Former triad boss faces less violent but still murky Macau
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MACAU (REUTERS) - Wan “Broken Tooth” Kuok Koi will emerge from jail this weekend into a very different Macau gambling haven than the one he bullied in the late-1990s.
Under new leadership, chosen at a Chinese Communist Party Congress this month where corruption was a dominant theme, Beijing is sending strong signals to Macau authorities to tighten regulation and promote responsible gaming in the world’s casino capital.
It’s a far cry from more than a decade ago when Wan and other triad gangsters ran amok during the final days of Portuguese rule of this southern Chinese outcrop.
The bloody gangland turf wars are a thing of the past, but Macau, transformed into a booming, glitzy strip of casinos, malls and hotels - many owned by U.S. tycoons such as Sheldon Adelson and
Steve Wynn - retains a murky underbelly where dubious money transfers are commonplace and the shadow of triad gangs still hangs.