Levo Chan and four others ordered to compensate casino operators
The former head of junket operator Tak Chun Group has been ordered to pay compensation after being sentenced for fraud.
Macau.- Levo Chan Weng Lin, the former head of the Macau casino junket Tak Chun Group, has been ordered to pay nearly HKD779.7m (US$99.3m) in compensation to the government and five casino operators.
Chan and four other defendants have already been sentenced to prison terms of between seven and 14 years on charges that included illicit gambling and fraud. The Macau Court of First Instance found that Chan and his associates ran an under-the-table betting operation that defrauded the Macau government and the city’s six casino operators out of at least HKD1.5bn (US$191m) over almost six years.
The verdict also included fines totalling HKD575.2m (US$73.5m) to the Macau government as compensation. On Friday, the court added sums to compensate five of the city’s six casino firms, taking the total to HKD779.7m.
The five parties will have to pay Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. nearly HKD81.2m (US$10.4m), Sands China Ltd. just under HKD47.0m (US$6m), Wynn Macau Ltd. HKD36.8m (US$4.7m), SJM Holdings Ltd. HKD35.6m (US$4.5m), and MGM China Holdings Ltd. HKD3.8m (US$485,000), respectively.
Chan’s sentencing comes just months after another former Macau junket boss, Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in aggregate. The prosecution and the defence have both appealed Chau’s sentence.
Macau proposes new bill on casino credit and junket contracts
André Cheong Weng Chon, acting as spokesman for the city’s Executive Council, and Adriano Marques Ho, director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, have revealed that Macau is working on a bill with new rules for junket operators offering credit.
Junket operators would have to have a formal contract for granting credit to any gaming concessionaire they tie to. Management companies, the non-concessionaire entities permitted to run satellite casino venues under a concessionaire licence, would not be allowed to establish a casino gaming credit contract or perform any related legal acts.
If passed by the Legislative Assembly, the bill would replace the existing gaming credit law, Law No. 5/2004. Neither Cheong nor Ho provided further details on the differences between the newly proposed bill and the existing gaming credit law. Cheong said the government was still reviewing the existing regulatory regime dealing with illicit gambling and formulating new legal proposals.
