17 arrested in connection with illegal gambling site

2020-05-06

The police said today they have arrested nine men and eight women, aged between 22 and 58 yesterday, in New Territories yesterday for allegedly taking part in illegal gambling activities, and laundering money as an agent for an illegal gambling website overseas.

The suspects' accounts have been frozen and HK$4.5 million, phones, computers and bank cards were seized.

Acting on information, police found that the illegal website hired agents from Hong Kong and the agents solicited gamblers through social media and friends, opened accounts for them as well as using money to exchange points on the website.

The agents instructed gamblers to deposit money to bank accounts or stored value facilities and then deposited the corresponding points into the gamblers' online account. They also exchanged points with cash at the request of gamblers.

The agents bought the points from the website at a lower price and sold them to gamblers at a higher price. Every HK$1,000 could make a profit of HK$7,000, police said, and agents used their bank accounts to launder money or transfer the money to other agents' stored value facilities and later withdrew cash.

Between December 2017 and January last year, the syndicate handled suspected criminal proceeds of over HK$130 million.

Source:The Standard