Murder, suicide and torture among gamblers has been rising steadily with the opening of Chinese-owned casinos along the Sino-Burma border meant to earn money in the shortest possible time by Burma's ethnic insurgents' ceasefire groups, said border sources.
The gamblers risk dying in two major ways--- when they win or lose in the casinos in the border controlled areas of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and New Democratic Army – Kachin (NDA-K) in northern Burma, said people in the casinos.
Maijayang, the KIO controlled area on China-Burma border where Chinese-owned casino is situated.
Maijayang, the KIO controlled area on China-Burma border where Chinese-owned casino is situated. On December 14, a Chinese gambler who lost while gambling with borrowed money from casino owners in the casino in Maijayang (Mai Ja Yang) of the KIO, tried to commit suicide with a knife while he was kept at the special hotel meant for detaining such people. He was physically tortured by special watchmen hired by casino owners, said a local eyewitness.
A resident of Maijayang said, the casino in Maijayang is owned by a Chinese and they also hire both Chinese and local Kachins in the name of "businessmen watching job" by paying 800 Yuan per month. But the job involves torture of gamblers who lose borrowed money from the casino owners until they pay back the debt.
The losing gamblers are detained in hotel rooms and are provided mobile phones. They are tortured, assaulted and sometimes murdered as a last resort. Starvation is also resorted to and women gamblers are confined in the rooms naked when they do not pay back the debt to casino owners within the specified period, said sources close to gamblers.
Maijayang casino is the biggest in the KIO controlled area and is open 24 hours and more than 20,000 gamblers, mainly Chinese from different countries, gamble every day, said residents of Maijayang.
The 80 acre Maijayang casino was extended to another 80 acres three months ago, added local people.
There are also incidents like people going missing, being murdered and cases of suicide among Chinese gamblers in another Chinese-owned casino in Laiza, the border trade centre and headquarters of KIO, said residents of Laiza.
The different types of torture on losing gamblers are carried out in all casinos owned by Chinese businessmen in KIO and NDA-K areas. However, the KIO and NDA-K authorities are yet to take up the matter with any seriousness, said KIO and NDA-K sources.
Recently, the biggest casino in Chang Ying Hku in the controlled area of NDA-K near Pangwah Pass on the Burma-China border was closed down because about 80 Chinese gamblers were either dead or missing. The pressure to close came from the Chinese government, said NDA-K sources.
In 2006, another Chinese-owned casino in the KIO's Nbapa near Maijayang was also closed down following pressure from the Chinese government. Here many Chinese gamblers including sons of Chinese government officials were murdered, added KIO officials in Nbapa.
The two Kachin ceasefire groups, the KIO and NDA-K, grant Chinese businessmen permission to open casinos in their controlled areas because they want to earn small tax from hiring out casino land and fees as border entry from Chinese gamblers, sources in the two groups said.
