police station for investigation, adding that all persons engaged in the gaming industry in Macau must strictly abide by the relevant national and Macau SAR regulations. For suspected violations of the laws and regulations of the Macau SAR will also be pursued in accordance with the law and will not be tolerated.
The official notification said that it was found that Alvin Chau had contracted gambling halls in casinos in Macau and other places since 2007, and opened online gambling platforms in the Philippines and other places in 2016. In order to make illegal profits, Alvin Chau developed domestic personnel as shareholder-level agents and gambling agents, and organized Chinese citizens to gamble in his contracted offshore gambling halls and participate in cross-border online gambling activities through high credit, promotion of gambling business, provision of vehicle transportation services and technical support, and other ways and means; set up asset management companies in China to provide services for gamblers to exchange their assets for gambling chips, and he also set up asset management companies in China to provide services for gamblers to exchange assets for gambling chips, help collect gambling debts, and assist customers in cross-border fund exchange; and provide fund settlement services for gamblers using illegal channels such as underground money changers, gradually forming a cross-border gambling criminal syndicate with Alvin Chau as the leader and Zhang Ningning and others as the backbone, with fixed personnel, clear hierarchy, and a large number of people.
As of July 2020, the cross-border gambling criminal syndicate headed by Alvin Chau developed a total of 199 shareholder-level agents, more than 12,000 gambling agents, and more than 80,000 gambler members in China, involving a particularly large amount of money, which seriously harmed the social management order in China. Source