A Macau government legal proposal to increase the time that people allegedly involved in some forms of gambling-related crime can be held in pre-trial detention did not elicit on Friday any comment from a Legislative Assembly (AL) committee tasked with reviewing a bill covering that and other matters.
That is according to legislator Chan Chak Mo, head of the relevant committee.
“The committee raised no opinions at all [on this subject],” said Mr Chan at a media briefing on the same day following closed-doors discussion of the bill.
Members of Macau’s Legislative Assembly approved in February the first reading of the bill, titled “Law to Combat Gambling Crimes”, which has been presented by the city’s authorities as a contribution toward minimising the gaming industry’s exposure to criminal influence.
The bill is a rejig for the city’s Illegal Gambling Regime, the original known as Law No.8/96/M. Some of its proposals were aired in a December briefing by the Macau government.
Coco Leong Weng In, director of Macau’s Legal Affairs Bureau, said in the December briefing that for the illegal operation of games of fortune, illegal operation of mutual betting and illegal operation of online gambling, the government proposed extending the pre-trial detention period for such activities by “two months to one year”, depending on whether those in pre-trial detention were suspects, had already been charged with a crime, or were appealing a sentence.
Activities specifically mentioned in the bill as constituting gambling crime include the so-called “multiplier”.
This is a practice where the value of a bet placed at a table is multiplied a number of times, via a private arrangement between parties involved, and which also has the effect of evading the full amount of the 40-percent tax waged on gross gaming revenue in the Macau market.
The proposed lengthening of pre-trial detention is to be achieved, in the new gambling crime framework, via some amendments to Macau’s Criminal Procedural Code.
The draft bill also proposes keeping confidential – for a period of “20 years” – the identity of any informants or criminal investigators working as undercovered agents in a gambling crime investigation. The 20-year judicial secrecy applies following the closing and filing of a final judgement on the relevant criminal case.
Some committee members questioned whether anonymity should be granted for a longer period, said Mr Chan.
Mr Chan told the media his committee did not have a date yet to further discuss with government representatives the details of the gambling crime bill.
