Gaming-related crime cases rose by 61.8 percent year-on-year in Macau in the first six months of 2024, said a report issued on Monday by the Office of the Secretary for Security. There were a total of 683 instances recorded, compared to 422 in the first half of 2023.
The first-half 2024 figure was down 29.4 percent on the comparable period of 2019, the last trading year immediately prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The year-on-year growth was attributable to a “substantial increase” in visitor traffic to Macau and the “recovery of the gaming industry” regarding business volumes, said the government.
According to data from the city’s Statistics and Census Service, the number of visitor arrivals to Macau in the six months to June 30 exceeded 16.7 million, 43.6-percent higher than a year earlier.
“The continued increase in the number of visitors, while conducive to the recovery and development of the gaming industry and the economy, will inevitably lead to an increase in uncertainties regarding security and related illegal activities” in Macau, the Office of the Secretary for Security stated.
About 23.3 percent of first-half cases – 159 instances – were classified as scams associated with casino environments, up 67.4 percent from the prior-year period. Of those matters, 82 cases involved currency exchange, according to the report, a 90.7-percent increase year-on-year.
The report mentioned an additional 262 cases of unlicensed money exchange taking place in the first six months of 2024; however, because these took place outside casinos, they were not included under the gaming-related tally.
A total of 122 usury cases – i.e., loan sharking – related to gambling was recorded in the January to June period, a rise of 293.5 percent from a year ago.
The police handled 23 unlawful-detention cases related to gambling in first-half 2024, showed the data, compared with just seven cases a year earlier.
In the six months to June 30, the police had conducted checks on 2,215 individuals regarding illicit money exchange activities, according to Monday’s data.
A “majority” of the individuals suspected of illicit money exchange activities were from the Chinese mainland, the report stated. According to the Office of the Secretary for Security, such activity was increasingly pursued by organised groups, and had become “more professionalised”, though the office said local police had been conducting regular crackdowns on such kind of illegal activity.
Speaking in a briefing on Monday, Macau’s Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, said that because of “crackdown efforts” by the Macau authorities and their mainland counterparts, unlawful activities related to “money exchange groups” had “recently shown a decline”.
The Macau government has proposed criminalising such unlicensed money trading in the gaming and non-gaming areas of any casino venue within the city, via an amendment to a draft bill called the “Law to Combat Gambling Crimes”. The matter is to be discussed further in the city’s Legislative Assembly.
