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Poker pro Paul Phua and his son Darren appeared in a federal court on Tuesday to answer to charges they ran an illegal gambling business out of the $25k a night Caesars Palace villas via the popular Asian handicapping betting site SBOBet.com. Phua and six others are set to be arraigned on August 7. The father-son-tandem may be deported back to their native Malaysia. Both men pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
The FBI claims that Paul Phua, 50, is a high-ranking member of the Hong Kong-based 14K Triad, one of the largest criminal syndicates in the world. He is also a regular on the Macau high-stakes poker circuit and considered a major operator of junkets to that gambling mecca.
On July 9, 2014, federal search warrants were executed at the three Las Vegas villas where Phau allegedly ran his World Cup betting ring. Law enforcement agents recovered gambling records, computer equipment, and other items. Phau had been arrested for illegal sports betting and released from jail a year earlier in Macau.
Bloomberg News recounts how, during the FBI raid, a woman working on a laptop was ordered to put her hands up. She raised one hand and continued typing on a betting website with the other, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S.
Poker pros Phil Ivey and Andrew Robl posted the initial $2.5 million bond to get both Phua's released from prison on bail.
Representatives of Firstright Developments Ltd., a Philippine company that owns IBCBet had yet to respond to an e-mail from Bloomberg News seeking comment on Phua’s involvement with IBCBet and his alleged use of the website in Las Vegas.
SBOBet.com itself has previously denied any links to the Vegas sports betting ring.
“Global online sportsbook SBOBET wishes to make it clear that recent press reports linking its name to a Wei Seng Phua (or Phua Wei Seng) who was arrested in the US for illegal online sports betting on the 2014 FIFA World Cup conducted out of a Las Vegas casino base are entirely without foundation.
“Neither the accused nor those arrested with him have any involvement or association with the ownership or management of SBOBET, or with its operators, Celton Manx Limited and Richwell Ventures Limited.
“Additionally SBOBET wishes to clarify that the US is one of more than 30 jurisdictions worldwide from which it does not accept bets from and that any alledged wagers placed via SBOBET.com by the accused could only have been made illegally, as press reports confirm.”
The case is U.S. v. Phua, 14-cr-00249, U.S. District Court, District of Nevada (Las Vegas).
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
