The founder of the Sun City Group, known as the "Casino Tycoon" of Macau, was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the Macau court on Wednesday (January 18) for crime of laundering black money and illegal gambling.The current affairs commentator interviewed believes that the Macau government has severely crack down on casino agencies in recent years.
Zhou Yi's relatives went to the scene on Wednesday, and did not respond to reporters' questions when they left the court.Li Yihao, one of the lawyers on behalf of the lawyer, said that he has not been in contact with Zhou Yihua, but he believes that the prosecutor is not enough evidence in the "bottom of the gambling" (that is, the gambling transactions on the table) and telephone betting.Essence
Zhou Yihua was charged with 289 charges such as black money laundering and illegally operating gambling in Macau before 2021.The Macau Primary Court ruled on Wednesday that 162 were established and sentenced to 18 years in prison.The crimes include 103 "crimes of illegal management in the local area", 54 "quite huge fraud crimes", 3 "fraud crimes", etc., and the crime of widening money was not established.
At the same time, Zhou Yihua and several defendants in the same case must compensate the Macau government of more than 6.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (S $ 1.095 billion), as well as about HK $ 2.15 billion in five gaming companies.
Online information shows that Zhou Yihua was born in 1974, nicknamed "Zimi Hua", was born in Zhaoqing, Guangdong, with businessmen, filmmakers, gambling hall owners, film and television entertainment companies, and concert investors.
He was involved in the Macau gaming industry in 1994 and only engaged in lower -level borrowing activities in the early days. Later, he operated the VIP meeting and managed the VIP's career. In just over 10 years, he turned into the local "king of gambling halls".In 2007, he founded the Sun City Group, which coincided with the development right of open gaming in Macau, and the group developed rapidly.
In November 2021, after a arrest warrant issued by Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Province, the Macau police arrested Zhou Yihua and others.The Macau Procuratorate pointed out that he used Macau as a base to set up an illegal online live betting platform in the Philippines. It attracted Chinese residents as the main source of customers through the "live scene" to make huge online illegal gambling.Transfer illegal income.
But Zhou Yihua emphasized when he ended the case at the end of last year that the company has always been in charge of public law, and its business has spread to many countries around the world. It has not accepted complaints or reports, nor criminal crimes involved in life casualties or property losses.Essence
Macau is one of the three major cities in the world, and the gaming industry has always been one of the important pillars of the local economy.
But in the past three years, the epidemic has caused the Macau gaming industry and even the SAR economy.The latest gaming statistics released by Macau Gaming Supervision and Coordination Bureau on Tuesday shows that last year, Macau's gambling receipts were only 42.198 billion yuan (Macau, the same below).Compared with 32.8%of the previous year, a significant decrease of nearly 8.75 percentage points.
Generally believes that after the mainland's relaxation of epidemic prevention measures, tourists visiting Macau this year will increase, which will benefit the improvement of Macau's total gaming revenue.Hu Jinguang, president of the Macau Tourism Association, said on Wednesday that the Macau government's domestic gaming tax target this year is 130 billion yuan, that is, the average monthly tax requires about 11 billion.As of this Monday, the eighth day of the restoration of the Macau and the mainland, the official has recorded more than 2 billion yuan in taxation.According to this momentum, he is confident that the amount of gaming taxes can reach the standard during the year.
However, Zhou Xian, a Hong Kong financial columnist who is familiar with the Macau gaming market, believes that when he was interviewed by the Singapore Lianhe Zaobao, it was difficult for Macau to reply to the peak period of the previous gaming industry's taxation, because the gaming industry relied on high -end guests.
In recent years, Macau officials have severely cracking down on casino agencies, which will delay the days when the gaming industry has recovered.
He believes that it is difficult for Macau to have a legend similar to Zhou Yihua in the future.The Macau economy must continue to develop, and in the future, we must be more active in the future, and we cannot rely on the gaming industry alone.
