Man Jumps from Casino Ship to Escape Loan Sharks
Gambling on loan-shark borrowed money is all fun and games unless you lose each of that money and are forced to remove to your skivvies and jump from your third floor cabin window aboard the casino ship which was the cause of your short-lived fun and subsequent woes, into the frigid waters of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor below.
A Chinese nationwide surnamed Lu found that out the hard way final week, based on the china magazine Ming Pao. He presumably borrowed HK$120,000 (more or less US$15,460) from loan sharks and embarked on a evening of gambling aboard the casino ship, which skirts (or rather sails) around Hong Kong’s strict gambling laws by cruising out into international waters, a ploy that is increasingly popular world over.
The ship ended up being somewhere https://shmoop.pro/1984-by-george-orwell-part-one-summary/ close to the Eastern Harbor Crossing Tunnel between Lei Yue Mun and Kwun Tong when the man made their escape attempt (the loan sharks were presumably on board with him) after burning through the borrowed cash. He covered his papers and what little cash he had left in plastic, stripped down, donned a life jacket, and jumped from the screen of his cabin.
Rather than being free to swim to safety and make his damp way home however, he was picked up by another ship, which quickly brought him, soaking and sullen, to a nearby police station, and then from there to the hospital for a check-up.
Whilst the man premiered by police and hasn’t been charged with any crime, law enforcement are clearly the least of his concerns at the moment, over it; people who probably weren’t particularly impressed by his decision to go for a late night swim as he still has a formidable gambling debt hanging over his head, and likely some very angry people looking for him.
Chinese Laundry Through the Slots: Money Laundering Alleged for Med Tech Firm
You think you’ve got a gambling issue? What about $116,000 per month on a slots habit? That is just how much Bi Xiaodong, wife of China Medical Technologies (CMT) CEO Wu Xiaodong, is rumored to have moved into the high roller slot machines at Las Vegas’ upscale Wynn and Bellagio casinos between 2005 and 2010, playing with an astonishing allowance from the person from whom she was then separated.
Washed Out
The truth is, you can find individuals who throw money around at that crazy level in Vegas, so gambling $5K a hand at slots by itself most likely will never have raised too many eyebrows. Exactly What did catch the eye of investigators, however, was the way that Mrs. Xiaodong received the enormous sums to manage to afford to play at that level, because one source suggests that she may have passed since much as $62 million through the Bellagio slots alone between 2008 and 2012.
The Missus claims she got her gambling money allowance from child care and for living expenses (begging the question of whether her kids had shoes or milk to take in); and maintains she separated from Wu in 2001 and had absolutely nothing to do with his business CMT since before its IPO in 2005 regarding the New York Stock Exchange.
Cash Problems
It had been summer that is last CMT had to close down, after creditors moved in to gather missing interest re payments from the company, forcing them into liquidation. Those bondholders included GLG Partners, a London firm that manages $26.4 billion in assets; GLG happens to be suing Wu Xiaodong in a suit that is civil Ca, alleging that Xiaodong stripped assets from CMT and then fed them surreptitiously to his wife, who in turn ran them through the fancy Strip slot machines.
How It Works
Here’s the shell game: the casino allows players cash down from lengthy periods of slot play with a credit note for the remainder money deposited. The gamer can then just take that note to a casino cashier, get a search for the remaining quantity, deposit said check in their own bank account, and declare it as ‘gambling winnings’ on their taxation statements ( that are then terminated out by the same quantity in ‘gambling losses,’ of course.)
Reports say that Bi Xiaodong declared near to $17 million on her comes back in victories between 2009 and 2011, with the ancillary loss to cancel the wins out. But the concerns about where the cash emanated from were what led detectives to look into the cash that is CMT possibility, and the chance for money laundering of CMT’s massive IPO funds.
Money Speaks
Now CMT’s liquidators are attempting to monitor some $670 million in missing cash which was raised during the company’s 2005 IPO. Also under investigation would be the company’s previous finance director Takyung Tsang and their wife.
