Alvin Chau was sentenced to 18 years in prison in Macau.
Alvin Chau, the leader of the illicit gambling industry in Macau, was found guilty on more than 100 counts and given an 18-year prison term.
The 48-year-old was found guilty in a case involving unlawful bets totaling HK$823.7 billion ($105 billion; £85.7 billion).
Chau, a well-known and colourful player in the neighbourhood gaming business, has refuted the accusations.
Only one Chinese city—Macau, a former Portuguese colony—allows casino gaming.
Suncity Group’s chairman and founder was Chau. It was the largest provider of organised tours to casinos for rich gamblers in Macau.
It organised for high rollers from the Chinese mainland to visit Macau and gamble there while also providing loans to them. Additionally, it gathered casino debts, and
Days after being arrested, the businessman known as “Junket King” resigned in December 2021.
Chau was charged with founding and running a criminal organisation that enabled unreported wagers. According to them, the government missed out on more than HK$8.26 billion in tax revenue as a result.
The most of the charges were upheld by the court, but Chau was cleared of the money laundering charge. Twenty additional defendants are involved in the prominent case.
Coronavirus limitations and the Chinese government’s crackdown on money transfers out of the mainland have both had a significant negative impact on the gambling business.
In conjunction with Chau’s case, a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou imprisoned over 30 individuals in September for international gambling.
After Chau’s arrest, Suncity shut all of its VIP rooms. But even before that, Macau’s junket population had been steadily declining. According to government statistics, there are currently only 36 junket operators left, down from 100 in 2019.
Chau is a well-known figure in the Chinese-speaking world, and tabloids love him because of their obsession with his relationships.
