Macau casino mogul Lawrence Ho said that Crown Resorts, the company controlled by his former business partner James Packer, and several other gaming companies had upset the Chinese government by engaging employees in China despite a ban on gambling marketing.

Several Crown employees were arrested in China last year on suspicion of illegally marketing gambling, following the conviction of several South Korean casino employees for similar offences in 2015.

“In all of those instances [Crown and the arrests of the South Korean casino employees], you had casino sales people running around offering credit, talking about collection?.?.?.?it wasn’t discreet,” he told the Financial Times in an interview at one of his multibillion-dollar Macau casino resorts.