Police have closed down 14 triad-linked gambling dens in Wan Chai and the Eastern District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Hong Kong.- Police have arrested 51 men and 30 women aged between 21 and 77<\/strong> in raids on 14 illegal gambling dens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Authorities said operators were found to be offering customers low quality crystal meth at the venues, which could only be entered with the endorsement of another frequent customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They say the dens housed a range of gambling machines<\/strong> and used electronic payment systems such as the Faster Payment System and Alipay to transfer money in a bid to make it more difficult for police to seize income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One is believed to have been in operation for at least six months in a rented aperment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the raids, police seized 31 arcade machines, account books, HK$41,000 (US$5,300) in cash <\/strong>and HK$40,000 worth of illegal drugs, along with drug paraphernalia and weapons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To identify the lead figures in the syndicates, undercover officers posed as gamblers. Once those in charge were identified, more than 100 officers were deployed in raids on the 14 venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Authorities said that the gang had recruited 18 members of ethnic minority communities <\/strong>to operate the centres while avoiding detection and arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chief Inspector Tse Tsz-kwan from Hong Kong Island\u2019s Regional Anti Triad Unit said the operation was ongoing and that further arrests were possible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Police have closed down 14 triad-linked gambling dens in Wan Chai and the Eastern District.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":14335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Hong Kong authorities have dismantled 14 triad-linked illegal gambling dens in Wan Chai and the Eastern District, arresting 81 individuals. The operations uncovered illicit gambling machines, drug distribution, and the use of electronic payment systems like FPS and Alipay to obfuscate financial transactions. This enforcement action highlights ongoing challenges in combating organized crime within the unregulated gaming sector.","focusai_entities":"Faster Payment System, Alipay, Triad, Hong Kong Island\u2019s Regional Anti Triad Unit, Tse Tsz-kwan","focusai_location":"Hong Kong, Wan Chai, Eastern District","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.8), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.7), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Payment System Vulnerabilities","query":"What enhanced due diligence and transaction monitoring protocols are financial institutions and payment system operators implementing to mitigate the exploitation of platforms like FPS and Alipay by illicit gambling syndicates?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Efficacy","query":"How do these enforcement actions against triad-linked illegal gambling operations in Hong Kong inform the broader regulatory strategy for combating the shadow economy within the Asia-Pacific gaming landscape?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[229],"class_list":["post-14332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14332"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14396,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14332\/revisions\/14396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}