{"id":35284,"date":"2022-11-10T12:49:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T15:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=35284"},"modified":"2026-04-23T03:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T06:06:15","slug":"alvin-chau-denies-link-between-chinese-real-estate-and-under-the-table-bets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/alvin-chau-denies-link-between-chinese-real-estate-and-under-the-table-bets","title":{"rendered":"Alvin Chau denies link between Chinese real estate and under-the-table bets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Alvin Chau Cheok Wa has claimed that asset management projects in mainland China had no relationship with the settlement of player debts from under-the-table betting in Macau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Macau.- <strong>Alvin Chau Cheok Wa<\/strong> has given further testimony in the trial in which he is accused of running illicit gambling in Macau. He said there were &#8220;no links between asset management in the mainland and under-the-table bets.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chau admitted there might have been &#8220;some <strong>gambling debts<\/strong> involved&#8221; with some Suncity Group investment deals in mainland China, but said that there was never any asset investment in the country because of the under-the-table bets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former Suncity CEO Chau Cheok Wa <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/alvin-chau-denies-involvement-in-multiplier-betting\" target=\"_blank\">denies accusations that he ran under-the-table betting<\/a>&nbsp;for high rollers, but&nbsp;<strong>Cheong Chi Kin<\/strong>, a former colleague, said the former Suncity Group boss knew about the multiplier betting business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also testifying at Wednesday&#8217;s session was <strong>Mak Weng Kin<\/strong>, a judiciary police officer tasked with investigating the alleged long-term involvement of Chau and Suncity Group in under-the-table bets in Macau. Mak Weng Kin told the court his investigation had looked into several <strong>real estate investments <\/strong>acquired by Suncity Group in mainland China.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said these were a means for mainland Chinese gamblers to pay off debts they owed after taking part in the under-the-table bets at Suncity Group&#8217;s VIP gaming club in Macau. Chau denied Mak&#8217;s claims. but the officer said the investigation had concluded that several groups had run multiplier-bets over the years, some of which were directly run by Suncity Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mak said the former CEO of SunCity directed their departments of marketing, accounting, operation, cages and IT to take part in under-the-table betting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The role of the operation department<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Mak, an operations department led by&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/former-suncity-accounting-director-says-company-had-side-betting-operation\" target=\"_blank\">Cheong Chi Kin<\/a> was specialised in handling under-the-table bets. Chi Kin is an ex-colleague of Alvin Chau Cheok Wa and a co-defendant in the trial. He has previously told the court that<strong>&nbsp;he ran two companies that facilitated under-the-table betting&nbsp;<\/strong>and brought customers to VIP rooms at Suncity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mak produced documents seized from Suncity Group, which contained &#8220;educational materials&#8221; for the junket firm&#8217;s staff on how to handle and record under-the-table bets. The trial continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alvin Chau Cheok Wa has claimed that asset management projects in mainland China had no relationship with the settlement of player debts from under-the-table betting in Macau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, former Suncity Group CEO, is on trial in Macau for alleged illicit under-the-table betting. While Chau denies links between mainland asset management and player debt settlement, police investigations suggest Suncity Group utilized real estate investments in mainland China to clear high-roller gambling debts. Testimony from a former colleague and seized documents further implicate Suncity departments in facilitating these illegal operations.","focusai_entities":"Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, Suncity Group, Cheong Chi Kin, Mak Weng Kin","focusai_location":"Macau, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.8), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Junket Model","query":"How might the outcome of the Alvin Chau trial fundamentally alter the operational and financial viability of the traditional junket model in Macau, particularly concerning cross-border debt collection and VIP client management?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Efficacy","query":"What specific enhancements to Macau's regulatory compliance and enforcement frameworks are anticipated or required to prevent similar large-scale illicit gambling and money laundering schemes involving asset transfers?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[1427],"class_list":["post-35284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-suncity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35284","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=35284"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35320,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35284\/revisions\/35320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}