{"id":53195,"date":"2017-06-26T14:55:52","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T21:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=53195"},"modified":"2017-06-26T15:01:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T22:01:30","slug":"china-decides-crown-resorts-employee-gaming-marketing-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-decides-crown-resorts-employee-gaming-marketing-sentences\/","title":{"rendered":"China Deals Light Hand in Crown Resorts Employees’ Gaming Marketing Sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"

In China on Monday, 19 Crown Resorts\u00a0employees<\/a> were handed down relatively lenient prison terms by Shanghai\u2019s Baoshan district people\u2019s court, having all pleaded guilty to \u201cgambling crimes\u201d performed on behalf of the Australian casino giant.<\/p>\n

\"Crown
One of 19 Crown Resorts employees sentenced on Monday leaves a Shanghai court,
undoubtedly relieved that he could be out before the weather changes. (Image: Andy Wong\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Five of the group, including Crown Vice President of International VIP Operations Jason O\u2019Connor, were given ten month terms, while the remaining 14 were sentenced to nine months each in prison. The nineteen were arrested last October in at least four different Chinese cities and held without charges for eight months in the Number One Detention Center in Shanghai.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The center’s name is not indicative of an Orbitz rating, but rather a designation of when it came into existence compared to other equally restrictive such centers in the Asian metropolis.<\/p>\n

When charges were filed just two weeks ago, there was a sense of relief. Had the employees been indicted for the far more serious crime of money-laundering, those sentences would almost certainly have been much harsher.<\/p>\n

Illegal Soliciting<\/h2>\n

Instead, the group was convicted under article 303 and 25 of Chinese criminal law, which relate to profiting from gambling and organizing gambling parties. The court also noted that the sentences would encompass time already served, meaning most would be out before end of summer.<\/p>\n

Sixteen of the defendants were also fined around $1.2 million collectively, a sum Crown has said it would pay. Obviously cautious of further inflaming the sensitive political debacle, the casino conglomerate’s PR offices issued the following after\u00a0the sentencing:<\/p>\n

\u201cCrown remains respectful of the sovereign jurisdiction of the People\u2019s Republic of\u00a0China\u00a0and does not intend to comment further at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

But according to Melco CEO and Chairman Lawrence Ho<\/a>, Crown was, in fact, not respectful enough of China\u2019s sovereign jurisdiction and had marketed its casino services far too brazenly to Chinese citizens, which ultimately upset the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what caught their attention: \u2018like what the hell, you\u2019re deliberately spitting in our faces\u2019,\u201d said Ho.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Catastrophic Impact<\/h2>\n

The arrests were seen as a gigantic failure of risk management by Crown Resorts and have had a dramatic effect on its global strategy ever since.<\/p>\n

\n

The company quickly reduced its investment exposure to the region, divesting itself of shares in Melco Crown, the joint venture it formed with Ho to build and operate ambitious integrated resorts in Macau and the Philippines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As VIP revenues nose dived, Crown also pulled out of the Alon project in Las Vegas, preferring instead to concentrate on less risky, reassuringly profitable domestic projects Down Under.<\/p>\n

There was also a board shakeup, with Robert Rankin removed as chairman. Further, Crown sold its fleet of private jets and luxury yachts, whose primary purpose had been to ferry Chinese VIPs to and from their properties.<\/p>\n

Relatives of the defendants told Reuters outside the court on Monday they were satisfied with the sentences, as even with the lesser charges, they still could have faced three years’ imprisonment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In China on Monday, 19 Crown Resorts\u00a0employees were handed down relatively lenient prison terms by Shanghai\u2019s Baoshan district people\u2019s court, having all pleaded guilty to \u201cgambling crimes\u201d performed on behalf of the Australian casino giant. Five of the group, including Crown Vice President of International VIP Operations Jason O\u2019Connor, were given ten month terms, while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":53208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,60,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChina Decides Crown Resorts Employee Gaming Marketing Sentences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crown Resorts employees, detained in China since last year for "gambling crimes," are handed lenient sentences after pleading guilty in a Shanghai court.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China Decides Crown Resorts Employee Gaming Marketing Sentences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crown Resorts employees, detained in China since last year for "gambling crimes," are handed lenient sentences after pleading guilty in a Shanghai court.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-decides-crown-resorts-employee-gaming-marketing-sentences\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-26T21:55:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-26T22:01:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Crown-Employees-sentenced.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-decides-crown-resorts-employee-gaming-marketing-sentences\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-decides-crown-resorts-employee-gaming-marketing-sentences\/\",\"name\":\"China Decides Crown Resorts Employee Gaming Marketing Sentences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-decides-crown-resorts-employee-gaming-marketing-sentences\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-decides-crown-resorts-employee-gaming-marketing-sentences\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Crown-Employees-sentenced.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-26T21:55:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-26T22:01:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Crown Resorts employees, detained in China since last year for \\\"gambling crimes,\\\" are handed lenient sentences after pleading guilty in a Shanghai court.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-decides-crown-resorts-employee-gaming-marketing-sentences\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-decides-crown-resorts-employee-gaming-marketing-sentences\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-decides-crown-resorts-employee-gaming-marketing-sentences\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Crown-Employees-sentenced.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Crown-Employees-sentenced.jpg\",\"width\":768,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"One of 19 Crown Resorts employees sentenced on Monday leaves a Shanghai court, undoubtedly relieved that he could be out before the weather changes. 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