Macau’s “Law to Combat Crimes of Illegal Gambling” was published on Monday in the city’s Official Gazette, and comes into force on Tuesday (October 29). The act had its final reading as a bill at the city’s Legislative Assembly on October 16.
The new law explicitly targets the ‘multiplier’ practice as an illegal operation of games of fortune.
In criminal prosecutions in 2022 of several former Macau junket bosses, the multiplier was mentioned in those trials as a tax fraud matter. The multiplier was described as an under-the table bet that increases by a number of times the stated value of the on-table bet.
The new law gazetted on Monday also bans operation or promotion of unauthorised online gambling. Recently the government said it “does not have any plans” to grant a public concession for online gambling.
The new statute also criminalises gambling-related unlicensed money exchange. The authorities in Macau and on the mainland have recently stepped up enforcement against unlicensed money changing for gambling.
Another notable aspect of the new act – an overhaul to the existing illegal gambling regime – is to define and set the penalties for any illegal operation of games of fortune, mutual betting, online games of fortune or online mutual betting, and lotteries.
The new law sets a prison term ranging from “one to eight years” for a number of defined crimes. They are respectively, illegal operation of games of fortune; online gambling; and mutual betting.
The ceiling of the possible prison term is raised from a maximum of three years applicable for crimes of the same nature, under the previous legal regime covering illegal gambling.
