{"id":777009393,"date":"2023-09-19T07:34:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T10:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777009393"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:57:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:57:49","slug":"macau-seeks-mainland-china-cooperation-to-tackle-illicit-money-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-seeks-mainland-china-cooperation-to-tackle-illicit-money-exchange","title":{"rendered":"Macau seeks mainland China cooperation to tackle illicit money exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Secretary for security, Wong Sio Chak is seeking enhanced cooperation with Chinese mainland security forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- Secretary for security\u00a0Wong Sio Chak<\/strong>\u00a0has expressed a desire for increased cooperation with security forces in mainland China to tackle illicit money-exchange gangs operating in the city.\u00a0According to a press release, discussions on the matter took place during a meeting in Macau between local officials and a delegation from China’s Ministry of Public Security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wong provided an overview of the efforts by Macau’s police in combating Internet and telecommunications scams and illicit money exchange gangs known to operate in the vicinity of casinos. These gangs are involved in unauthorized currency swaps, a practice that often occurs on gaming floors or near the city’s casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macau\u2019s casinos primarily use Hong Kong dollars for betting, but a significant portion of their clientele comes from mainland China, where there are restrictions on the amount of yuan that can be brought across the border. Currently, money exchange is categorised by Macau\u2019s Public Prosecutions Office as a private transaction falling under the city\u2019s financial regulatory framework rather than being treated as criminal offences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The press release quoted vice minister\u00a0Chen Siyuan<\/strong>\u00a0from the Ministry of Public Security, who expressed continued support from mainland authorities for Macau’s police efforts in combating criminal activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month,\u00a0Sio Chak<\/strong>\u00a0said that\u00a0Macau was considering the criminalisation of unauthorised currency exchange<\/a>\u00a0in the vicinity of casinos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Office of the Secretary for Security of Macau<\/strong>\u00a0has reported that\u00a0gaming-related crimes rose 110 per cent<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>year-on-year during the first half of the year to\u00a0422 cases<\/strong>. That compares to 198 cases in H1 2022. Some 8,124 illicit bet-money changers were detected, an increase of 200 per cent, and 488 have been notified that they will be prohibited from entering casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secretary for security, Wong Sio Chak is seeking enhanced cooperation with Chinese mainland security forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":20685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau's Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, is seeking enhanced cooperation with China's Ministry of Public Security to combat illicit money-exchange gangs operating near casinos. Discussions included the potential criminalization of unauthorized currency exchange, currently a financial regulatory matter, amidst a 110% year-on-year increase in gaming-related crimes and a 200% rise in detected illicit money changers in H1.","focusai_entities":"Wong Sio Chak, Ministry of Public Security, Chen Siyuan, Office of the Secretary for Security of Macau, Macau\u2019s Public Prosecutions Office","focusai_location":"Macau, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on GGR?","query":"How might the potential criminalization of unauthorized currency exchange and increased enforcement impact Macau's Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and the operational dynamics for licensed concessionaires, particularly concerning VIP segments?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution?","query":"What specific amendments to Macau's financial regulatory framework or criminal code are being considered to reclassify unauthorized currency exchange, and what is the projected timeline for implementation?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-777009393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777009393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777009412,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009393\/revisions\/777009412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777009393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777009393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777009393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}