Macau Judiciary Police carry out surprise inspections on VIP rooms
Police officers made unannounced visits to VIP gaming rooms at several Macau casinos along with inspectors from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).
Macau.- The Macau Judicial Police, along with staff from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), secretly visited the internal VIP gaming rooms at several Macau casinos in a series of surprise inspections over two days.
Some 117 people were checked and no violations were found but police found two people overstaying their visas and six people engaged in illegal currency exchange. The inspections took place on February 16 and 17.
The unannounced visits happened as the junket industry reels from the arrests of Alvin Chau and Levo Chan Weng Lin, the heads of Suncity Group Holdings and Tak Chun Group, two of the city’s largest junket groups. Several casino operators have decided to cease all junket arrangements at their venues from December 2021.
Macau recorded 1,372 gaming-related crimes in 2021. The figure was up 23.2 per cent from the 1,114 cases identified in 2020. Authorities said an increase in tourists after the lifting of Covid-19 countermeasures was a factor in the rise in gaming-related crime.
The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) reported that Macau received 7.971m tourists in 2021, up 30.7 per cent year-on-year.
