{"id":90089,"date":"2018-12-28T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=90089"},"modified":"2018-12-23T03:44:06","modified_gmt":"2018-12-23T11:44:06","slug":"asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian Casino Scandals in 2018: From the Philippines to Saipan, Wrong Kinds of Headlines Make the News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Asia and the gaming industry go together like soba noodles and soy sauce. So too, apparently, do Asian casino operators and scandal: there was plenty to go around in 2018.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_90091\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-90091\" data-style=\"width: 3600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-90091 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/duterte.jpg\" alt=\"Duterte\" width=\"3600\" height=\"2400\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-90091\"class=\"text-description\">Rodrigo Duterte was struck down with a case of selective amnesia in 2018, while Landing\u2019s CEO and Chairman Dr. Yang Zhihui simply disappeared. Meanwhile, everyone was accusing everyone else of \u201ccorruption\u201d across Asia. (Image: Toto Lanzano)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Galaxy\u2019s Quest <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Philippines\u2019 strongarm president Rodrigo Duterte was flexing his muscles over two proposed casino projects this year. Duterte has professed to \u201chate\u201d casinos. But last year, he appeared happy to welcome representatives of Galaxy Entertainment and Landing International, offering his presidential blessing to their multibillion dollar investments in projects for Boracay Island and Entertainment City in Manila, respectively.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Making a marked turnaround this past April, Duterte ordered the shutdown of the paradise holiday destination Boracay Island for environmental cleanup, branding it a \u201ccesspool.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Philippines leader faced claims that his environmental concerns were a pretext to close the island so that Galaxy could build the casino free from scrutiny. Opposition politicians accused the president of having ties to Duterte on the project.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Landing in Hot Water<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>So Duterte developed an ingenious strategy of deflecting criticism by pointedly denying all knowledge of the project\u2019s existence, despite Galaxy having already received a provisional license to operate it.<\/p>\n<p>There would be no casino, he insisted, and he would instead turn Boracay into a \u201cland reform area for farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Is the Boracay casino going ahead? Galaxy says it believes it is, and the government says it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><a style=\"color: #800080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/landing-international-gets-local-thumbs-up-to-build-entertainments-citys-fifth-integrated-resort-nayonlanding\">Another project<\/a> that definitely is not going ahead, according to the Philippine government, is Landing\u2019s $1.5 billion \u201cNayonLanding\u201d integrated resort in the Philippines\u2019 Entertainment City. This, despite reports in the <em>Philippine Star<\/em> that Landing has already started building it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Landing broke ground on the project on August 8, the very day Duterte fired the entire board of the state-run Philippine partner on the project for \u201ccorruption.\u201d The president accused the company&#8211; Nayong Pilipino &#8212; of negotiating a land deal that was \u201cgrossly disadvantageous\u201d to the government.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Chairman, Interpol Chief Go Missing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The mysterious disappearance of Landing\u2019s chairman and CEO, Dr. Yang Zhihui, happened to mesh with the groundbreaking ceremony: it was the last time he was seen in public.<\/p>\n<p>By October, Landing was still denying all knowledge of its leader\u2019s whereabouts in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This was despite numerous reports that Yang had been arrested in Cambodia and extradited to China, where he was reportedly wanted for \u201ccorruption.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">On October 2, Landing\u2019s stock crashed on the news that Hong Kong\u2019s securities regulator had frozen $1.3 billion-worth of assets of an unnamed chairman of a public company who was suspected of fraud.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The regulator said the company in question had reportedly lost contact with the chairman, who it added may be overseas or under investigation in China as a suspect in a corruption case.<\/p>\n<p>According to <em>Bloomberg<\/em>, \u201cat least\u201d three company chairmen &#8212; including Yang &#8212; have gone missing from Hong Kong-listed Chinese firms this year alone, all of whom may have been caught up in Beijing\u2019s ongoing \u201canti-corruption\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Happily, Land resurfaced in late November, after three and a half months off radar.\u00a0 In a brief filing to the Hong-Kong Stock Exchange, Landing explained its chairman had been \u201cassisting the relevant department of the People\u2019s Republic of China with its investigation during the period of his absence\u201d and had now \u201cresumed his duties as Chairman of the Board.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also reported as missing in September was\u00a0Interpol chief Meng Hongwei: the first Chinese national to hold the prestigious global position. Chinese authorities later announced Meng had been detained by the new National Supervision Commission &#8220;anti-corruption&#8221; unit. Meng &#8212; who quickly &#8220;resigned&#8221; &#8212; is accused of accepting bribes and worse. He remains in detention.<\/p>\n<h2>Bad News, Back Wages<\/h2>\n<p>In February, a <em>Bloomberg<\/em> expos\u00e9 of supposed financial improprieties between a controversial casino project on the Pacific island of Saipan and the its authorities sparked a defamation lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>Imperial Pacific &#8212; a company owned by Chinese mother-and-son junket operators Cui Lijie and Ji Xiaobo &#8212; has never operated a casino. Almost since its inception, the company&#8217;s $550 million Imperial Palace, now under construction in Saipan, has been making news.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Following a worker death on the construction site, the project was raided by the FBI (Saipan is a US commonwealth). Agents uncovered widespread visa violations among the workers, most of whom had been shipped to the island from China.