The 79.4 percent increase in Macau’s casino-related suspicious transaction reports (STRs) during 2023 compared to 2019, the most recent pre-pandemic trading year, was “mainly due to the economic rebound during 2023,” said the city’s Financial Intelligence Office in reply to some questions from GGRAsia.
Another reason for the increase was due to the “continuous” input of resources by the casino sector in detecting suspicious transactions, the office also stated.
It added that the commonest types of casino STR scenario were “basically the same throughout 2019 to 2023, but in slightly different order in terms of occurrence”.
The office stated the most common triggers for STRs issued by the gaming sector in 2023 “involved different types of gaming activities such as conversion of chips without or with minimal gaming activities, conversion of chips on behalf of third parties, [and] exchange of currency/cash conversion”.
Macau’s casino sector recorded 3,431 STRs for full-year 2023, the most for a 12-month period since record-keeping began in 2006.
The casino-sector’s 2023 tally was up 79.4 percent on 2019’s casino STR aggregate, which stood at 1,913.
Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) for calendar year 2023 was MOP183.06 billion (US$22.73 billion currently). That figure was up by 333.8 percent year-on-year. The 2023 GGR was 62.6 percent of 2019′s MOP292.46 billion.
