Macau casino STRs up 44pct in first quarter: watchdog

Apr 25, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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The number of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) made by Macau casino operators to the city’s authorities rose by 44.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. That is according to data issued this month by Macau’s Financial Intelligence Office.

There were 595 such reports – representing 72.8 percent of all transactions flagged in the city during the period – versus 413 notifications made by the gaming firms in the previous period.

On April 1, the Macau government reported that first-quarter casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) was MOP34.64 billion (US$4.28 billion), up 94.9 percent on the prior-year’s quarter.

The city’s casinos are required to report to the local government any transaction of MOP500,000 or above, although that does not mean that such a transaction will be flagged as suspicious.

The total number of STRs received by the financial watchdog in the first three months of 2023 was 817, an increase of 13.5 percent compared to the prior-year period.

“The change was mainly due to the increase in the number of STRs reported by the gaming sector,” said the intelligence unit.

The tally of flagged transactions from the “financial institutions and insurance companies” sector fell by 28.0 percent year-on-year, to 157. The latest number represented 19.2 percent of all suspicious transactions reported in the first quarter of 2023.

Suspicious transactions under the “other institutions” heading tallied 65, down 27.0 percent year-on-year, and were 8.0 percent of the total.

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