The number of cases is up year-on-year because of Covid-19 countermeasures last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Macau.- In a recent Legislative Assembly session discussing Macau’s 2024 Policy Address, secretary for security,\u00a0Wong Sio Chak<\/strong>, has reported that the number of suspected unlicensed money-changing cases was up 232 per cent in the first nine months of 2023.\u00a0Some 9,633 people were arrested<\/strong> for alleged involvement compared to 2,899. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The increase is entirely logical since last year there was little business due to Covid-19 countermeasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wong Sio Chak said that while the detection and prevention of such activities traditionally fell under the purview of the Judiciary Police and Public Security Police,\u00a0the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ)\u00a0<\/strong>now collaborates with casino operators to identify illicit money touts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wong was asked by secretary for administration and justice, Andr\u00e9 Cheong Weng Chon<\/strong>, how to address the issue from a legal and law enforcement point of view. The government has discounted the idea of tackling it via the planned amendment to Law No.8\/96\/M.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We have previously communicated with the executive and judicial departments. Only when consensus is reached will we be ready to propose a law,” Wong said. He said that measures to combat illegal currency exchange for now would remain “patrols and inspections” or new bans on suspects from entering Macau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The number of cases is up year-on-year because of Covid-19 countermeasures last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777007112,"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 reported a 232% year-on-year increase in suspected unlicensed money-changing cases during the first nine months of 2023, with 9,633 arrests, primarily attributed to the lifting of COVID-19 countermeasures. The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) is now collaborating with casino operators to identify illicit money touts. The government currently favors operational measures like patrols and entry bans over legislative amendments to address the issue.","focusai_entities":"Wong Sio Chak, Judiciary Police, Public Security Police, Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), Andr\u00e9 Cheong Weng Chon","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"DICJ collaboration effectiveness?","query":"What specific metrics or KPIs are being utilized to assess the effectiveness of the DICJ's enhanced collaboration with casino operators in mitigating illicit money touting and its impact on NGR integrity?"},{"label":"Legislative amendment impact?","query":"Given the government's current stance, what are the long-term implications of relying solely on operational measures rather than legislative amendments for combating sophisticated financial crimes and maintaining robust governance frameworks in Macau's gaming sector?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-777011444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777011444","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=777011444"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777011444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777040895,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777011444\/revisions\/777040895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777007112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777011444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777011444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777011444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}