Macau’s casino regulator has said that some of its senior officials had a meeting on March 13 with the city’s Judiciary Police and the security teams of Macau’s six casino operators, to discuss issues including surveillance systems and “smart” gaming tables. The information was shared in a Saturday posting on the regulator’s WeChat social media account.
The casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, is known by the initials DICJ.
“The Judiciary Police and DICJ have asked the gaming operators to continue updating the surveillance systems within their venues, and achieve a more comprehensive management with technology, such as increasing smart gaming tables,” said the posting.
It added this was so that “the casino operators can enhance the efficiency of their management, while at the same time working with the government electronic administration functions”.
The release also mentioned that in the meeting, the parties discussed initiatives for what was referred to as a “Smart DICJ” approach.
The talks included the difficulties as well as scope for cooperation regarding casino surveillance and information transmission technology.
Several Macau operators have recently flagged plans to use radio frequency identification (RFID) gaming tables.
On March 14, Bill Hornbuckle, chief executive and president of MGM Resorts International, majority owner of Macau casino concessionaire MGM China Holdings Ltd, had told an investment forum that RFID chips – used by the group’s Macau business for some years – were a good way of tracking play by foreign customers, as well as in general for monitoring the monetary integrity of games.
Mr Hornbuckle had added that players from overseas that visit Macau casinos do not like to be put in rooms specially-designated for them, even though such a Macau government initiative offers the casino operators the possibility of a lower tax on such customers’ gross gaming revenue.
In the Saturday posting, DICJ also mentioned that casino entry bans on 2,302 individuals had been imposed by the regulator in 2023. The tally included 1,468 people reported by the Judiciary Police as having been engaged in illicit money exchange activities.
