Crime | Chinese nationals arrested over illegal betting via WeChat

Seven Chinese mainland nationals, who allegedly operated an illegal betting company worth HKD10 million involving high stakes baccarat and the Chinese social messaging app WeChat, were arrested in Macau.

Last week, the Judiciary Police (PJ) announced that the suspects arranged around 40 daily gamblers to bet on the results of some actual VIP baccarat games in the casinos.

The PJ spokesman Tam Weng Keong confirmed that the placing of bets and confirmation of game results were all communicated through WeChat.

The ring is reportedly believed to only have been in operation for about one month, although the gang has managed to handle total wagers of some HKD10 million. Although the men, from Zhejiang Province, placed no limits on maximum bets, minimum wagers were HKD300.

Authorities raided the apartment in the Nam Van area out of which the suspects were running the operation, after receiving a tip-off that the location was being used as an unlicensed guesthouse.

During the raid, authorities confiscated three laptops and several mobile phones containing betting records.

Monetary transactions were made through the third-party payment platform Alipay.

Tam told GGRAsia that the illicit betting operators sent “two to three members” to actually gamble in an undisclosed casino, while the game’s progress was broadcast via the WeChat group.

According to the spokesperson, a study of the seized communication devices showed that the overseas gamblers were given  70 seconds to decide how to wager after being informed of the game’s progress.

“The suspects were very well organized in splitting their tasks,” Tam told reporters, as cited in Macau reports.

“Everyone had their own position. For instance, the first and the sixth suspect were responsible for handling accounting via the computer, and controlled the wagering of their accomplices in the casino. The second and third suspects were mainly responsible for collecting the bets from the [WeChat] group members,” Tam explained.