FIRST PERSON
These were not isolated failures but the normalization of misconduct – especially in jurisdictions where the question wasn’t whether the money was dirty, but whether asking was worth the trouble. As long as the junkets delivered and the profits kept on flowing, few looked beyond the drop box. Money, apathy, erosion This isn’t merely a story of an industry gone astray. It is a history lesson, twice told, in how money, regulatory apathy, and ethical erosion created fertile ground for criminal empires to thrive in plain sight. The Triads’ ascent from their Macau stronghold to their seamless integration into a global industry was driven more by profits than by principles. I have explored the explosive growth of Macau’s gaming sector and the entangled legacies of Stanley Ho, Broken Tooth Wan, and Alvin Chau. Foreign operators entered a casino market already mired in violence and corruption – and rather than reform it, they conformed to its norms, offloading legal risk onto junkets, skirting Chinese law, and looking the other way as those same intermediaries deepened ties to the criminal underworld. When transnational organized crime is allowed to flourish within the casino industry two things happen. First, casino activity moves relentlessly up. At first, this can feel like good news for operators and regulators who preside over increased profits and taxes. But over time, it breeds a dependency on criminal activity that explains why so many have failed to tackle it. It also raises the stakes for the criminals who have to protect their lucrative operations from rivals and any regulators looking to close them down. The history of the industry is punctuated by occasions when turf wars spilled over into murderous feuds between triad gangs on the streets of Macau and elsewhere. And it is a single-minded regulator who is prepared to shrug off death threats in pursuit of his goal to keep crime out of casinos. Even if violence doesn’t ensue, there is a second and potentially even more devastating result of criminal infiltration. It positions casino customers right next to bad actors. These characters have no thought or consideration for the welfare of players. They are motivated only by money. Thus, their involvement is almost always accompanied by an upturn in loan sharking and other
forms of exploitation against regular customers. Above all, the association of crime with the casino industry breaks the vital public confidence and trust on which the industry ultimately relies. This isn’t just a story about criminal ingenuity. It is a warning – to look beyond the glitz and into the shadow economies that flourish beneath the lights. Gaming is no longer a regional pastime. It is a global enterprise – interconnected, opaque, and increasingly exposed to criminal forces far beyond the reach of traditional oversight. And still, the public image of the casino remains carefully staged. Industry leaders tout their regulatory credentials. But if these frameworks exist, how do such profound breaches occur not in darkness, but in full view? For corruption to flourish, two failures must align: government oversight must falter – through negligence, political compromise, or willful blindness – and casino operators must either tolerate or collaborate with criminal influence. This is not merely a question of competence. It is about integrity. In Manila, stolen funds from a North Korean cyber-heist were laundered through a VIP room – a direct consequence of hollow anti-money laundering enforcement. Rules exist. But without resolve, regulation is performance. It protects nothing. It hides everything. So if regulators can’t hold the line, who can? Can an industry built on risk and reward regulate itself? Especially when accountability threatens the very profits that sustain it. Can ethical restraint survive when the incentives to look away are overwhelming? These aren’t academic questions. They are real-world tests – for lawyers, regulators, and executives navigating an industry that straddles the line between legitimacy and lawlessness. To confront them, we must discard the romanticized image of organized crime. The old tropes of Mafia skims and cheap buffets have given way to something far more sophisticated. The Triads fused ancient underworld practices with modern financial tools. They didn’t just manipulate the system – they became part of its design.
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IMGL MAGAZINE | JUNE 2025
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