{"id":777011649,"date":"2023-12-05T08:18:35","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T11:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777011649"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:59:09","slug":"gaming-related-crimes-in-macau-up-178-6-in-first-nine-months-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/gaming-related-crimes-in-macau-up-178-6-in-first-nine-months-of-the-year","title":{"rendered":"Gaming-related crimes in Macau up 178.6% in first nine months of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Macau registered 716 gaming-related crimes in the first nine months of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- The secretary for security,\u00a0Wong Sio Chak<\/strong>, has reported that\u00a0gaming-related crimes rose 178.6 per cent\u00a0<\/strong>year-on-year during the first nine months of the year to\u00a0716 cases<\/strong>. However, the figure is 55.2 per cent lower than the same period in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise is due to the low number in 2022 as a result of Covid-19 countermeasures. The most prevalent gaming-related crimes were scams and thefts, with 155 suspected scams (up 138.5 per cent from last year but down 46.7 per cent from 2019) and 129 thefts (up 486.4 per cent from last year but down 12.8 per cent from 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police investigated 67 suspected gaming-related usury cases (up 168 per cent from last year but down 85.8 per cent from 2019) and 12 gaming-related kidnappings (compared to one in 2022 and down 95.6 per cent from 2019). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wong emphasised the declining trend when compared to pre-pandemic levels. However, at Monday’s briefing, he highlighted antisocial activity associated with touts offering unauthorised money changing in casinos. The topic was mentioned last month during a presentation at the city’s Legislative Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police identified 137 suspected scam cases related to unlicensed money changing in the first nine months. Wong said the Judiciary Police have conducted an “in-depth” study into the possibility of criminalising unauthorised money exchange activities. Macau’s secretary for Administration and Justice,\u00a0Andr\u00e9 Cheong Weng Chon<\/strong>, noted ongoing government efforts to\u00a0address unlicensed money trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macau registered 716 gaming-related crimes in the first nine months of 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26856,"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 178.6% year-on-year increase in gaming-related crimes, totaling 716 cases, during the first nine months of 2023, primarily driven by scams and thefts. While significantly higher than 2022 due to post-pandemic recovery, this figure remains 55.2% below pre-pandemic levels from 2019. Authorities are actively addressing illicit activities, particularly unauthorized money changing, and are exploring its criminalization.","focusai_entities":"Wong Sio Chak, Andr\u00e9 Cheong Weng Chon, Judiciary Police, Legislative Assembly","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Criminalization Impact?","query":"What specific enforcement mechanisms and penalties are being considered for the proposed criminalization of unauthorized money exchange, and how might this impact the operational dynamics and regulatory compliance burden for licensed operators in Macau?"},{"label":"Pre-Pandemic Comparison?","query":"Given the significant year-on-year increase in gaming-related crimes but a decline compared to 2019, what are the Judiciary Police's projections for crime rates as Macau's GGR continues its post-pandemic recovery, and what proactive measures are being implemented to prevent a return to pre-pandemic crime levels?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-777011649","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\/777011649","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=777011649"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777011649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777011672,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777011649\/revisions\/777011672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777011649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777011649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777011649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}