Might be a full case of dirty laundry.
Macau Gaming Revenues Through the Roof for March
The economy may nevertheless be crawling back on its belly everywhere else, but in Macau, money appears to be falling out in clumps of the sky, at the very least for its casino that is lucrative industry.
A J.P. Morgan analyst quotes that March gross Macau gaming revenues for the world’s most successful gambling location ever will top away at $3.67 billion, a brand new monthly record even for Macau. A sector that appears to have exploded with a 15 to 20 percent growth rate this year with the final monthly tallies not even in yet, it’s predicted that final intakes could end up at a 25 percent increase over the same time in 2012, and it looks like that’s thanks to a proliferation of Asian whales.
On the Other Side for the Coin
Talk about trickle-down economics: seems most of Macau’s casino industry employees are also having a good year so far. In a 2013 survey referred to as Macau Employee self-esteem and Satisfaction Index, 1,026 workers responded about their various levels of job satisfaction, as well as their job that is overall self- confidence. The movement downward was subtle enough to be able to categorize their feelings as ‘stable’ in the mysterious world of index rankers although slightly down from last year’s Index.
Casinos Employ Many
With nearly a third associated with survey participants involved in Macau’s booming casino industry, it would appear that non-casino employees have ever-so-slightly higher job satisfaction than their casino worker counterparts, with croupiers posting the satisfaction that is lowest away from the entire gaming employee group. As it pertains to income, however, croupiers rake within the highest satisfaction of any of workers, gaming and non-gaming alike. Could all those incredibly wealthy Asian whales be both impossibly demanding and also great tippers whenever they winnings? Sure appears like it.
The Approaching Year
Now it just remains to be seen if the rest of 2013 will likely be since profitable as March looks want it will be whenever all the true numbers are totally tallied.
We understand one group especially who is wishing for continued wide range to come strike the tables in Macau: the croupiers.
Record-Breaking Poker Jackpot Relaunched
BetVictor Poker recently revamped and relaunched its massive Bad Beat Poker Jackpot with a prize that is record-breaking of €921,603 (those Euros translate to $1,193,291).
‘We’re delighted in order to launch the all-new Bad Beat Jackpot with an industry record-breaking reward pool of over €920,000,’ announced Andy Horne, head of poker at BetVictor.
Simpler to Win, More Payouts
Suspended earlier this thirty days to ensure that BetVictor could create a few positive changes to the structure for its players, the jackpot can now be won more effortlessly, with more benefiting from the payout too.
‘Will it reach €1 million? Who understands.? The modifications suggest it will be won more frequently and by more people now,’ explained Horne. ‘The present jackpot will discover over €90,000 paid out to opted-in players playing at the same stakes as the winner, so even if you’re maybe not at the table where it strikes, you are able to share in the good fortune, and that is no bad beat.’
Opt In for Players
Players trying to participate in the Bad Beat Jackpot now require to utilize the ‘opt-in’ option that you can get on all money tables above €0.10/€0.20, of which point they are going to add €0.02 towards the increasing jackpot each hand they play a little price to cover the opportunity to win a chunk of a big prize.
In order to boost the chances of winning, the new hand that is qualifying been paid down from four-of-a-kind eights, to four-of-a-kind deuces.
When the lucky winner manages to sweep up the jackpot, ten percent of this prize pool is going to be distributed to players who’ve opted in at the stake level at which the jackpot is hit.
It’s All Yours
In addition, BetVictor, which ended up being created in 1946 and is one of the world’s leading bookmaking that is independent gaming groups, has established that there is no administration fees involved, and so the complete jackpot is going to be distributed to your players involved.
With increased opportunities of winning, and a record-breaking award pool of almost one million euros just waiting to burst, BetVictor is certainly going to have its flooding gates battered down by those looking to play on low-stakes tables because of the chance of a decent payout.