Hong Kong police is investigating Cheung Chi-tai, an important figure in one of Macau’s most popular gambling operators. Mr. Cheung, who is known to be one of the company’s major investors, is a suspect in a money laundering case.
On November 30, the police posted a special notice in local media, saying that all his assets had been frozen. This information was released due to the fact that local authorities have not been able to locate Mr. Cheung’s whereabouts.
According to one of Neptune’s senior executives, Cheung is not providing capital for the company at present and he does not have any business relations with it.
Back in March, Cheung had attended a Neptune event where he had introduced himself as an executive director of the gambling provider. The afore-mentioned manager of the company promised that due measures would be taken, so as for its name to be prevented from any further “unauthorized usage.”
But Cheung’s name is not making the headlines for the first time. In April, his wife – Ng Chor Har, was taken into custody and was charged with money laundering. The businessman’s name was also related to the illegal sports betting scandal in Nevada. It was reported that the FBI found a digital copy of his passport on the computer of one of the defendants, related to Paul Phua’s case. According to the FBI, Phua’s group distributed bettors’ winnings through Neptune’s rooms, intended for VIP players.
Recently, it was announced that junket operators in Macau have marked a significant decrease in revenue for November. The main reason for this was the drop in the number of VIP players from mainland China.
The factors that influenced the decline in turnover are way too much, but what really matters is the fact that due to this some providers of VIP gaming rooms decided to stop their operations.
Earlier this week, Daiwa Securities Group, a popular Japanese investment bank, predicted that more junket operators will close their VIP rooms in the months to come. According to analysts from other research companies, Macau is going to reach rock bottom at the beginning of 2015 and to recover some time in the second half of the year. Daiwa’s experts, however, do not believe that “a fundamental bottoming-out” will occur in the gambling Mecca in the first months of 2015.
The Japanese company also stated that Macau’s decline in revenue is more serious than it seems and it will continue for a longer period of time than initially expected. Daiwa claims that the 2015’s VIP numbers will reach a 19% decline, as compared those posted in 2014. By comparison, other experts have predicted an 8% drop.
