Macau’s Financial Intelligence Office has told GGRAsia it is expected the city’s 2023 tally of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) will reach “near 2019-level”, as the volume of Macau casino gaming transactions gradually recovers. Historically, casino transactions account for a majority of the city’s flagged financial activities.
The office was responding via email, to an enquiry from GGRAsia. But it also acknowledged the fact that in the first half this year, casino-related STRs were already circa 44 percent above the volume of first-half 2019 casino STRs; the latter being a period before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted business.
During the first six months of this year, an aggregate of 1,392 STRs was filed by the Macau casino sector, representing 73.1 percent of all STRs in the period, according to the most recent data published by the intelligence unit.
The office noted in response to GGR’s enquiry on the outlook for the full year: “The gaming sector submitted 966 reports in [first-half] 2019 and 1,392 reports in [first-half] 2023: this indicates an increase by 44 percent compared to 2019.”
The intelligence unit added: “This may partly be due to the gradual recovery of the volume of gaming transactions, as well as the more effective AML/CFT [anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism] controls implemented by the reporting entities of the gaming sector.”
The tally of 2020 casino STRs fell to 1,215, compared to 1,913 in full-year 2019, coinciding with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, casino STRs went up 9.5 percent year-on-year to 1,330, then fell back again to 1,177 in 2022, according to the intelligence unit’s data.
Transaction types commonly reported by the gaming sector during the first half of this year, included: “chips conversion with minimal gambling activities (or without any such activities)”; “irregular large cash withdrawals”; “significant cash deposit with non-verifiable source of funds”; and “chips conversion, or marker redemption, or gambling on behalf of third part(ies)”, according to the emailed remarks provided by the office.
Such scenarios are the ones most frequently flagged by the gaming sector to the city’s authorities in recent years, the office noted to GGRAsia.
