Produced by Phoenix Network "Eye of the Storm"
Text | Lv Yinling Edit | LIU Pei
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In June 2021, it was hot and humid in the south, and a light rain soaked the earth. In the rain and fog, an airplane was parked on the apron, and through the window pane, two men in black short-sleeved T-shirts were sitting side by side at a table.
On the side of the window, Chen Ronglian, then 49 years old, had finished eating, he looked white and clean, his delicate back combed, and his eyes focused on the other person next to him who was talking. This man with a beard and squinting eyes is none other than Zhou Zhuohua, the "new gambling king of Asia", nicknamed "Ximihua". He pulled out a tissue, wiped it casually on his mouth, and continued to talk about the topic just now. Everything looks ordinary.
On the left is Chen Ronglian, on the right is Zhou Zhuohua. Screenshot of TikTok video
In hindsight, the rare gathering of these two gaming bigwigs makes it easy to wonder if the two sides were discussing something big. Because five months later, Zhou Zhuohua was arrested by the police for illegal acts such as operating gambling bottom and online cross-border power investment. Chen Ronglian followed, also charged with triad crimes, illegal gambling operations, etc., and was arrested in early 2022.
In the 80s of last century, Macau's gaming industry was in full swing. Born in Jinjiang, Fujian, Chen Ronglian came to Macau to work hard and plunged into this hot money business, starting from the bottom of the stacked horses. Riding on the east wind of open gambling rights and free travel, he accumulated a lot of industry resources, and gradually operated his own VIP rooms in major casinos in Macau. And Zhou Zhuohua, who was also born in a horse boy, seems to have reached the summit one step earlier than him.
In 2007, Zhou Zhuohua's Suncity Group and Chen Ronglian's Dejin Group opened in the same year, destined to become each other's competitors. From the initial occupation of almost all large casinos in Macau, to 14 years later, the number of transcodes of Dejin VIP rooms exceeded the size of Suncity, and this war without gunsmoke was about to be won or lost.
However, the plot did not continue to stage the "Macau Casino Record", and there was no so-called "double hero hegemony" drama. In fact, at that time, Macau's gaming industry had been greatly affected by the epidemic and went downhill. The two people in the first class seem to be calm and relaxed, pointing out the rivers and mountains, but in fact, they can't help but worry about how to survive under the adverse current.
The outside world has never known what the relationship between Chen and Zhou is in private, and half of Macau's gaming industry is the only image in the same frame left by them in public information. At that sensitive point in time, they met privately in the cabin, what would they discuss?
Two years later, looking back, everything becomes clear. Zhou and Chen were sentenced to 18 and 14 years in prison, only two years apart, but they did not expect their fates to be strikingly similar. The once famous infinite scenery, accumulated tens of billions of wealth for many years, but in the end only the "crime and punishment" left by greed. After the trial falls, the bustling past of casino VIP rooms may also dissipate.
01 Business extends to the mainland
The rain outside the window seems to be the prelude to the symphony of fate of the two. Zhou Zhuohua, who finished eating, may not have imagined that just a few months after the first class meeting, the leading throne of Macau's gambling industry would change hands. In October 2021, Dejin Group's VIP room transcodes surpassed Zhou Zhuohua's Suncity and became the largest gaming junket in Macau.
Chen Ronglian is not as high-profile as Zhou Zhuohua, and he rarely appears in the spotlight except for attending some important occasions with his star wife An Yixuan. Although they are all from a slight background, Chen Ronglian's road to success is far less fortunate than Zhou Zhuohua, Zhou can follow the broken tooth on the underworld to do things, and can cooperate with the old gambling king Fourth Wife, and when Chen Ronglian first entered the industry, he could only live in his uncle's house, and the business was only helped by Fujian fellow villagers.
Fortunately, the gambling rights were opened in 2002 and the free travel industry in 2003, and Macau's gaming industry flourished.
Originally, the old gambling king dominated the side and created the business model of the VIP room, the VIP room is responsible for receiving large bets from VIP customers, the bookmaker contracts the solicitation business of the casino VIP room to the hall owner, and the "stacking boy" under the hall owner is responsible for attracting customers and earning commissions. This VIP approach has allowed Macau casinos to attract wealthy people from all over the world.
