From January to March, law enforcement in Macau reported a significant 61.5% increase in gaming-related crimes with 567 incidents logged, compared to the first quarter of the previous year. This rise in criminal activity is largely due to recent laws targeting unlicensed currency exchanges in the casino-rich city.
In June of the previous year, Beijing began a crackdown on illegal money changers who assist gamblers in circumventing government restrictions on capital outflows. By October, the Macau Legislative Assembly passed laws making these activities illegal. The ministry of public security has indicated that such exchanges are conduits for money laundering and are linked to various other crimes including fights, fraud, thefts, illegal immigration, kidnapping, and even murder.
The revised Law on Combating Gambling Crimes now includes prison terms of up to five years for these offenses, with those convicted also facing a ten-year ban from entering city casinos. Additionally, the statute has increased the severity of penalties for illegal gambling, with side and parallel betting now punishable by up to eight years in prison. The law also enhances the authority of police to conduct raids and searches on suspected illegal gambling operations.
### Crime up despite fewer casinos
Interestingly, the increase in criminal activities has occurred despite a reduction in the number of casinos in Macau, which has dropped from 40 in 2019 to just 30 currently. Gaming operators reported a record 3,837 suspicious transaction reports last year, an 11.8% increase from the previous year and the highest since 2006, the year Macau established its Financial Intelligence Office.
The rise in illegal money changing activities coincides with changes in the VIP business sector, including a significant decrease in the junket trade. The Chinese government restricts overseas withdrawals from Chinese banks to CNY100,000 ($14,000) per year, an amount too small for high rollers who are used to betting $25,000 per hand.
Of the 567 cases reported in the first quarter, 132 involved illegal money changers, accounting for more than 60% of the increase. Other prevalent offenses included fraud with 152 cases, and issues like usury, theft, misappropriation, and defiance of casino exclusion orders.
“Casinos and gambling are generally seen as hotbeds for various forms of deviant behavior and criminal offenses,” noted researcher Quan Fang from the School of Law at Macau University of Science and Technology. Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, a commentator on crime in Macau, added that “casinos lead to activities such as money laundering, loan sharking, and prostitution.”
The decision to criminalize unlicensed money exchanges came shortly after a money changer, who had won approximately CNY2.3 million at a local casino, was found murdered in his room at the Wynn Palace on Cotai.
The surge in gaming-related crime in the first quarter of this year underscores the challenges posed by new legislative measures designed to curb illegal money exchange operations in Macau.