<\/p>\n<p>Saipan may be one of the United States&#8217; most remote overseas territories, but it is still subject to federal laws. This year, several contractors were charged with labor violations &#8212; including importing and harboring illegal aliens &#8212; and ordered to pay millions in back wages.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Out on Some Limbs<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It was nonstop drama for the Saipan project in 2018.<\/p>\n<p><em>Bloomberg<\/em> had previously reported that a temporary casino opened by Imperial Pacific in a sleepy shopping mall was exceeding the VIP transaction volumes of most major casinos in Macau &#8212; which it implied meant something suspicious was going on.<\/p>\n<p>In February, <em>Bloomberg<\/em> sent its own crew to visit the island &#8212; and the local hospital &#8212; reporting \u201ca grim catalog of broken bones, lacerations, puncture wounds, dislocated limbs, and eyes penetrated by flying metal\u201d suffered by casino construction workers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p><strong>But the article\u2019s allegations of corrupt financial practices and claims that Imperial had used the island as a \u201cback door to the US financial system\u201d were a bridge too far for the developer and the island\u2019s government. Officials robustly denied the claims and Imperial Pacific executives sued for libel.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In May, Imperial&#8217;s Saipan headquarters was reportedly raided once more by the FBI, although the company denied this.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, for all its reported VIP revenue, Imperial appeared to be struggling with financing for the project throughout 2018 and missed its August construction deadline. The island\u2019s government promptly granted the controversial project <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/controversial-saipan-casino-project-delayed-by-over-three-years\">a two-year deadline extension.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Imperial blamed \u201clabor shortages\u201d for the delay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Asia and the gaming industry go together like soba noodles and soy sauce. So too, apparently, do Asian casino operators and scandal: there was plenty to go around in 2018. Galaxy\u2019s Quest The Philippines\u2019 strongarm president Rodrigo Duterte was flexing his muscles over two proposed casino projects this year. Duterte has professed to \u201chate\u201d casinos. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":90091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,10,18,1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Asian Casino Scandals in 2018: From the Philippines to Saipan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Asian casino scandals abounded in 2018, from Saipan&#039;s Imperial Pacific to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Galaxy Entertainment to Landing International.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Asian Casino Scandals in 2018: From the Philippines to Saipan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Asian casino scandals abounded in 2018, from Saipan&#039;s Imperial Pacific to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Galaxy Entertainment to Landing International.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/\" \/>\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=\"2018-12-28T14:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-23T11:44:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/duterte-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/\",\"name\":\"Asian Casino Scandals in 2018: From the Philippines to Saipan\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/duterte-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-28T14:00:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-23T11:44:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Asian casino scandals abounded in 2018, from Saipan's Imperial Pacific to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Galaxy Entertainment to Landing International.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/duterte-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/duterte-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Rodrigo \u201cRody\u201d Duterte was struck down with a nasty case of amnesia in 2018, while Landing\u2019s CEO and Chairman Dr. Yang Zhihui. Meanwhile, everyone was accusing everyone else of \u201ccorruption\u201d as usual. 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He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Asian Casino Scandals in 2018: From the Philippines to Saipan","description":"Asian casino scandals abounded in 2018, from Saipan's Imperial Pacific to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Galaxy Entertainment to Landing International.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Asian Casino Scandals in 2018: From the Philippines to Saipan","og_description":"Asian casino scandals abounded in 2018, from Saipan's Imperial Pacific to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Galaxy Entertainment to Landing International.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2018-12-28T14:00:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-12-23T11:44:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/duterte-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/","name":"Asian Casino Scandals in 2018: From the Philippines to Saipan","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/duterte-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2018-12-28T14:00:24+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-23T11:44:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Asian casino scandals abounded in 2018, from Saipan's Imperial Pacific to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Galaxy Entertainment to Landing International.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/duterte-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/duterte-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707,"caption":"Rodrigo \u201cRody\u201d Duterte was struck down with a nasty case of amnesia in 2018, while Landing\u2019s CEO and Chairman Dr. Yang Zhihui. Meanwhile, everyone was accusing everyone else of \u201ccorruption\u201d as usual. (Image: Toto Lanzano)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asian-casino-scandals-in-2018-from-the-philippines-to-saipan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime &amp; Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Asian Casino Scandals in 2018: From the Philippines to Saipan, Wrong Kinds of Headlines Make the News"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. 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