After the opening of gambling rights, more people entered the field of casinos and gaming junkets, and VIP rooms of different intermediary companies bloomed in major casinos. Macau's gaming industry also surpassed Las Vegas in 2006 to become the world's largest gambling city.
It was in such a prosperous background that Chen Ronglian founded the Dejin Group, and Lui Che Woo, a Hong Kong tycoon who obtained a 1/3 casino license after the opening of gambling rights, became his early nobleman. In 2007, Chan's first VIP room was opened in Lui Che Woo's Galaxy Entertainment StarWorld Hotel Casino, which became known as the "Star Dejin VIP Club".
Dejin VIP Club
Soon, the VIP room scale of Dejin Group expanded rapidly, once growing to 11 VIP rooms, the number of gambling tables exceeded 160, and even expanded overseas business in the Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam. Even a few years later, when Macau's gaming industry is declining and other VIP rooms are shrinking their business, Dejin is still expanding its territory.
The race to catch up in business is not bloody and you die or live. Chen Ronglian and Zhou Zhuohua are also enemies and friends, and they are increasingly aware that in the sluggish environment, the cake of the gaming industry is becoming more and more difficult to divide, and cooperation to make money is the best choice for both parties.
In this way, the two simply pushed the cup and sat down to study how to make more money together.
In fact, no one knows when Chen began to get acquainted, and their acquaintance seems to have been much earlier than the traces revealed through public channels. At least it can be seen that Chen Ronglian has a cadre under him, Zhang Yaoyang, who has a close relationship with Zhou Zhuohua and his wife.
In the movie "Confused Boy" series, Zhang Yaoyang's villain "Crow" is impressive, and he himself seems to have this underworld temperament. There is a saying circulating on the Internet that after quitting the entertainment industry in 2014, Zhang Yaoyang came to Macau to work in Chan's casino, and later revealed that he would partner with Chen overseas in casino VIP rooms.
And now some photos can be found that confirm that Zhang Yaoyang often appears at the gatherings of Chen and Zhou. Zhou Zhuohua's wife, Chen Huiling, known as "Sister-in-law Ximi", once posted a party photo, which included a separate photo of her and Zhang Yaoyang, and the relationship seemed to be very good. Another photo shows Zhang Yaoyang attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony related to Dejin Group and Mega Phoenix Watches.
Chen Ronglian (left), An Yixuan (middle) and Zhang Yaoyang (right).
Zhang Yaoyang (1st from right) participates in the ribbon cutting of Dejin
Zhang Yiuyang (left) and Mrs. Chow Zhuohua's wife, Chen Huiling (right).
As early as June 5, 2017, Chen Ronglian and An Yixuan held a grand and luxurious wedding, and Zhou Zhuohua and Zhang Yaoyang also appeared at the ceremony and shared their joy. Have the three intersected since then?
Whether Zhang Yaoyang is still involved in the business exchanges between Dejin and Sun City is unknown to the outside world. Regardless of the mutually beneficial agreement reached between Chan and Tu Ren, such a "two-hero" cooperation may not be an opportunity for the rise of Macau's gambling industry, but may be a harbinger of its collapse.
In order to make money, Zhou Zhuohua has opened online gambling platforms in the Philippines and other places since 2016. He has also set up gambling websites on the mainland to attract mainland netizens to participate in online gambling.
According to Hong Kong media reports, in Zhou Zhuohua's case, Chen Ronglian's Dejin Group was more involved, and the amount involved exceeded 300 million yuan.
Wei Pinliang, a mainlander, once acted as an accomplice of the two sides.
According to the Observer Network, as early as May 2017, Dejin Group conspired with Jiangsu Renwei Pinliang to open online gambling in the mainland. Dejin Group provides the website and teleinvestment account to transmit the gambling footage of the Dejin Hall in Manila, Philippines to China in real time through the network, while Wei Pinliang gathers the gamblers recruited in some tea shops in Yixing, Wuxi, to conduct online gambling in the form of "baccarat" and other forms.
In this case, Wei Pinliang is the stacker of Dejin Group and Suncity Group, and he also recruited a group of people as "local escorts", responsible for receiving gamblers and providing code washing services.
