Jul 13, 2017 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  
The gaming-related crime situation in Macau remains “serious”, the director of Judiciary Police Chau Wai Kuong (pictured) said in a speech on Wednesday.
“Although the performance of Macau’s gaming industry has stabilised since the second half of last year, the gaming-related crime situation remains serious,” he said.
“We have witnessed an increase in the number of cases of unlawful detention related to loan-sharking operations,” Mr Chau noted in his speech. “As such, police have strengthened patrols, having detected 20 cases of gaming-related unlawful detention in a single day.”
Mr Chau added the police would continue – in partnership with the city’s casino regulator and gaming operators – to beef up surveillance at casinos and surrounding areas to prevent gaming-related illegal activities.
Mr Chau additionally said that most gaming-related crime cases had taken place inside casinos, meaning that the rise in cases of suspected gaming-related crime had “not [negatively] impacted the overall public security” situation in Macau.
The Macau authorities label cases as gaming-related when they take place inside a casino or its surroundings.
Macau’s Judiciary Police recorded a total of 734 suspected gaming-related crimes in the first five months of this year, up by 74 cases compared with the prior-year period.
Of the suspected gaming-related crime cases recorded in the January to May period, 189 related to suspected unlawful detention in connection to loan-sharking operations targeting casino gamblers, a 11.8-percent year-on-year increase, according to the police figures.
Suspected cases of loan-sharking targeting gamblers totalled 151 in the first five months this year, down from 179 cases recorded in the prior-year period.
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Alejandro Tengco (pictured), chairman and chief executive of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), is to give the keynote speech for the opening of the SiGMA Asia conference for the...
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