Mobile phone-enabled proxy betting – deemed an illegal activity in Macau casinos but which has been detected recently on the city’s gaming floors – is “extremely difficult” to stamp out, an industry expert has told GGRAsia.
Steps to tackle it include enhanced training for casino frontline staff and reinforced surveillance efforts, stated Macau-based Karen Sun. She is a lecturer specialising in casino game skills and security, and is a former senior executive for table game operations and surveillance within the local industry.
She noted: “Telephone bettors usually share a common suspicious trait: they always place their bets in the very last minute before a betting round is closed. That is because they are waiting for instructions from the gamblers they proxy for.”
Recently-detected incidents involved individuals that had allegedly livestreamed betting activities on Macau-casino main floors in Cotai and downtown venues, using concealed mobile phones when either at live baccarat tables, or live-dealer electronic baccarat terminals. That is according to local Chinese-language media reports, citing the city’s Judiciary Police.
The suspects – all from the Chinese mainland in the reported cases – allegedly made wagers on behalf of people not physically present in the gaming venue, hence the use of the term ‘proxy’.
Ms Sun stated: “[Pit] supervisors should pay attention to the standing gamblers. Proxy gamblers do not usually sit at tableside: doing so can affect the capture angle of their cameras,” when attempting to livestream play.
Casinos taking action
The casino security expert also noted: “Some casino operators have already banned patrons from wearing an earpiece while gambling at the tables.”
Miniature earphones were among items recovered from suspects in recent cases.
It could be hard for card dealers – already busy with often-full live tables or many electronic terminals each with a seated player – to spot suspicious activity potentially tied to proxy betting.
Ms Sun said that of the cases publicised so far, she saw indications the suspects had either been specially coordinated or “trained” in their activities. Media descriptions of the detainees have mentioned a common trait: modifications to clothes so that concealed miniature camera lenses could be used for the filming.
Chan Tsz King, Macau’s Secretary for Security, noted in a Thursday briefing on the city’s crime trends, that the police had not so far found evidence of coordination among suspects.
Ms Sun said that installing signal jammers to disrupt mobile-phone based livestreaming, would not be a “practical solution because signal jammers would affect the normal workings of casinos’ existing equipment, and the onsite communication” among casino workers.
“Therefore, driving out proxy betting is dependent on the detection abilities of the staff members in table game operations, and in security and surveillance,” she remarked to GGRAsia.
It can help if surveillance teams reinforce monitoring with casino-floor security cameras, with images focused specifically on the game zones and patrons, suggested Ms Sun.
She added: “The IT [information technology] team could also develop some alerts in response to certain betting patterns that require further communication,” with casino-floor staff, so that “probes” can be conducted if deemed necessary.
In May 2016, the city’s gaming regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, had issued an instruction banning telephone use at gaming tables. That was widely understood at the time, to cover the practice particularly, of proxy betting at VIP junket-room tables, which had reportedly been occurring up to then.
On Thursday the gaming bureau said via a statement it had a meeting on Tuesday with the city’s six casino operators for talks on measures to detect and curb any current telephone-betting practices.
In reported cases, a number of suspects has been charged with “illegal operation of online gambling or online mutual betting”, an offence under Macau’s Law to Combat Crimes of Illegal Gambling.