In addition to the help of this mainlander, Phoenix.com's "Eye of the Storm" saw from the judgment issued by the Primary Court of the Macao Special Administrative Region that Liao Yongheng, vice president of the business development department of Dejin Group, has been promoting visual power investment to VIP customers at various large and small dinners since 2015. Dejin Group also asked employees to promote power investment business in WeChat moments, which can be described as a trick.
These high-profile crimes leave nowhere to hide. On November 27, 2021, Zhou Zhuohua was arrested, which shocked the Macau gambling scene. A few days later, Chen Ronglian, who was also on a rope, hurriedly closed the "Dejin Group" out of business.
No one knows how Chen Ronglian survived that long winter.
On December 22, 2021, Chen Ronglian ordered his subordinates to hand over some of the documents of Dejin Group to a logistics company and send them to an incinerator to be burned. Two days later, he seemed uneasy, and ordered someone to drill the core area of the mobile hard disk of the main server of the Dejin Group.
These abnormal actions, such a statement of three hundred taels without silver, but exposed the inner worry of the casino boss.
02 The "back" of the table
Dejin Group not only extends its hand to the mainland, but also seeks to earn more ill-gotten gains in Macau. "Betting on the bottom" is a good choice to make quick money.
In fact, the Dejin VIP Club is just a pretense, a cloak of legality. Under the protection of this coat, Chen Ronglian also established "Rongjin Company" and "Deyou Company", attracting gamblers to "bet on the bottom" with high-size commissions in the six major gaming enterprises in Macao.
The so-called "bottom of the bet" is to privately accept the gambler's "bottom" bet at the agreed rate, and the gambler's bet on the gambling table (table) is several times larger, and the win or loss will be doubled, and this exciting game is very easy to make the gambler addicted.
For example, "number of stars: drag three" or "three stars" means that when the gambler bets 100,000 yuan on the "table", the "betting bottom company" also accepts the gambler to bet 300,000 yuan at the "bottom". If the gambler wins, the casino will pay him 100,000 yuan, and the "betting bottom company" will pay him 300,000 yuan at the "bottom"; Similarly, if the gambler loses, the gambler loses $100,000 to the casino on the "table" and $300,000 to the "bottom company".
In this way, these bottom gambling companies were able to cleverly deceive gambling companies, concealing the income of Dejin VIP Club and the actual amount of bets placed by Dejin gamblers.
Greed is not enough, Chen Ronglian almost put the backbone personnel of Dejin Group into this illegal "gambling bottom" business.
The Macau court judgment is highly disclosed. In order to attract more VIP customers to bet on the bottom and earn more illegal income, in May 2014, Dejin sent a notice to employees: "Starting this month, everyone must actively approach customers together, so more than 100 million customers must fully arrange a dinner to meet Liao Yongheng... It is hoped that the results will improve in May. Thank you. In addition to performance pressures, employees responsible for promoting gambling bottoms also give out additional bonuses every month, sometimes in the name of tea money.
Although gambling is nothing new in the industry, how could Chen Ronglian not know its violations and risks. Within Dejin Group, every step of the gambling bottom business must be cautious and pay attention not to fall under the handle.
In the VIP customers at the bottom of the bet, the first thing is to be strictly checked. Not everyone can bet on the bottom, the bottom amount starts at 500,000, and the number of stars needs to be discussed and approved by Chen Ronglian and others before they can "start work".
A series of code words are used within the group to refer to illegal businesses, such as the company responsible for gambling the bottom, called "Star Number Company"; Use the code "outsole", "* number" or "number of stars" to represent the "bet bottom".
Dejin also strictly stipulates that only cash settlement is done, and the bottom side can only be started in Dejin's venue, and the bottom side outside the Dejin venue is not connected. Moreover, it can only drag up to three, that is, the gambling multiplier at the bottom of the table is up to 3 times that of the table.
However, around 2017, these regulations have been adjusted, raising the "bottom line" cash commission from 2.1% to 2.3%, and can be "dragged by up to five". Between winning and losing, this game is played even bigger.
At that time, most of the people entering and leaving the VIP room were rich people from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong. The verdict revealed that gambler Shang Yuqiao knew Chen Ronglian and that he had lost 1.8 million yuan in one fell swoop because of his gambling. Once, he also called Chen Ronglian directly to request a "betting bottom" on behalf of gamblers who did not have a Dejin VIP Club account, and discussed the "number of stars" and other conditions for the gambling bottom with Chen Ronglian on behalf of the other party.
