The trial of former Suncity Group CEO Alvin Chau continued on Monday as the prosecution called nine witnesses to testify, all of whom worked in Suncity’s marketing department.
The department is accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) of recruiting gamblers to conduct “betting under the table” and proxy betting activities. The MP has also accused Suncity of having an Operations Department which was responsible for running betting under the table activities.
Prosecutors on Monday displayed several documents in court, which repeatedly mentioned the word “operations” and which they said referred to betting under the table.
One of the witnesses, Ms Lee, said she was aware of the existence of betting under the table activities in the casino and had heard some of her colleagues refer to the betting under the table gamblers as being linked to the Operations Department.
She also said former Suncity shareholder and agent Cheong Chi Kin should have been in charge of the betting under the table operations but stated, “The people who worked at the VIP room doing betting under the table were not wearing the clothes of Suncity and they only communicated with one of the departments of Suncity.”
“It wasn’t clear whether the people conducting betting under the table were employees of Suncity or how the Operations Department worked.”
Another witness, Mr Ho, said that patrons who wanted to engage in proxy, or telephone, betting would be given a phone number to call in Manila. It is claimed that proxy betting was run through an online firm called Universal e-City, alleged to be owned by Suncity.
