Man Jumps from Casino Ship to Escape Loan Sharks

Gambling on loan-shark borrowed cash is all enjoyable and games until such time you lose every one of that money and are forced to remove to your skivvies and jump from your 3rd flooring cabin window aboard the casino ship that has been the reason for your short-lived fun and subsequent woes, into the frigid waters of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor below.

A Chinese national surnamed Lu found that out of the difficult way final week, according to the china newspaper Ming Pao. He presumably borrowed HK$120,000 (approximately US$15,460) from loan sharks and embarked for a evening of gambling aboard the casino ship, which skirts (or rather sails) around Hong Kong’s strict gambling laws by sailing out into international waters, a ever more popular ploy the world over.

The ship ended up being somewhere nearby the Eastern Harbor Crossing Tunnel between Lei Yue Mun and Kwun Tong if the man made their escape effort (the loan sharks had been presumably up to speed with him) after burning through the borrowed cash. He wrapped his documents and exactly what little cash he had left in plastic, stripped down, donned a life jacket, and jumped from the window of his cabin.

Rather than being free to swim to safety and make his wet way house however, he had been acquired by another ship, which immediately brought him, soaking and sullen, to a police that is nearby, and then from there to a 1984 part one summary medical facility for a check-up.

While the man was released by police and has not been charged with any crime, the police are clearly the least of his concerns at present, as he still has a formidable gambling debt hanging over their mind, and likely some very angry people searching for him over it; individuals who probably weren’t particularly impressed by his decision to buy a late night swim.

Chinese Laundry Through the Slots: Money Laundering Alleged for Med Tech Firm

You are thought by you’ve got a gambling problem? How about $116,000 per on a slots habit month? That is how much Bi Xiaodong, wife of China Medical Technologies (CMT) CEO Wu Xiaodong, is rumored to have pumped into the high roller slot machines at Las Vegas’ upscale Wynn and Bellagio casinos between 2005 and 2010, playing with an impressive allowance from the person from whom she was then separated.

Washed Out

The truth is, there are people who throw money around at that crazy level in Vegas, so wagering $5K a hand at slots by itself most likely would not have raised too numerous eyebrows. Just What did catch the attention of investigators, however, was the way that Mrs. Xiaodong received the enormous amounts to manage to afford to play at that level, because one source shows that she might 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 as well as 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 in the New York Stock market.

Cash Problems

It ended up being summer that is last CMT had to shut straight down, after creditors moved in to get 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 civil suit in California, 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 lets players cash out from lengthy periods of slot play with a credit note for all of those other money deposited. The ball player can then simply take that note to a casino cashier, receive a look for the amount that is remaining deposit said check in their particular bank account, and declare it as ‘gambling winnings’ on their tax statements ( that are then cancelled away by the same quantity in ‘gambling losses,’ needless to say.)

Reports say that Bi Xiaodong declared close to $17 million on her returns in victories between 2009 and 2011, with the ancillary loss to cancel the wins out. But the questions about where the cash emanated from were what led investigators to look into the cash that is CMT possibility, and the probability of money laundering of CMT’s massive IPO funds.

Money Speaks

Now CMT’s liquidators are trying to track some $670 million in missing money which was raised throughout the business’s 2005 IPO. Also under investigation are the company’s former finance director Takyung Tsang and his wife.

Could be a full case of dirty laundry.

Macau Gaming Revenues Through the Roof for March

The economy may remain crawling back on its belly every-where else, but in Macau, money appears to be receding of the sky, at the least for its lucrative casino industry.

A J.P. Morgan analyst estimates that March gross Macau video gaming revenues for the world’s most gambling that is successful ever will top out at $3.67 billion, a new month-to-month 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 hand associated with 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 known as the Macau worker self-esteem and Satisfaction Index, 1,026 workers responded about their different amounts of job satisfaction, also their job that is overall confidence. Although slightly down from final year’s Index, the movement downward ended up being delicate sufficient to be able to categorize their emotions as ‘stable’ in the mysterious globe of index rankers.

Casinos Employ Many

With almost a third associated with the survey respondents working in Macau’s booming casino industry, it seems that non-casino employees have ever-so-slightly higher job satisfaction than their casino worker counterparts, with croupiers publishing the lowest satisfaction out of the entire gaming employee group. When considering to income, however, croupiers rake within the greatest satisfaction of any of workers, gaming and non-gaming alike. Could all those incredibly wealthy Asian whales be both impossibly demanding and tippers that are also great they winnings? Sure appears like it.

The ahead year

Now it just remains to be seen if the rest of 2013 is going to be since lucrative as March appears like it will be when all the true numbers are completely tallied.

We understand one group particularly who is wishing for continued wealth 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 record-breaking award pool of €921,603 (those Euros translate to $1,193,291).

‘We’re delighted in order to launch the all-new Bad Beat Jackpot by having an industry record-breaking reward pool of over €920,000,’ announced Andy Horne, head of poker at BetVictor.

More straightforward to Win, More Payouts

Suspended earlier this month to ensure that BetVictor could produce a few changes that are positive the structure because of its players, the jackpot are now able to be won more easily, with more benefiting from the payout too.

‘Will it reach €1 million? Who knows.? The modifications mean it will often be won more and by more individuals now,’ explained Horne. ‘The current jackpot will dsicover over €90,000 paid out to opted-in players playing at the exact same stakes as the winner, so even though you’re maybe not at the table where it hits, it is possible to share within the good fortune, and that’s no bad beat.’

Opt In for Players

Players looking to take part in the Bad Beat Jackpot now need to utilize the ‘opt-in’ option which can be found on all money tables above €0.10/€0.20, at which point they are going to contribute €0.02 to the increasing jackpot each hand they perform a little price to fund the opportunity to win a chunk of a huge prize.

So as to raise the chances of winning, the new hand that is qualifying been reduced from four-of-a-kind eights, to four-of-a-kind deuces.

When the happy winner manages to sweep up the jackpot, 10 % of this reward pool are distributed to players that have opted in at the stake degree at which the jackpot is hit.

It’s All Your Own

In addition, BetVictor, which had been created in 1946 and is now one of many earth’s leading bookmaking that is independent gaming groups, has announced that there is no administration fees involved, so that the complete jackpot will likely be distributed to your players involved.

With increased opportunities of winning, and a record-breaking reward pool of almost one million euros just waiting to burst, BetVictor is certainly going to own its flooding gates battered down by those looking to play on low-stakes tables utilizing the chance of a decent payout.