Within weeks of his release from a Macau prison built specifically to hold him, triad boss Wan Kuok-koi, whose rise and fall in the 1990s made headlines around the world, was back in the game.

After walking out of jail on Dec 1, 2012, the man better known by his gangland nickname “Broken Tooth’’ — and whose crimes include murder, car-bombing, arms smuggling, money laundering, human trafficking, the leadership of a criminal organisation and racketeering — was able to ease back into “acceptable’’ casino society in Macau.