From January through March, law enforcement in Macau recorded a significant 61.5% rise in gaming crimes, with 567 incident reports compared to the same period in 2024. This increase has been associated with the recent criminalization of unlicensed currency exchanges in the casino-rich city.
In June last year, Beijing intensified efforts to crack down on illicit money changers who assist gamblers in circumventing government restrictions on capital flight. By October, the Macau Legislative Assembly had passed legislation that criminalized such activities.
The ministry of public security states that these exchanges contribute to money laundering and are linked to various criminal activities such as fights, fraud, thefts, illegal immigration, and even severe offenses like kidnapping and murder.
The revised Law on Combating Gambling Crimes now imposes prison sentences of up to five years for involved parties. Convictions under this law also carry consequences such as a 10-year prohibition from entering city casinos.
Furthermore, the new law has stepped up penalties for illegal gambling, with side bets and parallel betting punishable by up to eight years in prison. The legislation also enhances police authority to raid and search suspected illegal gambling venues.
**Crime up despite fewer casinos**
Despite a reduction in the number of casinos from 40 in 2019 to just 30 today, a rise in criminal incidents has been observed. Suspicious transaction reports filed by gaming operators hit a record 3,837 last year, marking an 11.8% increase year-on-year and the highest count since Macau established its Financial Intelligence Office in 2006.
This spike in activities of money changers occurred alongside changes in the VIP business sector, notably the near-disappearance of the junket trade. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange in China caps overseas withdrawals from Chinese banks to a mere CNY100,000 ($14,000) per year—a negligible amount for high rollers accustomed to betting $25,000 per hand.
Among the 567 cases reported in the first quarter, 132 involved money changers, accounting for more than 60% of the increase. Fraud was the second most common offense, with 152 cases or 26.8%, followed by usury, theft, misappropriation, and violations of casino exclusion orders.
“Casinos and gambling are often seen as hotbeds for a range of deviant behaviors and criminal acts,” comments Quan Fang, a researcher from the School of Law at Macau University of Science and Technology.
Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, an expert on crime in Macau, also notes that “casinos lead to activities such as money laundering, loan sharking, and prostitution.”
The decision to criminalize money exchanges followed the murder of a money changer who had won approximately CNY2.3 million at a local casino. He was later found stabbed to death in his room at the Wynn Palace on Cotai.
Macau experienced a noticeable spike in gaming-related crime in the first quarter of 2025, primarily attributed to the enforcement of new legislation targeting illegal money exchange operations.