Pokie gang in casino turf war

By TONY WALL

A Chinese syndicate that has won hundreds of thousands of dollars and several cars at Sky City Casino is accused of threatening rival gamblers and staff.

The syndicate has virtually taken over many of the casino's slot machines.

Two regular gamblers say their lives were threatened because they competed against the Wu family syndicate for slot-machine jackpots.

Sky City has been fighting through the courts to ban syndicate head Zhang Ping Wu after he allegedly threatened a casino worker last year.

He continued to run the operation from inside the casino until Wednesday, when the Court of Appeal said casinos could exclude anyone without giving a reason.

But the syndicate's 15 or so members, including Mr Wu's father, wife and sister, continue to monopolise many of the casino's slot machines.

They have been successful - Wu alone claims to have won up to $150,000 and two cars in the past two years, and the Weekend Herald watched on Tuesday night as the syndicate won $50,000 in cash.

Sky City became aware of the Wu syndicate about a year ago.

The company, powerless to stop it, went to the Casino Control Authority asking for new powers to crack down on syndicated play.

The authority drafted regulations outlawing the practice.

Sky City's general manager of group operations, David Kennedy, said staff would begin policing the new rules soon.

The key to the Wu syndicate's strategy is occupying as many slot machines connected to a jackpot for as long as possible, waiting until the jackpot is close to the point where it must be struck, then pumping thousands of dollars into the machines and betting maximum credits.

The syndicate has someone at the casino 24 hours a day.

A member of the casino's "VIP" club said he had watched the syndicate closely and complained several times to casino staff that they were monopolising machines and intimidating other gamblers.

Melbourne gambler Josh Ogilvie clashed with the Wu syndicate when he came to Auckland to play the slot machines in March.

He and three friends had formed an informal team, using the same tactics as the Wu group.

"They were doing fantastically until they got some competition," Mr Ogilvie said.

"They were cleaning up, picking up $20,000 jackpots every other day. But about the beginning of the year the competition picked up, and I think that's really what got to them."

He said a man approached him in downtown Auckland.

"He came up ... and started taunting me and saying, 'You want to fight?' He kept reaching for something in his pocket and tried to get me to go into an alleyway.

"He told me I was trouble ... I was costing him money and I should go home to Australia. He said, 'One month you die'."

Mr Ogilvie, a slot machine specialist who won $16,000 on a $10,000 outlay over two months, complained to casino security and police, then fled the country.

He said his gambling in Auckland was only moderately successful.

"I wasn't playing a great deal. For the $20,000 jackpot, for example, you've got to get a seat 24 hours before you hit it.

"The Chinese would sit there for 24 hours, but I'm not going to."

An Auckland woman, who said she was too frightened to be identified, said she was approached by a man after she won several jackpots.

"He said, 'You give me problem, go back where you come from ... it's easy to fix - two bullets'."

She also laid a complaint with police.

She said she was later surrounded by a group inside the casino and one of the group said: "I [expletive] kill you if you don't stay away."

The Weekend Herald approached Mr Wu and his wife at their Wellesley St apartment opposite the casino yesterday.

A syndicate member from Malaysia who won $39,000 on Tuesday was asleep on a mattress.

Mr Wu denied his group had threatened anyone.

He said the allegations came from a rival syndicate and it was his family who were being intimidated. He claimed he had been punched by a rival gambler.

The casino banned Mr Wu for two years after a Taiwanese casino worker complained Mr Wu pointed a finger in his face and said in Mandarin "You'd better watch out".

Mr Wu, who came to New Zealand in 2000, claimed Sky City banned him because he won too much money and questioned the amount of prize money the casino was paying. He drives a $37,000 four-wheel-drive vehicle won by another syndicate member.

Mr Wu asked the High Court last December to overturn his ban, and in February he was granted an interim injunction allowing him back.

But the casino's victory in the Appeal Court this week leaves the Privy Council as Mr Wu's only option. His lawyer, Sean McNally, said they were considering that.