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Serious "Bookmaker" under The Betting Act re: "Baccarat Insurance"

CoffeeAhSoh

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Those are legit business entities. Registered and paying taxes. Clients include MIW.


Agreed. Peh and his group can be classified as "illegal junkets" providing Baccarat Insurance (BI)

and maybe (taking in addditional side bets on top of BI). Even "legal" Junket eg those of

casinos ship pays hundreds of thousands to the casinos ship bosses. Here , Peh ran his business

as he likes.
 

GoldenDragon

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Agreed. Peh and his group can be classified as "illegal junkets" providing Baccarat Insurance (BI)

and maybe (taking in addditional side bets on top of BI). Even "legal" Junket eg those of

casinos ship pays hundreds of thousands to the casinos ship bosses. Here , Peh ran his business

as he likes.

Hypothetically speaking, even if Peh and his kakis took such side bets in a common gaming house, the offence is not bookmaking. He and his kakis will be charged for 'gaming in a CGH.' Similarly, the Hor Li will not be charged for a bookmaking offence but one which is, 'assisting in the running of a CGH.'

That said, there is no offence if the same scenario is transported from a CGH to a licensed casino. The latter can't be a CGH, right?
 

CoffeeAhSoh

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Loyal
Good update. Also lawyer ong ying ping chap got underground connections and colourful past..

Was told that in addition to close to 400k fine for the couple, which Tan Saw Eng paid (180k), chips and cash seized in 2011 during raid came to approx 400k.

If appeal fails, cash and chips will be forfeited to State. So, it's a fight of 800k, jail terms excluded.

As neutrals, we are merely looking at whether AGC, in 'public interest,' misinterpreted the BA. Was it an honest mistake? Or were they just trying their luck knowing the BA does not cover card games.

The architects of the BA failed miserably. When one only reads the definition of a 'bookmaker,' it covers ALL forms of betting.

After reading the entire BA and parliamentary debates leading to its enactment, there is no doubt they were referring only to activities that requires mixed skills and chance. Not chance alone.

Reading the CGHA, enacted 2 yrs after the BA completes the picture. All games of chance are captured in the CGHA.

When online gaming proliferated, the govt responded. Late of course. After a decade, they introduced the Remote Gaming Act to tackle online gaming.
 

GoldenDragon

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Good update. Also lawyer ong ying ping chap got underground connections and colourful past..

Did some checks on him. No underground links lah. If being suspended for 2 yrs is 'colourful past,' then you are right.

Interestingly he was schoolmate of Mark Andrew Yeo. Unlikely classmate.
 

GoldenDragon

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Asset
Still checking with contacts on lawyer(s) who represented Peh in the State courts.

Wonder what value-adds the current one provided compared to past one(s).

I checked with ex-colleagues and no one could name another criminal trial that lasted longer than this one.

Bear in mind this wasn't a commercial crime case which almost always take longer to end because of stacks of documents used as evidence during trial and the need to examine them thoroughly.
 

GoldenDragon

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Asset
Just received an important update. Trial did not last that Long but Long enough to raise suspicion they wanted to decimate the accused financially and mentally.

Arrested Nov 2011, trial commenced Aug 2012, convicted Dec 2015. High Court Appeal Jan 2017. Appeal dismissed March 2017. CA sometime in Sept 2017.

All in, trial in state court took 40 months. Not sure the number of days though. 100-150-day trial? Waited 12 months for High court appeal. Unbelievable.
 

CoffeeAhSoh

Alfrescian
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Research 80% completed. Ready and competent to take ALL questions on gambling laws in S'pore.



Wow ! Have a short kit kat break :biggrin:




BEIJING DOESN’T WANT THEM, BUT WHAT WOULD MACAU BE WITHOUT JUNKETS?



BY NIALL FRASER

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18 SEP 2016



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When it comes to making a killing, you’d be hard pressed to find a business model more adept than the junket operators who procure, pamper and when required, punish the big-spending VIP gamblers who for decades have been the lifeblood of Macau’s casino industry.

Junkets – often owned or run by individuals of questionable provenance – are the firms which source, lend money and provide “extras” to men – and women – willing to lose HK$100,000 on the turn of a card and come back for more in the blink of an eye.