Another gambler, Dong Li, also likes to bet big. In 2014, he gambled on the bottom with the number of stars on the 15th floor of the interstellar world, lost 1 million in 10 hours, doubled according to the number of stars, and finally paid as much as 4 million.
If a gambler fails to repay his gambling debts in a timely manner, Cheung Sau Bi, manager of the Chief Executive Officer's Office, is responsible for collecting the arrears. She also has a task to help Chen Ronglian launder money.
She opened a bank account in the mainland to collect funds from gambling debts, and Dejin Group mixed the money and the funds in Chen Ronglian's account into Dejin's legitimate interests, packaged them into legitimate income through the bank account of Dejin Intermediary Co., Ltd., and then transferred them to Chen Ronglian's BOC account. Of the HK$3,255 million transferred to Chan Wing-lian's account between 2015 and 2022, HK$580 million was an illicit profit.
In this way, Dejin Group conducted "betting bottoms" in 39 VIP rooms in different casinos in Macau, involving a total of about 34.9 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 31 billion yuan) in the "betting bottom" transcoding, and earning at least about 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 1.3 billion yuan) of improper profits. And six gaming companies, including Macao Entertainment Integrated Resort Co., Ltd. and Galaxy Casino Co., Ltd., were kept in the dark. In the same way, Dejin also caused the Macau Special Administrative Region to lose about HK$580 million in gaming tax revenue.
03 The end of the VIP room
The New Year's Eve from 2021 to 2022 is a long and difficult hurdle for Chen Ronglian.
After Zhou Zhuohua's arrest, Macau's gaming industry was in a hurry. Chen Ronglian hid for several days, finally couldn't sit still, and fled to the mainland on January 7, but due to the epidemic, he could not make the trip, and finally smuggled back to Macao the same way. The verdict specifically pointed out that his smuggling behavior was "unusual."
The scenery on both sides of the strait is all Chen Ronglian's familiar appearance, but at this time, there is no room for him anywhere. When he first came to Macau, he was just out of Jinjiang, Fujian, and full of vigorous fighting spirit. This time, he fled in embarrassment, and when he arrived in Macau, he did not go home to see his wife and children, but hid in the Huadu Hotel.
At the Huadu Hotel, Chen's partner Tsai Weizhen arranged a room for him and prepared a power of attorney from Taiwan's "Ministry of the Interior" immigration office, which Chen Ronglian signed in an attempt to flee to Taiwan. On January 29, 2022, Cai Weizhen carefully wrapped this signed document in goosebump paper, carried it with him, and went to take the elevator, when the police broke in and arrested both of them.
At that time, Chen Ronglian was covered with a black cloth hood on his head, and his eyes were pitch black, and he couldn't tell the direction. I don't know if he ever thought that this small police car would be the only way for him to return to the darkness of life. Behind him stumbling back, followed by the boom era of Macau casino VIP rooms.
The scene of Chen Ronglian's arrest
Long after Zhou Zhuohua's arrest and before Chan Ronglian fled, Macau began to undergo stormy changes.
Affected by the Suncity case, gaming companies such as Wynn Macau and Sands China successively notified gaming junkets at the end of 2021 to terminate their cooperative relationships and request the closure of VIP rooms operated by gaming junkets in casinos.
On December 8, Dejin Group, which is in the midst of a torrent, issued a statement saying that it had received notice from some casinos to temporarily suspend cooperative relations with the group, and the affected employees would be dismissed.
Cai Weizhen, who helped Chen Ronglian escape, is also in trouble. He is the chairman of the board of directors of Yinghai Group and has a close relationship with Chen Ronglian. According to the judgment, he and Chen Ronglian formed a joint venture in 2014 to form a gambling bottom company, with Chen Ronglian contributing HK$30 million and Choi Wai-chun contributing HK$5 million. Cai Weizhen's wife, Wang Peiqiong, is also one of Dejin's three directors and is also a senior vice president of the CEO Office of Dejin Group, helping Chen Ronglian operate the gambling bottom business.
