Once a "little gambling king" in Macau's gaming industry, now a prisoner for crossing the line.

[4] Compiled from: Red Star News
 
Case review
On the evening of November 26, Macau gambling tycoon Zhou Chao Hua (nicknamed “Xi Mi Hua”) was approved for arrest by the People's Procuratorate of Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The Wenzhou police issued a notice urging Zhou Chao Hua to surrender as soon as possible to seek leniency. On November 27, the Macau SAR police brought the criminal suspect Zhou Chao Hua and other involved individuals back to the police station for investigation in accordance with the law.

 
 

It was ascertained that, since 2007, Chau Chio-wa had contracted casino VIP rooms in Macau and other places, and in 2016 opened online gambling platforms in the Philippines and elsewhere. In order to obtain illegal profits, Chau Chio-wa recruited personnel from within China as shareholder-level agents and gambling agents, and by such means and methods as offering high credit lines, promoting gambling operations, and providing vehicle pick-up and drop-off services and technical support, organized Chinese citizens to gamble in the overseas casino VIP rooms he had contracted and to participate in cross-border online gambling activities; he set up asset management companies within China to provide gamblers with services for exchanging assets for gambling chips, to assist in recovering gambling debts, and to assist clients in cross-border fund settlement; and he used illegal channels such as underground banks to provide gamblers with fund settlement services, gradually forming a cross-border gambling criminal group headed by Chau Chio-wa, with Zhang Ningning and others as the backbone, and with fixed personnel, clear hierarchies, and a large number of members.
 
As of July 2020, the cross-border gambling criminal syndicate led by Zhou Chaohua had recruited 199 shareholder-level agents, over 12,000 gambling agents, and more than 80,000 gambling member customers within China, with an exceptionally massive amount of money involved, severely disrupting China's social management order.

 
 

 
Article 303 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China
Whoever, for the purpose of profit, gathers people to gamble or makes gambling a profession shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, or public surveillance, and shall also be fined.
 
Whoever operates a gambling establishment shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention, or public surveillance, and shall also be fined; if the circumstances are serious, the sentence shall be fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years, and a fine shall also be imposed.
 
Organizing citizens of the People's Republic of China to participate in gambling abroad, if the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

 
 

 
[1] The author's perspective
As is well known, operating casinos and gambling in the Macau Special Administrative Region is regulated by relevant laws, but in other regions of China, it is not permitted by law. Although the suspect in this case, Zhou Zhuohua, is a Macau resident, he established a cross-border gambling criminal group, illegally organized Chinese citizens to travel abroad for gambling in casino halls, and also participated in cross-border online gambling activities. According to the above legal provisions, it is clear that any of these actions is illegal. Moreover, based on the police briefing information, the number of people he recruited is large, and the amount involved is particularly huge, seriously disrupting the country's social management order.
 
This case not only tells us that gambling domestically is illegal but also emphasizes that organizing participation in overseas gambling is illegal. Therefore, even individuals legally engaged in the gaming industry in Macau must strictly comply with the relevant laws and regulations of the country and Macau. Once suspected of violating legal provisions, they will be investigated and dealt with according to the law without leniency.