Macau gaming revenue has stabilised but don’t expect a ‘V-shaped’ recovery, says Fitch

For this they pay the people who put up the capital to build and now run some of the most ostentatious and expensive casinos in the former Portuguese enclave a handsome rent, but nothing like as handsome as the lashings of cash which swell their considerable coffers.

And that’s just what you can see. It is widely acknowledged but rarely discussed by the powers that be, that under-the-table, off-the-book bets can make the legitimate stuff look like petty cash.

Without the junkets – and their often shady links to organised crime and racketeering, casinos in what has become the world’s gaming capital would not, and probably could not, have existed.



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Nine Macau Public Security Police officers arrested on suspicion of operating a extortion racket involving casino junkets inside one of the city's major casinos. File photo


At the height of their money-making bonanza before 2014, it is reckoned that gross incomes from Macau’s casino VIP rooms accounted for at least 70 per cent of total gaming revenue.

This VIP gold rush can be largely explained in one word, China.

Macau has long been regarded as a conduit for corrupt officials and business people to bypass currency restrictions and transfer money out of mainland China.

Macau’s top casino operator warns against calling a recovery in gaming enclave

In a 2013 annual report of the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a Macau academic estimated that US$202 billion in ill-gotten funds were channelled through the city each year.

However, due to a combination of China’s economic slowdown, Beijing’s unprecedented anti-corruption drive and a paradigm shift in how Macau sees its economic – and political – future everything has changed.

The junkets are either on the run or, if they’re smart, on the make somewhere else, usually in less mature and well regulated gaming destinations in Asia such as the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.


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People gather to watch fireworks exploding from a replica of the Eiffel Tower after the opening of the Sands new mega resort The Parisian in Macau. Photo: AFP



Last week at the opening of his US$3 billion development, The Parisian, on the Cotai Strip, none other than Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Sands China’s parent company, Las Vegas Sands, said the VIP golden days might never return.

“The number of junket representatives has shrunk dramatically over the last two years. It would have to regrow again to come back with the same vigour that we’ve experienced in the past. I’m not sure that’s going to happen because other locations are trying to pick up the excess market that’s no longer here,” said Adelson.

Sands China comes up short on tables at The Parisian as Macau seeks to diversify away from gaming

The US gaming tycoon was in large part referring to Macau’s Beijing-inspired switch from a gaming model centred on VIP revenues to one which looks to build the mass-market while diversifying into other areas, a direction of travel which Adelson’s mega-properties on the strip have been leading the way on in Macau.

An authoritative internal report recently produced for one of the biggest a gaming industry players in Asia which assesses the state of the junket business in Macau takes a similar line – but with some worrying caveats.


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Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Sands China’s parent company, Las Vegas Sands, said Macau’s VIP golden days might never return. Photo: AFP




The 40-page report, seen by This Week in Asia, says: “The current political environment has forced junket operators to seek alternative avenues to raise capital, diversify their interests and expand into overseas territories as well as seek public listings.”

While some junkets have diversified their businesses into not unexpected areas such as pawnbroking, securities, investment and asset management, others have branched out into more unlikely areas such as equine management, travel, mining, property and manufacturing, the report notes.

“Others have sought to expand their gaming operations into jurisdictions with lax regulatory controls such as Saipan and Vanuatu,” the report goes on.


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A casino security insider, who asked not to be identified, said: “The increase in Macau’s casino revenue in recent years and the continued reliance of casino operators on junkets to bring in customers from China ... has led to many people with triad and criminal backgrounds becoming millionaires.

“What do these newly rich criminals do with their wealth? They diversify and invest internationally. Some Macau casino junkets have purchased mines and plantations in Southeast Asia, farms in Australia and vineyards in Europe and the US.”

A Macau government report on the performance of the gaming operators who were granted concessions under the market liberalisation which swept away the 40 year monopoly of veteran tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun earlier this year admitted the junkets were problematic.

It called for a crackdown on under-the-table betting, better regulation of the junkets and a more centralised system of control on the issuing of loans and credit facilities.
 

GoldenDragon

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Junket Operators are very different from those who side bet on baccarat games. A person can side bet $100. A junket operator needs at least 100 million to start off as a small time junket operator. Junket Operators are not known to side bet on baccarat games.
 
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