{"id":21041,"date":"2021-08-04T08:50:29","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T11:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=21041"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:57:35","slug":"hong-kong-824-arrested-over-illegal-gambling-on-euro-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hong-kong-824-arrested-over-illegal-gambling-on-euro-2020","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong: 824 arrested over illegal gambling on Euro 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Police in Hong Kong have arrested 824 people in a series of raids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong.- Authorities in Hong Kong have reported that\u00a0824 people were arrested for illegal gambling <\/strong>during a series of police raids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to officers, those arrested were involved in\u00a0illegal gambling operations related to the UEFA Euro 2020<\/strong> tournament. Police carried out 137 raids, <\/strong>arresting 475 men and 349 women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officers seized US$463m. According to the South China Morning Post, it’s the largest amount of money seized from illegal gambling\u00a0<\/strong>operations in almost 10 years. Police also seized several vehicles and computers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those arrested, aged 14 to 87 years, have been charged with different activities, from carrying out bookmaking operations to running illegal gambling dens or laundering money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, police officers arrested\u00a018 people accused of carrying out illegal bookmaking<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>on horseracing and football matches between January and April of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The illegal bookmaking syndicate took in more than HK$3.4bn (US$438m) in illegal bets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officers seized four luxury vehicles, handwritten records and more than HK$8.5m in cash. 70 bank accounts containing about HK$19.5m were also frozen. Those arrested are 16 men and two women. They are all accused of money laundering, bookmaking or betting with a bookmaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a separate raid<\/strong>, police arrested five people who were placing illegal bets. Officers seized HK$175,000 in cash along with phone records detailing HK$2.3m worth of illegal bets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\u00a0similar raid<\/a>\u00a0was carried out in Sai Ying Pun. Officers found\u00a0people playing around a baccarat table and playing online card games<\/strong>\u00a0via two large televisions.\u00a0There,\u00a016 men and 6 women aged 31 to 74 were arrested<\/strong>. Police seized HK$215,000 (US$27,697) in cash, HK$410,000 in chips and five account books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police also found 21 people <\/strong>suspected of playing baccarat at a flat located in Kwun Tong. Officers seized HK$70,000 in cash and gambling paraphernalia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police in Hong Kong have arrested 824 people in a series of raids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":19144,"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 conducted extensive raids, arresting 824 individuals involved in illegal gambling operations, including bookmaking and money laundering, primarily linked to UEFA Euro 2020. Police seized a record US$463 million, marking the largest such seizure in nearly a decade, alongside freezing significant bank assets and confiscating vehicles and equipment.","focusai_entities":"Police, Authorities","focusai_location":"Hong Kong, Sai Ying Pun, Kwun Tong","focusai_target_profile":"regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Regulated GGR?","query":"What is the estimated impact of these large-scale illegal gambling operations and subsequent enforcement actions on the regulated Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) in Hong Kong and the broader APAC region?"},{"label":"Future Regulatory Frameworks?","query":"How will these significant enforcement actions influence the development and implementation of future regulatory and governance frameworks for both land-based and online gambling in Hong Kong and neighboring jurisdictions?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[229,233,23935],"class_list":["post-21041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-gambling","tag-sports-betting","tag-sportsbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21041","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=21041"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21057,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21041\/revisions\/21057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}