{"id":436481,"date":"2026-05-20T09:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/436481\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T09:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:51:09","slug":"man-facing-charges-over-illegal-poker-venues-in-auckland-flees-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/436481\/","title":{"rendered":"Man facing charges over illegal poker venues in Auckland flees country"},"content":{"rendered":"

He said Fang\u2019s last port of entry was Tokyo, Japan.<\/p>\n

The judge granted a warrant for Fang\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n

Xulue told RNZ that he understood Fang left New Zealand late last year.<\/p>\n

Eight charges were laid against Fang in February this year, including those relating to conducting and advertising illegal gambling, and stealing nearly $600,000 from proceeds of gambling.<\/p>\n

His four companies, JF Boardgames (trading as Poke Ape Cafe), Ape Bar (trading as Poker Ape Bar), Student Help and Student Help 2, are also facing charges relating to illegal gambling at the two CBD venues.<\/p>\n

Student Help and Student Help 2 are listed on the Companies Office website with \u201csocial assistance or welfare services\u201d as their industry classification.<\/p>\n

Among Fang\u2019s charges, the highest penalty is attached to the charge of receiving $590,877 net proceeds from gambling activity at Poker Ape Cafe and Poker Ape Bar, without complying with the requirements of the Gambling Act 2003 and the constitutions of Student Help and Student Help 2.<\/p>\n

If found guilty, a person could face up to seven years of imprisonment under the Crimes Act.<\/p>\n

Under the Gambling Act 2003<\/a>, poker games<\/a> with prizes over $5000 or ticket sales exceeding $25,000 require a Class 3 gambling licence.<\/p>\n

Only incorporated societies can apply and all proceeds must go towards authorised community purposes or prize costs.<\/p>\n

Last December, the DIA disrupted nine alleged illegal gambling venues operating in Auckland after a series of search warrants.<\/p>\n

– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said Fang\u2019s last port of entry was Tokyo, Japan. The judge granted a warrant for Fang\u2019s arrest.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,1873,2841,9881,19553,16484,78,14224,5158,111,43,139,69,1523,212614,6493],"class_list":["post-436481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-auckland","tag-charges","tag-country","tag-facing","tag-flees","tag-illegal","tag-in","tag-lucy","tag-man","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-poker","tag-venues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}