Macau: suspicious gaming transaction reports up 14.1% in Q1
The gaming industry filed 413 suspicious transaction reports in Macau in the first three months of 2022, up 14.1 per cent year-on-year.
Macau.- The Financial Intelligence Office (GIF) has reported that the number of Suspicious Transaction Report (STRs) filed by Macau financial entities and gaming companies in the first quarter of 2022 was up 10 per cent when compared to last year. STRs related to the gaming industry were up 14.1 per cent, from 362 in Q1 2021 to 413.
The total number of suspicious transactions rose to 720, up 10.1 per cent year-on-year. Some 57.4 per cent of reports came from gaming operators.
Financial and insurance institutions accounted for 218 reports up 11.2 per cent from the same period last year. Reports about other institutions accounted for 89, up 7.3 per cent year-on-year. In 2021, the GIF reported a total of 1,330 STRs in Macau, up 9.5 per cent when compared to 2020.
Macau’s GGR for the first three months of 2022 combined stood at MOP17.77bn (US$2.19bn), down 24.8 per cent year-on-year.
Macau: drop in the number of local gamblers
A survey by Davis Fong Ka Chio, director of the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming, has found that the percentage of local residents who gambled in the past 12 months has decreased from 67 per cent to about 40 per cent.
He also noted that the percentage of local gambling addicts had dropped from a peak of 6 per cent to 0.8 per cent. However, Fong Ka Chio said his institute has received more calls to its helpline than ever, although he said some of the callers were from overseas.
Macau now has 59 Responsible Gaming Information Stations designed to provide customers with basic information about responsible gambling and the prevention of gambling addiction. According to Fong Ka Chio, 110,000 people have used the sites since 2012.
