CIA using Macau casinos to recruit Chinese officials, says report
July 23, 2015 2 Comments
Officials in China think that United States spy agencies are using casinos in Macau to entrap Chinese government employees, according to a report produced on behalf of an American-owned casino chain in the former Portuguese colony. The report was produced by a private investigator and was commissioned by Sands China, the Macau branch of a casino venture owned by American gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson. Its goal was to investigate why the Chinese-appointed authorities in Macau were hostile to the gambling industry in general and Sands China in particular.
The report is dated June 25, 2010, and includes a warning that it should not be shared with Chinese officials in Macau or in mainland China. It cites several unnamed officials in China’s Liaison Office, which governs Macau and Hong Kong, as well as sources in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Chinese businessmen with close ties to the government in Beijing. It suggests that Beijing is weary of the damage caused to its public image by thousands of its employees gambling away an estimated $2 billion each year in Macau. Additionally, says the report, the central government in Beijing is hostile to the foreign-owned gambling industry in Macau because it believes that it collaborates with Western intelligence agencies. Sands China establishments in Macau, in particular, are believed by the Chinese government to be recruiting grounds for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, says the 2010 report.
Citing “well-placed sources” in the Chinese capital, the report suggests that the fear of espionage is “the primary subject” that causes Beijing’s hostility toward Sands China. It notes that “many of the [Chinese] officials we contacted were of the view that US intelligence agencies […] have penetrated and utilized the casinos [in Macau] to support their operations”. It adds that Chinese counterintelligence agencies have “evidence” that CIA operatives “monitor mainland government officials” who visit Macau to gamble, paying particular attention to those losing large amounts of money, or those visiting Macau without the knowledge of their superiors. They then “lure and entrap” them, forcing them “to cooperate with US government interests”.
The report was uncovered by the Investigative Reporting Program of the University of California Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and published on Wednesday in British broadsheet The Guardian. The paper said the report was among a set of documents filed with a court in Las Vegas, where the former head of Sands’ Macau casinos is suing the company for wrongful dismissal. The Guardian contacted the Sands Company, which rejected the contents of the report as “a collection of meaningless speculation”. Its senior vice president for global communications and corporate affairs, Ron Reese, also dismissed the report as “an idea for a movie script”.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 23 July 2015 | Permalink: https://intelnews.org/2015/07/23/01-1741/
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Ex-intelligence officials warn against building new casino near US spy agencies
January 27, 2025 by Joseph Fitsanakis 8 Comments
Part of the Washington metropolitan area, Tysons is adjacent to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center headquarters. It is also only a handful of miles from the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which is located in nearby Langley, Virginia. Several major government contractors have offices in Tysons, including BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Palantir Technologies, and Deloitte.
A bipartisan group of local lawmakers, headed by State Senate Majority Leader Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax), have proposed a bill that seeks to examine the possibility of building a casino complex in Tysons. The casino would be part of a mixed-use development that would include upscale apartments, a luxury hotel, and a concert venue. Supporters of the bill argue that the proposed development would bring jobs to the area and would elevate the quality of life of Tysons residents.
But the proposed plan is being resisted by a group calling itself National Security Leaders for Fairfax. The newly formed group is reportedly led by Anne Gruner, former deputy director of the CIA’s Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, and Sally Horn, who served as a senior director in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Last December, the group authored a letter [PDF] to local government officials, arguing that the existence of a casino in Tysons could potentially aid the machinations of foreign spies.
The letter decries “[t]he proximity of a Tysons casino to a significant population of government, military, and contract officials with access to highly secretive government intelligence, diplomatic, and defense information”. It cautions that, not only would a casino “attract organized crime —casinos always do— but also adversarial intelligence services looking to recruit those with such access whom they hope to blackmail”.
Gambling addiction has long been considered a vice that could endanger holders of security clearances, because it poses risks to their financial stability and personal integrity. Excessive gambling can lead to debt, which may make individuals vulnerable to coercion, bribery, or exploitation by adversaries seeking access to classified information. The behaviors associated with problem gambling —such as deception, secrecy, or desperation to recover losses— can potentially undermine the trustworthiness and reliability required for maintaining a security clearance.
But those who support the plan for the casino complex dismiss such claims. They argue that there are already several other casinos in the area and that building one more in Tysons would not alter the security dynamics. State Senator Surovell told The Washington Post, which reported about the proposed casino last week: “We already have a massive slots parlor 45 minutes west in West Virginia, [an] MGM [casino] right over the river [in Maryland] and sports gaming on every phone in the state”.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 27 January 2025 | Permalink
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Anne Gruner, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, gambling, National Security Leaders for Fairfax, News, Sally Horn, Tysons (Virginia), United States