{"id":27593,"date":"2022-02-25T08:58:43","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T11:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=27593"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:00:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:00:34","slug":"hong-kong-22-arrested-for-illegal-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hong-kong-22-arrested-for-illegal-gambling","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong: 22 arrested for illegal gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Six men and 16 women were found playing mahjong at a unit in an industrial building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Hong Kong.-\u00a0Some 22 people have been arrested\u00a0in a raid conducted by Hong Kong police at an industrial building on Wang Lung Street in Tsuen Wan. Police found\u00a0six men and 16 women, aged 30 to 64, who were playing mahjong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the raid, officers seized eight automatic mahjong tables and other gambling paraphernalia, along with cash. One of the women was suspected to be the leader of the gambling establishment, while the others were detained for alleged unlawful gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Hong Kong,\u00a0gambling in illegal venues carries a maximum penalty of nine months in prison and a fine of HK$30,000. Operating a casino carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a fine of HK$5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police said all 22 suspects were fined HK$5,000 for breaking social distancing rules, which prohibit gatherings of more than two people. Police are urging the public to observe social distancing and minimise the risk of community spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hong Kong: illegal gambling sites promoting activities on social media<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hong-kong-illegal-gambling-sites-promoting-activities-on-social-media\" target=\"_blank\">The Asian Racing Federation<\/a><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>has said that illegal betting sites are increasingly using social media to spam potential bettors in Hong Kong, increasing the risk of gambling harm amount younger audiences.\u00a0According to\u00a0<strong>Douglas Robinson\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>James Porteous<\/strong>, the most commonly used app is<strong>\u00a0WhatsApp<\/strong>, but other social media platforms are also being used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six men and 16 women were found playing mahjong at a unit in an industrial building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26603,"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 police arrested 22 individuals for unlawful gambling at an industrial building in Tsuen Wan, seizing mahjong tables and cash, with one suspect identified as the establishment's leader. All detainees were also fined for breaching social distancing regulations. Concurrently, the Asian Racing Federation highlighted the increasing use of social media, particularly WhatsApp, by illegal betting sites to target potential bettors in Hong Kong, raising concerns about gambling harm among younger demographics.","focusai_entities":"Asian Racing Federation, Douglas Robinson, James Porteous, WhatsApp","focusai_location":"Hong Kong, Tsuen Wan","focusai_target_profile":"regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), gambler_consumer (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact of Social Media Gambling?","query":"What specific regulatory and enforcement strategies are being considered by Hong Kong authorities to counter the proliferation of illegal gambling via social media platforms like WhatsApp?"},{"label":"GGR Diversion from Illicit Ops?","query":"How do these ongoing illegal gambling operations, particularly those leveraging digital channels, impact the potential GGR and market integrity for licensed iGaming and land-based operators in Hong Kong?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[229,23911],"class_list":["post-27593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-gambling","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27593","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=27593"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27630,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27593\/revisions\/27630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}