Several Crown Resorts employees were released from Chinese jail, where they have been detained since October 2016, after being accused in gambling crimes. According to media reports, 10 of 16 company employees who were sentenced by local court in June, were released from the detention facilities in Shanghai they were in.
First, four employees were released from a detention facility in Shanghai accompanied by their family members and security officials. They left immediately and refused to speak to media representatives. Then, as explained by an individual who identified himself of a lawyer of the employees’ families but did not reveal his name, the other six employees got released from a second detention facility.
As previously reported by Casino Guardian, a group of 19 current and former employees of Crown Resort have been found guilty in participating in activities that breach the rules for gambling promotion of Chinese mainland. The employees in question were accused in being involved in Crown Resorts activities aimed at attracting high-spending residents of China to the brand’s casinos outside the territory of Macau. The latter is currently the only place in the country where gambling is permitted. To date, gambling is not legal anywhere else in China.
So, in October, a total of 19 employees of Crown Resorts, including three Australians, were detained and taken into custody by Chinese authorities. They got charged for their violations early in June, with three of them being released on bail. The rest of the employees were sentenced to serve in jail for a period of between nine and ten months for breaching the gambling promotion laws in Chinese mainland.
Apart from that, organising “gambling trips” for a group of more than ten Chinese residents is also officially forbidden. Currently, the country has been in the middle of a crackdown on gambling promotion on the territory of Macau. Gambling promotion in Chinese mainland has been a serious problem for a few years now, with an increasing number of foreign casinos being engaged in various activities aimed at attracting high-stake players to the Chinese VIP market.
At the time when the employees got charged in June, the Executive Vice President of Crown division VIP International Jason O’Connor got a ten-month jail term. Two other Australians – Pan Dan and Jerry Xuan were sentenced to nine months of jail. Their sentences were then confirmed by the Australian Consul in China, who however, did not provide any details about the sentences of the rest of Crown Resorts’ staff members, including one Malaysian employee and a number of Chinese employees.
The nineteen staff members of Crown Resorts, including the three Australians, pleaded guilty in court in June 2017. Since the time when its players were detained, Crown Resorts has abandoned its ambitions for further growth in China, getting rid of its stake in the Melco Crown joint venture and announcing that its plans to also dispose of its remaining stake in Melco Resorts and Entertainment.
- Author
Daniel Williams
