{"id":34610,"date":"2022-10-20T09:05:56","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T12:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=34610"},"modified":"2026-04-23T03:46:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T06:46:39","slug":"hong-kong-7-arrested-as-police-target-illegal-gambling-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hong-kong-7-arrested-as-police-target-illegal-gambling-site","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong: 7 arrested as police target illegal gambling site"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to officers, the illegal gambling site took HK$40m (US$5m) in bets in just four months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong.- Police in Hong Kong have arrested seven people<\/strong> in an operation targeting an illegal gambling site that allegedly took HK$40m (US$5m) in bets in just four months. According to officers, two of those arrested were core members of the syndicate while others laundered money through 25 bank accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior inspector Lo Chun-hei<\/strong> told South China Morning Post that those arrested, aged 19 to 56, had set up an overseas gambling website and found customers through social media. He said they offered a monetary reward to lure local residents into setting up accounts with virtual banks. Police seized mobile phones, bank cards, computers and documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigations are ongoing as police seek to trace where the money went. More arrests are said to be likely. Lo Chun-hei added that officials were also investigating what types of gambling were offered on the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illegal gambling in Hong Kong is punishable by up to seven years in prison and a fine of HK$5m. Betting with illegal bookmakers carries a maximum penalty of nine months in jail and a fine of HK$50,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, police intercepted a river vessel<\/a> in waters west of Hong Kong and seized around 16,000 lottery tickets<\/strong>. It\u2019s believed the tickets were going to be smuggled to China and Macau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purchase price of the tickets has been estimated at around HK$330,000. The Hong Kong Jockey Club<\/a> verified the tickets and found that around 600 were already redeemable for prizes totalling around HK$70,000. The Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department believed each ticket would be resold, generating a profit of HK$4 to HK$13 per sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to officers, the illegal gambling site took HK$40m (US$5m) in bets in just four months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21187,"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 have dismantled an illegal online gambling syndicate, arresting seven individuals involved in operating an overseas website that processed HK$40m (US$5m) in bets over four months. The operation leveraged social media for customer acquisition and utilized virtual bank accounts for money laundering, highlighting significant regulatory and financial crime risks within the region's illicit gaming sector.","focusai_entities":"Lo Chun-hei, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department","focusai_location":"Hong Kong, China, Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Virtual Bank AML","query":"What specific regulatory and technological countermeasures are Hong Kong authorities and financial institutions implementing to prevent the exploitation of virtual bank accounts for iGaming-related money laundering?"},{"label":"Market Integrity Impact","query":"Beyond direct enforcement, what strategic initiatives are being considered to mitigate the long-term impact of such large-scale illicit operations on the regulated iGaming market's integrity and licensed operators' GGR projections?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[229,23911],"class_list":["post-34610","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\/34610","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=34610"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34641,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34610\/revisions\/34641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}