casinos

China Chasing Hundreds of Billions from Casino Money Laundering

The former Portuguese colony of Macau took in $45 billion in gambling revenues in 2013, up 20% from the prior year and nearly seven times the action on the Las Vegas strip. But in the last six months, China’s President Xi Jinping has devastated the “Monte Carlo of the Orient” as he accelerates his anti-corruption campaign against vast layers of entrenched officials. Xi hopes his purge will deflect blame away from the Communist Party as China suffers its worst economic crisis in two decades.

JU PENG / XINHUA/AFP