A former accounting staff of Suncity Group detailed on Friday (today) how her daily tasks were linked to the so-called under-the-table betting business in the trial involving Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, former boss of the now-defunct junket operator.
The testimony of witness Kuok Siu Peng in the Court of First Instance shed light on the connection between Suncity and the side betting operations, the tie that Mr Chau has denied.
Mr Chao and the other 20 defendants are indicted for illicit gambling activities, involvement in a criminal syndicate, fraud, and money laundering, causing the Macau SAR government a loss of HK$8.2 billion (US$1 billion) in gaming tax revenue between March 2013 and March 2021, as well as losses for the city’s gaming operators.
Taking the stand on Friday, Ms Kuok, who worked in the accounting department of Suncity from 2017 until the demise of the operator following the arrest of Mr Chau in 2021, said one of her daily tasks at the time was to verify “the results of operation”.
Asked by prosecutor Lai U Hou what the “the results of operation” meant, the witness confirmed it was about the results of under-the-table bets. Under-the-table betting, also known as side betting or multiplier, means that a bet formally denominated at a casino gambling table represents only a fraction of the amount of a private bet made between gamblers and junket operators to avoid gaming revenue levies.
The former accounting staff then detailed that her department would receive the information from the “Operational Department” every day about the results of side bets, and they would check whether the data recorded in the IT multifunctional system of Suncity—”Rollsmary”—matched the results from the “Operational Department”.
Asked by the prosecutor what the “Operational Department” was, Ms Kuok remarked, “I don’t know whether it is under Suncity… but I think it should be a rather special department of Suncity.”
Challenged by Leong Weng Pun, legal counsel for Mr Chau, whether there are any written documents to support her claim that the “Operational Department” was part of Suncity, the witness replied, “I don’t have any evidence… I just think it is under Suncity according to what I know.”
She added that the staff at the now-defunct operator used to refer to the side betting business as “operation”.
The accused including Mr Chau have testified earlier in this trial that the under-the-table betting operations were linked to Cheong Chi Kin, the fifth defendant in this case, and Suncity or Mr Chau had no involvement in the operations. These side betting operations under Mr Cheong would sometimes be called the “Operational Department”, they have indicated.
Another witness, Faye Lao, a former accounting director of Suncity and a senior to Ms Kuok, also testified on Thursday Suncity and Mr Chau were involved in one of the under-the-table betting operations, but she could not justify her claim with written proof.
Proxy betting
Four gamblers involved in proxy betting also testified in the court on Friday. According to the indictment, the criminal syndicate headed by Mr Chau was accused of running illicit gambling activities like online and proxy betting. Proxy betting refers to gamblers giving instructions via telephone or other gadgets online to another person, known as a proxy, to help them place a bet on a brick-and-mortar casino.
Mr Chau has testified that Sunciy did not run any proxy business, after the operation had been transferred to Malaysian businessman Richard Yong Seng Chen and rebranded as “UE” in 2019.
One of the gamblers, Ng Chi Seng, said on Friday he had played proxy bets in Macau through the UE app, and he had received money from the bets through a cash account at Suncity VIP rooms in Macau. He added he believed the app might belong to Suncity.
Another gambler, Song Ka Fai, also testified he had played proxy bets via the UE app, and the account number he had at UE was exactly the same as his cash account number at Suncity, except the prefix “UE”.
The trial continues on October 10.