China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has sentenced a person surnamed Ng to six years’ imprisonment for organizing mainland citizens to gamble in Macau. He had been organizing such tours as an agent since 2005, the court said.
The SPC announced on Tuesday six gambling crime cases involving the operation of “underground Mark Six Lottery”, “underground gambling in rural areas” and “illegal online gambling” in the mainland. One of the cases involved the person surnamed Ng, who opened account with Macau casinos and solicited citizens from the mainland to gamble.
According to the facts of the case, Ng X Pan his account in 2005 and found players by means of face-to-face solicitation, telephone invitations and word-of-mouth.
Ng also set up a team to accompany players he found, to chase settlement and other logistical services to mainland nationals who came to Macau to gamble. Up until August 2022, when the case was uncovered by mainland law enforcement authorities, the accounts of the gambling syndicate under the control of Ng amounted to approximately RMB300 million (US$41.2 million).
After the case was heard by the court, Ng was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment as the central figure of the team, while the others were sentenced to between two-and-a-half and three years’ imprisonment. All were also fined various amounts.
Regarding the case, the Supreme People’s Court said, “The problem of offshore casinos recruiting gamblers [from China] has become increasingly prominent, giving rise to related professionalized criminal gangs that organize outbound gambling in the name of tourism and provide services such as escorting, settlement and logistical support, which have gradually resulted in the transnationalization of gambling activities, diversification of behaviors and concealment of the outward flow of gambling proceeds.”
According to a local gaming industry analysis, the person surnamed Ng has been engaged in similar gaming intermediary activities for 17 years, but with a current account of only RMB300 million, it is believed he belongs to a relatively small-scale gaming intermediary.
In the past, there were thousands of people – more commonly known as agents – engaging in similar gaming intermediary activities in Macau, but with the new gaming junket law and collapse of leading junket Suncity, the number of people engaging in gaming junket activities has dropped significantly. Junkets and agents alike must now apply for a license through DICJ in order to engage in the relevant activities or they will be considered in violation of the law.
In mainland China, amendments to the criminal law were passed in March 2021 to include cross-border gambling and there is no limit to the recovery period, a clear indication that China is seriously cracking down on gaming behavior.
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