Braintree Couple Guilty In Underground Casino Case

BRAINTREE, MA — A Braintree couple has pleaded guilty to running unlicensed basement casinos in Chinatown and Quincy, the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office announced.

Xue Tan Zheng, 50, and Xiu Rong Li, 55, both of Braintree, pled guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to charges related to the operation of two unlicensed basement casinos in Chinatown and Quincy, as well as the sale and distribution of more than $1,000,000 unstamped domestic and international tobacco products within the casinos, officials said.

On Oct. 3, 2025, each defendant pled guilty to fifteen felonies, including three counts of money laundering, two counts of tax evasion and filing a false tax return, two counts of registering bets, two counts of possession of an unlicensed gaming device, three counts of trafficking more than 12,000 cigarettes for sale and two counts of transporting more than 12,000 unstamped cigarettes.

Zheng was sentenced to serve up to three years in state prison, with two years of probation. Li received 18 months in the house of corrections, suspended for two years, with two years of concurrent probation.

According to the AGO, since 2022, Li and Zheng operated two unlicensed casinos that provided gaming tables and devices, including slot machines that offered cash payouts, and also sold illegal unstamped tobacco products.

In September 2024, during the execution of a search warrant of the couple’s various residences and businesses, authorities seized 600,000 packs of unstamped cigarettes – valued at $6,000,000 – 22 slot machines and approximately $141,000 in U.S. currency.

Following a review of all available evidence, the AGO also found that Li and Zheng underreported their taxable income on their 2022 and 2023 tax returns.