Gaming | Union calls for US investigation into Suncity’s relationship with gaming operators
Local 501, a U.S.-based union, is calling for a coordinated U.S. federal investigation into the gambling junket operator Suncity Group and its historical relationships with U.S. gaming companies.
According to a statement published yesterday (Macau time), The International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 501 has sent separate letters to the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. Secretary of State, the U.S. Treasury Department, the White House National Security Council and the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The union, which represents over 2,000 members working in casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada, highlighted incidents involving Suncity Group and its owner Alvin Chau.
Chau was arrested in Macau in late November for running a cross-
boundary gambling syndicate and organising illegal Chinese residents to travel to VIP junkets to take part in cross-boundary gambling.
In the statement, the group recalled that in February 2021 (prior to his arrest in Macau), regulators in New South Wales, Australia, cited “information relating to US Government reports that Chau had links to organized crime.”
Local 501 noted that the government had flagged an incident in which local casino officials discovered USD5.6 million in cash stored in a Suncity high-roller room – an event that “set money-laundering alarms ringing” at the casino.
“It is clear that money laundering did occur within that room,” Australian regulators concluded during public hearings, as cited in a report titled “Inquiry under section 143 of the Casino Control Act 1992 (NSW),” published on February 1, 2021.
Aside from this, the union recalled The Guardian’s report that Chau has been “banned from entering Australia due to his alleged criminal links” since October 2020.
“Concerns over Chau’s Suncity operations [are a matter of] geopolitical concern for U.S. authorities,” the union said. It also recalled that in 2016, testimony from Philippines Senate proceedings revealed that a Chau-controlled Suncity VIP room received tens of millions of dollars stolen in the infamous robbery of USD81 million from the Bangladesh Central Bank account held at the New York Federal Reserve.
In the union’s view, “these findings should alarm US officials.”
“Multiple U.S.-based casino licensees with overseas operations have for years collaborated extensively with Chau’s Suncity Group to bring high roller gamblers to their properties and accommodate exclusive “Suncity”-branded VIP rooms inside their casinos,” Local 501 stated.
Suncity Group has recruited and issued credit to high rollers to gamble in exclusive casino VIP rooms.
Back in December, following the junket mogul’s arrest, the Times reported that Public Prosecutions Office (MP) has ordered all notaries in the city to immediately suspend any notary actions or services involving the assets of Alvin Chau and related companies.
Furthermore, according to Local 501, the union is engaging with U.S. federal authorities because “state-run gambling regulators have proven either unwilling or incapable of regulating VIP-junket activity and its interplay with U.S. casino companies operating abroad.”
