Australian Casino Company’s Employees Face Charges in China -
By JACQUELINE WILLIAMS and SUI-LEE WEEJUNE 13, 2017
SYDNEY, Australia — The Chinese authorities have charged employees of an Australian casino company with violating gambling promotion regulations, the company said on Tuesday, shedding potential light on a legal clash
that has cast a pall over the gambling industry’s efforts to win Chinese customers.
Crown Resorts Limited, a casino company partly owned by the Australian billionaire James Packer, said in a filing with Australia’s stock exchange on Tuesday
that the employees had been charged and would be tried by a court in Baoshan, a district in Shanghai.
The Chinese authorities detained 18 employees, including three Australian citizens,
in October in a crackdown that sent shivers through the casino industry.
Gambling is illegal on the Chinese mainland, but Chinese customers have helped drive robust casino growth in Macau, a Chinese city
that operates under its own laws, as well as in Australia, Singapore and a number of other destinations in the Asia-Pacific region.
Employees still being detained by the police and those released on bail had been charged, Crown said.
Her husband, Jeff Sikkema, said in an interview on Tuesday
that she had been released on bail, but he said he had not heard about the charges until Crown made its disclosure.
“For my wife — who does admin stuff, makes hotel reservations, processes visas — how is that possibly involved with gambling