Macau’s Judiciary Police held a press briefing to announce the first case on Tuesday of detention of two suspects for the crime of unlicensed foreign exchange (FX) trading, since a relevant law came into force that same day.
The two – a 51-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman from the Chinese mainland – were caught at a “smoking room” inside a Cotai casino, amid a police inspection of the city’s gaming floors, reported the Chinese-language radio service of public broadcaster TDM, citing Wednesday briefing comments by Judiciary Police spokesman Ho Chan Nam.
The police said they had “sufficient evidence” to pursue a case for a breach of the newly-gazetted “Law to Combat Crimes of Illegal Gambling”, which covers a range of offences, including unauthorised money trading for gambling purposes. The latter – in the event of a criminal conviction – can result in a penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment.
The evidence collected included mobile phones in the possession of the mainland duo, which were thought to have been used for unauthorised money exchange trading. Also seized were cashable gaming chips with an aggregate worth of slightly above HKD51,000 (US$6,563), the Judiciary Police spokesman told the press.
The case has been passed to the city’s Public Prosecutions Office for further investigation, the spokesman also noted.
The crime of “operation of illegal foreign exchange for gambling” is a newly-created offence within the Law to Combat Crimes of Illegal Gambling.
The provision covers unauthorised money exchange activities being operated as a trade regardless of whether in gaming or non-gaming areas of a casino resort. Even unlicensed money changing done at a distance from gaming properties can be deemed in breach of the law, if the authorities can prove the traded money was for use in gambling.
So mentioned Macau’s Secretary for Administration and Justice, André Cheong Weng Chon, in an October 16 plenary session of the Legislative Assembly, the same day the Law to Combat Crimes of Illegal Gambling had a final reading.
