Macau: suspicious gaming transaction reports up 89.1% in Q1

Some 77.1 per cent of all suspicious transactions were related to gaming.

Macau.- The Financial Intelligence Office (FIO) has reported that casino operators filed 1,125 Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) in Q1, an increase of 89.1 per cent year-on-year. Gaming accounted for 77.1 per cent of all STRs, up from 72.8 per cent in the first three months of 2023. In quarter-on-quarter terms, the number of reports increased by 2.6 per cent from 1,096 in Q4 2023.

First-quarter suspicious transaction reports across all sectors totalled 1,460, a 78.7 per cent year-on-year increase and the highest total since the FIO began publishing data in 2006. Financial and insurance institutions accounted for 261 reports, while there were 74 reports from other institutions. STRs filed by casino operators grew from 1,177 in 2022 to 3,431 in 2023.