Macao gambling kingpin-linked online platforms handled $42B from mainland Chinese customers: Report

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - Online gambling platforms allegedly controlled by Macao-based kingpin Alvin Chau Cheok Wa handled $42 billion from mainland Chinese gamblers, state media reported on Tuesday.

Chau was sentenced to 18 years in jail for fraud, illegal gambling and criminal association last year.

According to Beijing-based daily Global Times, Chau founded Macao-based Suncity Group and recruited 283 Chinese shareholders to “organize Chinese citizens to participate in gambling or cross-border online gambling and from 2015 to 2019, the total amount of bets placed by the gamblers from the Chinese mainland through online gambling exceeded 300 billion yuan (roughly $42 billion).”

Chau’s case has been shortlisted “as a candidate case for the top ten typical cases promoting the Rule of Law in the New Era in 2023,” it added.

He was detained by Macao police in November 2021.

In August 2022, the Wenzhou court in eastern China's Zhejiang province disclosed three cases against the Chau-led gambling group for cross-border gambling.

In January last year, the Court of First Instance in Macao sentenced Chau to 18 years in prison. He was ordered to pay the regional government a sum of 6.52 billion Hong Kong dollars (around $833.3 million) in civil compensation.

The trial record showed that Chau has been engaged in gambling since 2007 and since 2015, he expanded gambling into the Philippines and other places.