According to the post-hearing information kit at the time of Yinghai Group's listing, the company is a tourism service company co-founded by Cai Weizhen and Leung Tat Ming, and Leung Tat Ming has worked in the Dejin Protocol Department from 2011 to 2014. In addition, Yan Jinqun, an executive of Yinghai Group, also served as an assistant concierge manager of the customer service department in Dejin.
Such an intricate relationship seems to bind the fate of the two together, and Cai Weizhen is not only Chen Ronglian's friend, but also helps him deal with various difficult problems. After all, in business, Dejin also gave Yinghai strong support.
In the post-hearing data set, Dejin has been one of the top 5 customers of Yinghai Group in the first 4 months of 2017-2019, and at the same time acted as one of Yinghai's top 5 suppliers in 2017. Interestingly, the residence of the two arrested, Huadu Hotel, is also one of the top five suppliers of Yinghai Group.
Although Cai Weizhen was eventually exempted from punishment by the law, he resigned as executive director and chairman of the board of directors of Yinghai Group during his bail last year, which can be regarded as following Chen Ronglian through some turbulent waves.
Chan Ronglian lost not only the VIP room, but also the position of executive director, co-chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Legend Macau.
Not long ago, in September 2020, when Chen bought 1.28 billion shares of Macau Legend from the old gambling king Santai for 1.344 billion yuan, it was the peak of the scenery. Through several increases in holdings, he finally overwhelmed the old gambling king's former department Zhou Jinhui and became the company's largest shareholder.
Macau Legend operates entertainment venues such as Fisherman's Wharf, Fortune Hotel, Land Casino, Babylon Casino and other entertainment venues in Macau, and with this listed company based on gaming entertainment and hotel business, Chen Ronglian has opened up a territory of his own in the gaming rivers and lakes. Perhaps, his gambling ambitions are not limited to the field of intermediaries.
But once "ambition" turns into "greed", all this becomes a castle built of sand, which can be destroyed with one blow. After the death of the old drug king, Macau's rising stars went further and further down the wrong road, and Zhou and Chen almost lost their past inheritances in one fell swoop.
As early as 2015, in an interview, Chen Ronglian skillfully expressed his welcome to the government's message of increased regulation in a positive expression of expectation. "The VIP lounge business has always been unique to Macau and has no precedent. That's why we can only rely on ourselves to keep exploring and then making improvements to achieve success. He said sincerely, "I hope that after the government strengthens supervision, the industry will have a system that can follow." ”
I wonder if today's laws and regulations meet his expectations? Of the 83 charges charged, Chen Ronglian was eventually convicted of 34 counts, including the crime of underworld, the crime of illegally operating gambling in a licensed place, and the crime of considerable fraud.
On March 8, when Chen Ronglian made his closing argument, in addition to defending the Dejin Group, he also repeatedly mentioned that the 90-year-old father in the family secretly washed his face with tears every day, and a pair of children always talked about "when will Dad come back".
A generation of gambling tycoons burst into tears in the courtroom, trying to win the sympathy of the trial judges. No matter how many sympathy points he wins, his 14-year imprisonment career is difficult to escape, and Chen Ronglian, who has won a class leap through the gambling business, is already difficult to publicly play the role of "overbearing rich" and "spoiled wife tycoon", and he once did not hesitate to spend thousands of dollars to buy villas and diamonds for the star's wife, and he showed the controversy of the rich in his wife's show-off. At the age of 51, he is deeply imprisoned in front and the collapsed Dejin Empire and charged with illegal gambling and fraud in the rear.
After the accident, his wife An Yixuan never appeared. Chen Ronglian seems to be able to accompany Zhou Zhuohua in prison for the rest of his life.
Resources:
Global character "This secret rich man is completely planted!" Marry a well-known actress and destroy countless families" 2022-08-09
Economic Information Daily "Annual Bet Amount Nearly Twice National Lottery Revenue, Extra-large International Online Gambling Platform Deeply Penetrates China" 2019-07-08
Mustang Finance "An Yixuan's husband Chen Ronglian was sentenced to 14 years in prison for "illegal gambling", who took over the bookmaker? 》2023-04-21
Global Gaming's Listening to Chen Ronglian, November/December 2015 issue
On the media "The Crime and Punishment of Gambling" April 1, 2023