Macau (MNA) – SJM Holdings Limited has confirmed to Macau News Agency (MNA) that it had been recently targeted in a scheme by a company claiming to be in negotiations with the local casino operator to sell its blockchain solutions and cryptocurrency.
The company – SmartPlay.tech – told MNA that ‘it had discussed the possibility of implementing their blockchain platform into the existing gambling and slot machine software’ of SJM.
‘SJM Holdings Limited has no collaboration [under] discussion with SmartPlay.tech,’ the casino operator said in a written reply to MNA. ‘We have no plans to co-operate with SmartPlay.tech.’
SmartPlay.tech had argued that it has been exploring possibilities of co-operation with SJM since early 2017, and that it was ‘forced’ to suspend negotiations with the developers.
‘However, it has now become possible to finally implement the agreement on joint co-operation,’ the company said in its written reply to MNA.
A co-operation which SJM utterly rejects.
In a further reply, SJM said that both the company and its group companies ‘are not involved in any way with digital or crypto currencies or blockchain technology.’
SmartPlay.tech, the developer of the prototype of a European Roulette game based upon an Ethereum ‘smart’ contract, stated that it is ‘quite logical to assume that if the possible ban on cryptocurrency exchanges comes into force on the Mainland, Macau casinos will be one of the very few places where it would be legal to spend such crypto-assets.’
Confronted by MNA with SJM’s reply, SmartPlay.tech have not sent us a clarification.
The casino operator has not replied to MNA’s latest enquiry as to whether or not it has filed a complaint against the cryptocurrency company with the Judiciary Police (PJ).
Crypto-problem
SJM adds to a recent case linked to a Mainland Chinese-based company, Lantai Digital Application Technology Co Ltd., involved in the promotion of cryptocurrency services, which used the names of junket operators in town to promote its services without their authorisation.
The self-described information technology company had organised an event in a hotel in Cotai last Tuesday – the ‘International Recreation Chain’ global conference – to promote the virtual currency as a token to be used in transactions in local casinos and online.
On Friday, a MSAR resident was arrested by the PJ as a suspect in the case the police started investigating on April 18.
Lantai was said to have misused the names and trademarks of several junket operators and casino-related businesses in the city during the event without approval or knowledge.
The list includes some of the reportedly biggest junkets in town – Suncity Group, Tak Chun Group, David Group, Meg-Star Group, and Venus Group to name but a few.
It also includes Landing International Development Limited, the developer of Jeju Shinhwa World, an integrated leisure resort located in South Korea, and Imperial Pacific International Holdings Limited, a Hong Kong-listed company which owns a casino-resort in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean.
As Imperial Pacific, the local junket companies also issued clarification statements last week, on April 17 and 18, distancing themselves from the conference and its organisers.
On Wednesday April 18, the company issued a statement retracting itself from claiming that it was co-operating with such gaming partners in the city.
Last week, the PJ claimed that none of the junket operators which were inadvertently involved in the case has filed a complaint with the police.
