Australian casino pair wait to hear if they will be charged
Print Edition
TWO Australian executives of the country’s largest casino operator who were detained in China last week still don’t know if they will face charges, an Australian official said yesterday.
The head of Crown Resorts Ltd’s VIP International team, Jason O’Connor, was among three Australian and 15 Chinese Crown employees detained last Thursday or Friday, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said. They have been caught up in an apparent crackdown on overseas tours for high rollers.
Australian consular officials visited O’Connor and another Australian, whose name was not made public, in a Shanghai detention center on Tuesday, Bishop said.
The third Australian was a dual Chinese citizen who might have been traveling on his Chinese passport, she said. In that case, China would treat him as a Chinese national and he would not be entitled to Australian consular support.
“They are in good health. Their well-being is looked after,” Bishop told reporters. “It’s a detention center, somewhat like a prison, so the conditions are adequate but not comfortable at all.”
“They have no complaints about the way they are being treated and we’ve passed on this information to their families,” she added.
Australia did not have specific details of the allegations under investigation, she said.
The pair can be detained for up to 30 days before they are charged and that period could be extended for another week to allow further investigation, Bishop added.
Jonathan Galaviz, chief strategist at Las Vegas-based Global Market Advisors — consultants to the casino, hospitality and airline industries — said China would likely move quickly with the investigation given the high profile of the case. The probe is part of a crackdown on Crown’s operations to lure high-worth Chinese gamblers to its Australian casinos, Galaviz said.
“This is the strongest telegraphing of a message to the industry that we really don’t welcome you trying to incentivize our citizens to get involved in casino gaming,” Galaviz said.
“Crown as a company has certainly been one of the more aggressive foreign casino companies that have been marketing in China,” he said.
China’s foreign ministry said the Australians had been detained for suspected involvement in gambling crimes, but did not give further details.
Casino gambling is illegal on the Chinese mainland and Chinese law prohibits agents from organizing groups of more than 10 Chinese citizens to gamble abroad.
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