{"id":33750,"date":"2022-09-23T07:40:46","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T10:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=33750"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:37:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:37:43","slug":"former-colleague-of-alvin-chau-admits-suncity-took-unregistered-bets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/former-colleague-of-alvin-chau-admits-suncity-took-unregistered-bets","title":{"rendered":"Former colleague of Alvin Chau admits Suncity took unregistered bets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cheong Chi Kin has told court that he developed a system to record under-the-table transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- Cheong Chi Kin<\/strong>, a former colleague of Alvin Chau Cheok Wa and a co-defendant in the former Suncity Group CEO’s trial, has told Macau\u2019s Court of First Instance that he ran two companies that facilitated under-the-table betting <\/strong>and brought customers to VIP rooms at Suncity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told prosecutor Lai U Hou that he had ties to companies specialising in handling gaming transactions<\/strong>, which had many employees, but said those groups had no affiliation with Sun City. He also admitted to placing multiplier bets in the Suncity VIP room<\/strong> and in rooms run by other junket operators in Macau, saying that Chau had referred him to many customers interested in multiplier betting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chau has denied accusations that he ran under-the-table betting<\/a> for high rollers, but Kin said the former Suncity Group boss knew about the multiplier betting business. Kin said that it was one of the “hot” gaming techniques in Macau’s gaming industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous to Kin’s statements,\u00a0Ali Celestino<\/strong>, a former executive at\u00a0Suncity Group<\/strong>, had told the court that\u00a0the company had an IT system for keeping track of illegal multiplier bets<\/a>. Celestino mentioned\u00a0Kin\u00a0<\/strong>as a business partner of Chau and a person from the operational department but not employed at Suncity Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Celestino and Kin are among 20 defendants charged alongside former Suncity CEO Alvin Chau Cheok Wa on counts of illegal gaming, criminal association, fraud and money laundering.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cheong Chi Kin has told court that he developed a system to record under-the-table transactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Cheong Chi Kin, a co-defendant in the Alvin Chau trial, testified in Macau's Court of First Instance, admitting to operating companies that facilitated illicit \"under-the-table\" and \"multiplier\" betting within Suncity VIP rooms and other junket operations. Kin stated that former Suncity Group CEO Chau was aware of these illegal activities, corroborating earlier testimony from another former executive regarding an IT system for tracking such bets. This ongoing legal proceeding highlights significant governance and regulatory compliance failures within the Macau junket sector.","focusai_entities":"Cheong Chi Kin, Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, Suncity Group, Ali Celestino, Macau's Court of First Instance","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.8), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Junket Model Impact","query":"What are the long-term implications of these testimonies and the ongoing trial for the operational viability and regulatory framework of the Macau junket sector?"},{"label":"Operator Due Diligence","query":"How will these revelations influence the due diligence processes and partnership agreements between integrated resort operators and third-party junket promoters in regulated markets?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[23911,1427],"class_list":["post-33750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-suncity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33750","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=33750"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33775,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33750\/revisions\/33775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}