Police have made multiple arrests in a crackdown on proxies who use livestreaming software to help Mainland Chinese gamblers bet on Macao casino baccarat games.
Officers say underground betting rings in the mainland are now offering a wider range of proxy gambling services, known in betting circles as “electronic betting,” the Chinese-language media outlet Macao Daily News reported.
Police say they have responded by increasing the number of officers on patrol in casinos as they look for “suspicious behavior” among patrons.
On July 8, Macao Judiciary Police said they arrested a “Chinese man with a concealed mobile phone in the chest pocket of his t-shirt.”
“The front-facing camera lens was poking out of the top of the t-shirt pocket. It was pointing at the screen of a baccarat machine,” police officials said in a statement. “He was live-streaming the game using encrypted messaging app software for gamblers in Mainland China.”
The arrest comes just days after police arrested a man on similar charges, accusing him of using a sophisticated “modified shirt” to serve as a proxy for three Mainland Chinese gamblers.
Baccarat Proxy Bet Services: Police Make Multiple Arrests
The man police arrested on July 8 used another mobile phone and a Bluetooth earpiece “to receive betting instructions from gamblers and operate the machine on their behalf,” officers said.
Officers said the arrestee, surnamed Sun, is aged 41, and claims to be a “businessman.”
Police said they have transferred the case to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for further investigation.
The arrest came just hours after police arrested another Mainland Chinese man on almost identical charges.
Officers say the man arrived in Macao earlier this month and conducted three livestream proxy betting sessions prior to his arrest. The suspect, surnamed Ruan, is aged 52 and is currently unemployed, police added.
Casino security staff said the suspect was sitting in a “suspicious way,” and alerted the police.
Officials said the suspect was holding a mobile phone next to a baccarat machine screen and trying to hide the device with a casino-provided road sheet.
In baccarat, road sheets (also known as roadmaps or trend charts) help baccarat players record the history of previous games. They can help gamblers log results of previous hands.
Gamblers transferred stakes of up to $1,275 via WeChat Pay and allegedly gave both arrestees instructions on how to place the bets.
The remote gamblers reportedly told the men they could keep half of the profits if they won, and could also keep any casino loyalty points they earned from making the bets.
Rings Draw a Blank
Neither ring enjoyed any success at the machines; they lost every hand. Police said the arrestees both had casino membership cards in their possession when they took them into custody.
The card data showed that Sun accumulated around $200 worth of points, while Ruan only raked up just over $25.
Police made two other arrests on similar charges earlier this summer, and say there is a chance all the suspects belong to an organized crime group.
“Suspects have meticulously prepared the tools for their crime and modified their clothes in advance,” a Judiciary Police spokesperson said. “They appear to be very familiar with the methods and procedures required.”
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Police have made multiple arrests in a crackdown on proxies who use livestreaming software to help Mainland Chinese gamblers bet on Macao casino baccarat games. Officers say underground betting rings in the mainland are now offering a wider range of proxy gambling services, known in betting circles as “electronic betting,” the Chinese-language media outlet Macao
The post Macao Police Report Spike in Baccarat Proxy Bet Services Catering to Mainland Chinese Gamblers appeared first on CasinoBeats.