A trade union has urged Nevada’s gaming regulators to launch an investigation into the relationship between a junket operator in Macau, the Las Vegas companies operating there and organised crime.
The International Union of Operating Engineers wants the Nevada authorities to look into the Neptune Group, a VIP room/junket operator in the Chinese enclave.
The request follows the launch of a new website, CasinoLeaks-Macau.com, which examines the Macau market and includes hundreds of supporting documents concerning the people and companies involved in the industry there.
In the letter to Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman Mark Lipparelli and Nevada Gaming Commission chairman Peter Bernhard, IUOE director of special projects and initiatives Jeffrey Fiedler warned that the Macau system is “dangerously weak.”
Its acceptance as legitimate, he said, threatens the integrity of regulation in Nevada.
“One of our primary concerns is the apparently significant difference in how Nevada and Macau define ‘suitability’ in practice,” he continued. “Specifically, we urge you to undertake a thorough investigation into the operation of the Neptune Group and its affiliated organisations to determine the suitability to do business with licensed casino operators in Nevada who also do significant business in Macau.”
The union claimed that there are links between organised crime figures and the business.
“To that end we are enclosing detailed information including numerous primary documents on alleged triad leader Cheung Chi Tai and his associates detailing their deep and continuing relationships with Neptune, on the major junket and VIP room operators in Macau.
“In fact, our information is that Neptune and its affiliates have business relationships with five of the six concessionaires in Macau.”
The IUOE represents over 1,000 stationary engineers in Nevada casinos and says that the security and integrity of Nevada gaming and its institutions are “intimately related’ to the wages, hours and working conditions of its members.
