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Fear rising in Macau as 3 murdered in 2 weeks
Source: Agencies |
July 24, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IN Macau, three killings in the past two weeks have raised fears that violent crime, for years a rarity in the world's gambling capital, is growing more common at the same time as the island's casino operators are struggling with slower growth.
Police in the gaming and entertainment hotspot, a one-hour ferry ride from Hong Kong, said a Chinese woman who also held a Japanese passport was found slain last Thursday in a residential area minutes away from the cavernous gambling halls of Sheldon Adelson's Venetian casino.
That came just days after two Chinese were slain at the five-star Grand Lapa hotel, and at the end of June a senior figure in Macau's junket industry was severely beaten.
By contrast, only five homicide cases were recorded between June 2011 and May 2012, according to Macau police statistics.
There does not appear to be an obvious link between the June and July incidents, but security experts and Macau residents say the recent outbreak of extreme violence has its roots among Macau's junket operators - the shadowy companies that help bring the nation's wealthiest to the gambling tables.
"Macau is going through a period of instability," said Steve Vickers, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based Steve Vickers & Associates, a corporate intelligence and security consultancy. "There seems to be a disturbance ... amongst the lower end of the junket community," he said.
Macau, which like Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, has boomed since the 1999 handover, with Las Vegas moguls including Adelson and Steve Wynn setting up glitzy casino hotels. But growth has slowed, causing junket operators to use more aggressive debt-collecting tactics. Many smaller firms are struggling.
Police in the gaming and entertainment hotspot, a one-hour ferry ride from Hong Kong, said a Chinese woman who also held a Japanese passport was found slain last Thursday in a residential area minutes away from the cavernous gambling halls of Sheldon Adelson's Venetian casino.
That came just days after two Chinese were slain at the five-star Grand Lapa hotel, and at the end of June a senior figure in Macau's junket industry was severely beaten.
By contrast, only five homicide cases were recorded between June 2011 and May 2012, according to Macau police statistics.
There does not appear to be an obvious link between the June and July incidents, but security experts and Macau residents say the recent outbreak of extreme violence has its roots among Macau's junket operators - the shadowy companies that help bring the nation's wealthiest to the gambling tables.
"Macau is going through a period of instability," said Steve Vickers, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based Steve Vickers & Associates, a corporate intelligence and security consultancy. "There seems to be a disturbance ... amongst the lower end of the junket community," he said.
Macau, which like Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, has boomed since the 1999 handover, with Las Vegas moguls including Adelson and Steve Wynn setting up glitzy casino hotels. But growth has slowed, causing junket operators to use more aggressive debt-collecting tactics. Many smaller firms are struggling.
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