Macau’s Judiciary Police has arrested 19 people suspected of operating a fake junket operation out of a hotel room in NAPE. A total of 15 men and four women aged between 35 and 53 were taken into custody after police raided the hotel on Wednesday morning, seizing more than $75 million of gaming chips and over HK$200,000 in cash.
The arrests followed a report in mid-July by a man who claimed he had been lured to gamble at the bogus junket and defrauded out of HK$4 million. Upon investigation, the Judiciary Police found that the suspects had already left the country but were alerted when they returned to Macau on Tuesday.
The NAPE hotel room was found to have been configured as a VIP junket room with the suspects posing as casino staff and players in order to commit fraud. It has also been reported that the games were fixed. The group is believed to have been operating since 2015.
The Judiciary Police has transferred the 19 involved men and women to the Public Prosecutions Office on charges of fraud, fraudulent gambling, running a criminal syndicate and illegal operation of gambling outside permitted venues.