A Chinese gambler has been rescued by Philippine police after he was kidnapped by loan sharks to whom he owed a major debt.

The Inquirer reported that Parañaque City police arrested three Chinese nationals accused of kidnapping Dong Yun Hao and holding him hostage in a room at the Okada Manila casino. Dong had reportedly run up a P5m (US$96k) gambling debt that he couldn’t repay.

Police said Dong had been detained as far back as April 5 and that his captors had made a video of them beating Dong that they intended to send to Dong’s family in Beijing to get them to pay his debt. Dong was somehow able to get a message out to his girlfriend, who contacted police, leading to Dong’s rescue.

The three men under arrest are reportedly underlings of a more senior loan sharking figure. Philippine casinos have been plagued by a spate of similar illegal detention cases based on gambling debts to loan sharks, many of them involving foreign nationals.