Underground illegal casinos may be on the rise in China’s southern Guangdong province following the imposition of travel restrictions from China to Macau, reports the South China Morning Post.
It follows reports that a member of a local branch of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Hunan was found fatally stabbed in a car park in Foshan, Guangdong—allegedly over a gambling debt.
Chen Longbing was found dead in the grounds of the Huangdu Hotel, Guangzhou Daily reported.
Mr Chen, 39, had been living in Foshan with his wife and three young children for nearly eight years and had run a garment factory employing about 40 people, the report said.
The SCMP said another Chinese newspaper, The Southern Metropolis News, quoted an unidentified but informed source as saying that Chen had lost about 11,000 yuan (HKD12,500) at a secret casino in the hotel. Staff at the hotel denied there was a secret gambling operation there.