Thai Police Crackdown on Chinese Casino Kingpin
A man wanted in Beijing has been arrested in Bangkok on suspicion of masterminding an illegal online casino empire – the authorities in Thailand will extradite him to China. The 40-year-old man, named by authorities as She Zhijiang had been high on the Interpol most wanted list – achieving a red notice status. Running offshore gambling operations aimed at Chinese citizens has been a common crime for several years, and this arrest is the latest in a myriad of similar cases brought before the Thai courts.
The Chinese state have become increasingly stricter towards the continuation of overseas gambling entrepreneurs operating overseas. She Zhijiang amassed a multi-billion dollar empire by evading the law and offering offshore gambling products to the Chinese market. ©lybide/Pixabay
China’s strict zero-policy towards gambling on its mainland has become a lot harder to enforce in the era of modern network technologies. In the 90’s it was practically impossible to be a successful entrepreneur operating a gambling business in China without having some guarantees from the state authorities that your enterprise would not be tampered with. All that has changed now that business founders can leverage the power of anonymity, and the efficiency of money transfer that modern internet protocols provide.
The strict approach to gambling in China is a result of its staunch approach to gambling control, Beijing has for a long while operated with a zero-policy approach, allowing only Macao to become the region whereby casinos both domestically and internationally owned would be able to operate with impunity. More commonly known and intrinsically tied to this phenomena is the laws by which the state chooses to enforce capital controls – and this two-pronged ban on international gambling both prevents Chinese consumers using the services of offshore products, but also criminalizes the transfer of Chinese currency overseas. This service was famously rendered defunct with the crackdown on junket operators last year.
These strict parameters have not stopped the lust for wealthy Chinese individuals to find loopholes, and workaround solutions. Macao has for a long while served as the bastion of the Chinese elites’ gambling ambitions, but in the era of COVID where international travel and restrictions on movement are arbitrarily enforced with no exception, many have become reluctant to risk being stranded in a place a long way from home.
Gambling Kingpin Evading Capture for Over a Decade
Chinese news media has been proudly commenting on the successful capture of the fugitive since his arrest this week – and according to reports from Caixin this has been a 10 year wait to bring the man into custody. She has been on the run for a decade due to running illegal gambling operations aimed at mainland China customers since 2012. With such a rap sheet and now on his way to China to face a prosecution of charges, it doesn’t look good for the once high-flying gambling kingpin.
She was running his operation out of Southeast Asia and exploited the cheap local labour conditions and a surplus of computer hardware in the local secondary markets to kickstart his venture. The Southeast Asia region has become a hotbed for this type of activity in recent years, particular due to those reasons aforementioned and also a light regulatory environment. The Philippines and Cambodia have been particularly prevalent in these fly-by-night operations, spinning up many instances of the same online casino business model, and trying to capture as much Chinese commercial interest as possible.
There is a sense in China that they’ve got their man, She has been at the top of extradition target lists for a long while over his role in a gambling empire. The extent of She’s business is staggering, and hard to comprehend. As the chairman of Yatai International Holdings Group, his firm made investments across Southeast Asia, and became one of the most powerful casino gaming entities throughout the entire region. Amassing a fortune of $15bln through a diverse range of casino, leisure and gaming products.
Cambodia, the country where She amassed his fortune, recently decided to outlaw gambling following years of increased presence of Chinese entrepreneurs attempting to spin up the same business models as the previous success story. Considering the amount of pressure Beijing has applied to this cause gives a sense at how difficult it would have been for She to evade capture. But She’s freedom is a thing of the past, and his arrest will likely shape the future course of casino and online gambling across the region in a significant way.
