Man Jumps from Casino Ship to Escape Loan Sharks
Gambling on loan-shark borrowed money is all enjoyable and games unless you lose most of that money and are forced to strip to your skivvies and jump from your own floor that is third cabin aboard the casino ship that was the cause of 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 way that is hard week, according to the Chinese language newspaper Ming Pao. He allegedly borrowed HK$120,000 (approximately US$15,460) from loan sharks and embarked on a night 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 was somewhere close to the Eastern Harbor Crossing Tunnel between Lei Yue Mun and Kwun Tong once the man made his escape effort (the loan sharks were presumably on board with him) after burning through the borrowed money. He covered their documents and exactly what little cash he had left in plastic, stripped down, donned a life coat, and jumped from the window of his cabin.
Rather than being free to swim to safety and make his wet way house however, he was found by another ship, which promptly brought him, soaking and sullen, to a police that is nearby, and then after that to the hospital for a check-up.
While the man was launched by authorities and has not been charged with any crime, the authorities are undoubtedly minimal of his worries at the moment, 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 select a late night swim.
You are thought by you do have a gambling problem? What about $116,000 per on a slots habit month? That is exactly how much Bi Xiaodong, wife of China Medical Technologies (CMT) CEO Wu https://shmoop.pro/1984-by-george-orwell-part-one-summary/ Xiaodong, is rumored to have moved into the roller that is high machines at Las Vegas’ upscale Wynn and Bellagio casinos between 2005 and 2010, playing with a whopping allowance from the person from whom she was then separated.
Washed Out
Believe it or not, you will find people who throw money around at that crazy level in Vegas, so gambling $5K a hand at slots per se most likely wouldn’t normally have raised too numerous eyebrows. Just What did catch the eye of investigators, however, was the way that Mrs. Xiaodong received the enormous sums to 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 and for living expenses (begging the question of whether her kids had footwear or milk to drink); and maintains she separated from Wu in 2001 and had nothing to do with his business CMT since before its IPO in 2005 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Cash Problems
It had been last summer whenever CMT had to close straight down, after creditors moved in to get missing interest 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 currently suing Wu Xiaodong in a suit that is civil Ca, alleging that Xiaodong stripped assets from CMT and then fed them surreptitiously to his wife, who in turn ran them through the fancy Strip slots.
How It Works
Here’s the shell game: the casino lets players cash down from lengthy periods of slot play with a credit note for the rest of the money deposited. The gamer can then take that note to a casino cashier, get a search for the remaining amount, deposit said sign in their bank account, and declare it as ‘gambling winnings’ on their taxation statements ( that are then cancelled down 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 victories between 2009 and 2011, with the loss that is ancillary cancel the wins out. But the questions about where the money emanated from were what led detectives to look into the cash that is CMT possibility, and the chance for money laundering of CMT’s massive IPO funds.
Money Speaks
Now CMT’s liquidators are trying to monitor some $670 million in missing cash that was raised throughout the company’s 2005 IPO. Also under investigation would be the company’s former finance director Takyung Tsang and their wife.
Might be a case of dirty laundry.
The economy may be crawling back on its stomach every-where else, however in Macau, cash seems to be falling out in clumps of the sky, at the very 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 successful gambling destination ever will top down at $3.67 billion, a brand new monthly record even for Macau. Using the last monthly tallies not in yet, it’s predicted that last intakes could end up at a 25 per cent enhance over the exact same amount of time in 2012, and it looks like that’s as a result of a expansion of Asian whales, a sector that appears to possess exploded having a 15 to 20 per cent development rate this season.
On the Other Side associated with the Coin
Talk about trickle-down economics: seems most of Macau’s casino industry workers are also having a year that is good far. In a 2013 survey referred to as Macau Employee self-esteem and Satisfaction Index, 1,026 employees responded about their various amounts of job satisfaction, along with their job that is overall confidence. Although somewhat down from last year’s Index, the movement downward ended up being subtle sufficient to be able to categorize their feelings as ‘stable’ in the mysterious world of index rankers.
Casinos Employ Many
With nearly a third for the survey respondents working in Macau’s booming casino industry, it appears 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 extremely wealthy Asian whales be both impossibly demanding and tippers that are also great they winnings? Sure feels like it.
The ahead year
Now it just remains become seen in the event that rest of 2013 will be as profitable as March appears like it will be when all the numbers are completely tallied.
We understand one group specially who is wishing for continued wealth to come hit the tables in Macau: the croupiers.
BetVictor Poker recently revamped and relaunched its massive Bad Beat Poker Jackpot with a record-breaking reward pool of €921,603 (those Euros translate to $1,193,291).
‘we are delighted in order to launch the all-new Bad Beat Jackpot having an industry record-breaking prize 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 easily, with more benefiting from the payout too.
‘Will it achieve €1 million? Who knows.? The modifications suggest it will often be won more and by more people now,’ explained Horne. ‘The current jackpot will see over €90,000 paid out to opted-in players playing at the same stakes as the winner, so even although you’re maybe not during the table where it strikes, you’ll share in the good fortune, and that’s no bad beat.’
Opt Set for Players
Players seeking to take part in the Bad Beat Jackpot now need 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 towards the increasing jackpot each hand they perform a little price to pay for the chance to win a chunk of a huge prize.
In order to raise the chances of winning, the new qualifying hand has been paid off from four-of-a-kind eights, to four-of-a-kind deuces.
When the happy winner manages to sweep up the jackpot, 10 percent for the award pool will be distributed to players who’ve opted in during the stake level at which the jackpot is hit.
It’s All Your Own
In addition, BetVictor, which was established in 1946 and is becoming among the world’s leading bookmaking that is independent gaming groups, has announced that there are no administration fees involved, so the complete jackpot are distributed towards the players involved.
With increased opportunities of winning, and a record-breaking award 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 possibility of a decent payout.