On a bright, sunny afternoon last week, about 60 people gathered inside Thunder Valley Casino, pressed together five deep at the midi baccarat tables, where the stakes go up to $2,000 a hand.

Others sat intently at the pai gow poker tables nearby.

Almost all were of Asian descent. Most were women.

And each was potential prey in what state and casino officials allege was an unusual and audacious attempt by a Chinese gang to target gamblers at Sacramento-area tribal casinos for extortion and loan sharking.

After a seven-month probe, state Department of Justice officials announced this month they had broken up a scheme that targeted gamblers of Asian descent who frequent Red Hawk, Thunder Valley and at least one other area casino.

The state Bureau of Gambling Control said dozens of people may have been victimized by gang members who watched as gamblers lost big at the tables, then approached them with offers of high-interest loans to make up for their losses or allow them to keep playing.

The bureau, part of the state Department of Justice, said in a report on the investigation that those who couldn't repay the loans met with threats against themselves or family members living in China.

The report did not name any alleged victims. But state investigators provided general descriptions of the allegations: One man, they said, borrowed $100,000 in an arrangement that left him owing $400,000 within five months. In another instance, they said, two women who were slow to pay were roughed up, with one ending up in the hospital; they cited a woman who sent a child back to China out of fear for what might happen.

Six people have been arrested in the case, all believed to be from China. State agents allege their leader was a 47-year-old Sacramento man they describe as a loan shark and gang member. Weixiong Kuang, who was arrested on extortion, conspiracy and assault charges, will be arraigned July 13 in El Dorado Superior Court, Justice Department officials said.

No casino employees were implicated in the probe, and the casinos themselves cooperated fully with the investigation, according to law enforcement officials.

Casinos always on watch
The very notion of such a scheme is surprising, given the security that exists inside and out of area casinos.

"The last place you want to commit a crime is in a casino, and from our perspective, particularly Thunder Valley," said casino spokesman Doug Elmets. "We've got over 1,000 surveillance cameras that can literally zoom in from the ceiling and read the serial number off a dollar bill."

Investigators say three of the area's four tribal casinos were targeted, including Thunder Valley in Lincoln, one of the nation's most profitable; Red Hawk near Placerville; and a third they would not identify.

The concentration of tribal gaming in the Sacramento area has lured gamblers from throughout the region, as well as from the Bay Area's Asian community. So many come to the casinos that last year the state began working to provide help to Southeast Asians who may have gambling problems but have nowhere to turn because of language and cultural barriers.

Officials say the Chinese gangsters would take note of people losing large amounts of money at the tables.

"They'll watch these people as they gamble and start to lose more and more," said Alan Hatano, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Gambling Control. "Once they're in debt, they'll approach them away from the tables and offer them money."

The offers came at a heavy price, agents said. Hatano said some loans charged 5 percent interest a week.

Kuang bailed out of the El Dorado County jail last week. He did not respond to requests for comment.

Tip kicked off probe
A report on the probe from state gambling control investigators spells out how the case evolved. It began last October, when authorities "received information from a concerned citizen in the Sacramento Asian community that a violent loan shark, later identified as Weixiong Kuang, was extorting Asian gamblers at the regional Tribal casinos," the report alleges.

"Kuang, a member of the Chinese criminal syndicate called the Big Circle Boys, was charging 20 percent monthly interest and was routinely observed handling hundreds of thousands of dollars on a weekly basis," the report added.

State gambling control agents, the FBI, Sacramento police and tribal authorities worked together on the investigation. The casinos cooperated, offering up video surveillance and access to the casino floors for undercover agents.

Sacramento police Sgt. Norm Leong said two people claiming to be victims came forward to his department last fall, one a woman in her 50s who had borrowed $5,000, and the other a man in his 60s who had taken out an $80,000 loan.

Investigators allege that the loan sharks operated out of three Sacramento-area homes, including one in the 2200 block of 13th Street, where the bodyguards and payment collectors lived.

Raids netted five handguns and an assault weapon at Kuang's home on Monte Brazil Drive, as well as $20,000 in cash hidden inside his dryer and 10 Ecstasy pills in his car, authorities say. One of the men suspected to be a collector for Kuang had four pounds of marijuana in his car, as well as $5,000 in cash, officials said.

Investigators also found evidence of a loan-sharking operation, the gambling control report said, including "pay owe sheets, contracts, fingerprints of debtors, and financial documents."

"They operated in China before they came to this country, and we believe they've been here for five years," Hatano said.

Authorities allege that Kuang's operation had targeted area casinos for 18 months.

Elmets said the case is the first of its kind detected at Thunder Valley, where security cameras poke out of ceilings throughout the casino and in the corridors of a new hotel being built at the Lincoln resort.

"This is an extremely rare occurrence," Elmets said. "But, nonetheless, it happened and it's incumbent upon us to really make certain that the patrons that are there know they're in an environment where they can safely gamble, an environment that's really designed for entertainment."

"(The gangsters) watch these people as they gamble and start to lose more and more. Once they're in debt, they'll approach them away from the tables and offer them money."

ALAN HATANO, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Gambling Control