SHANGHAI, July 12 (Reuters) - China released 10 employees of Australian casino operator Crown Resorts Ltd (CWN) on Wednesday, the first of 16 who were detained in October and sentenced in June for gambling crimes.
Four employees, including Australian national Jerry Xuan, emerged from a Shanghai detention facility accompanied by family members and security officials, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene. They left immediately in cars without speaking to media.
Another six were released from a second facility in the city, said a man who identified himself as a lawyer for the families and who declined to give his name.
"Everything went ok," a family member of one of the employees told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Nineteen employees were detained as Crown was trying to attract high-spending Chinese to its casinos outside of China, where gambling is illegal except in the territory of Macau. A court jailed 16 of the employees including three Australians for nine to 10 months, back-dated to their October detention.
The incident prompted Crown to shift focus to its home market. It had been a shareholder of Macau-focused Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd
but sold its remaining stake for $1.16 billion in May.
