Man Jumps from Casino Ship to Escape Loan Sharks

Gambling on loan-shark borrowed cash is all fun and games until you lose each of that money and are forced to strip to your skivvies and jump from your own third flooring cabin window aboard https://shmoop.pro/1984-by-george-orwell-part-one-summary/ the casino ship that was 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 discovered that out of the hard way final week, in accordance with the oriental paper Ming Pao. He allegedly 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 had been somewhere near the Eastern Harbor Crossing Tunnel between Lei Yue Mun and Kwun Tong whenever man made their escape attempt (the loan sharks had been presumably up to speed with him) after burning through the borrowed money. He covered their papers and just what little money 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 home however, he had been found by another ship, which quickly brought him, soaking and sullen, to a police that is nearby, and then from there to the hospital for a check-up.

Even though the man was released by police and has not been charged with any crime, the authorities are certainly the least of his worries at the moment, as he still has a formidable gambling debt hanging over their head, and likely some very angry people searching for him over it; those who probably weren’t particularly impressed by his decision to opt for a late night swim.

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

You are thought by there is a gambling issue? How about $116,000 per month on a slots practice? 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 impressive allowance from the person from whom she was then separated.

Washed Out

Surprisingly, you will find people who throw money around at that crazy level in Vegas, so gambling $5K a hand at slots per se probably wouldn’t normally have raised too many eyebrows. Just What did catch the interest of investigators, however, was the way in which Mrs. Xiaodong received the sums that are enormous manage to manage to play at that level, because one source suggests that she may have passed as 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 drink); 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 market.

Money Problems

It was summer that is last CMT had to close 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 is now suing Wu Xiaodong in a suit that is civil California, alleging that Xiaodong stripped assets from CMT and then fed them surreptitiously to his wife, who in turn went them through the fancy Strip slots.

How It Works

Here’s the shell game: the casino lets players cash away from lengthy durations of slot play with a credit note for the remainder cash deposited. The ball player can then take that note to a casino cashier, get a check for the amount that is remaining deposit said sign in their bank account, and declare it as ‘gambling winnings’ on their taxation statements ( that are then cancelled away by the same amount in ‘gambling losses,’ needless to say.)

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

Money Talks

Now CMT’s liquidators are attempting to track some $670 million in lacking cash which was raised during the company’s 2005 IPO. Also under investigation would be the company’s previous finance director Takyung Tsang and his wife.

Might be a full case of dirty laundry.

Macau Gaming Revenues Through the Roof for March

The economy may be crawling back on its stomach every-where else, however in Macau, cash appears to be falling out in clumps of the sky, at the least for its casino that is lucrative 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 down at $3.67 billion, a 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 reverse side for the Coin

Talk about trickle-down economics: seems the majority of Macau’s casino industry workers are also having a good year so far. In a 2013 survey known as the Macau Employee self-esteem and Satisfaction Index, 1,026 employees responded about their various amounts of job satisfaction, along with their overall task 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 working 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 lowest satisfaction out of the entire gaming employee group. When it comes to income, however, croupiers rake in the greatest satisfaction of any of workers, gaming and non-gaming alike. Could all those extremely wealthy Asian whales be both impossibly demanding and tippers that are also great they win? Sure appears like it.

The Year Ahead

Now it just remains to be seen in the event that rest of 2013 are going to be as lucrative as March looks enjoy it will be whenever all the numbers are entirely tallied.

We know one group especially who is wishing for continued wide range to come hit 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 award pool of over €920,000,’ announced Andy Horne, head of poker at BetVictor.

Simpler to Win, More Payouts

Suspended earlier this month to ensure BetVictor could create a few positive changes to the structure for its players, the jackpot is now able to be won more effortlessly, with more benefiting from the payout too.

‘Will it achieve €1 million? Who understands.? The changes mean it will be won more regularly and by more and more people now,’ explained Horne. ‘The present jackpot will see over €90,000 paid out to opted-in players playing at equivalent stakes as the winner, so even although you’re maybe not during the table where it hits, you’ll share into the good fortune, and that is no bad beat.’

Opt Set for Players

Players seeking to take part in the Bad Beat Jackpot now require to make use of the ‘opt-in’ option which can be found on all cash tables above €0.10/€0.20, of which point they are going to contribute €0.02 to your increasing jackpot each hand they perform a little price to cover the opportunity to win a chunk of a huge prize.

In order to increase the chances of winning, the new hand that is qualifying been paid off from four-of-a-kind eights, to four-of-a-kind deuces.

When the lucky winner manages to sweep up the jackpot, 10 % for the prize pool are going to be distributed to players that have opted in at the stake level at which the jackpot is hit.

It’s All Your Own

In addition, BetVictor, which had been established in 1946 and is becoming one of the world’s leading bookmaking that is independent gaming groups, has established that there will be no administration fees involved, and so the complete jackpot are going to be distributed towards the players involved.

With increased possibilities of winning, and a record-breaking prize 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 because of the chance of a decent payout.