{"id":777011817,"date":"2023-12-12T08:34:32","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T11:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777011817"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:46:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:46:40","slug":"macau-proposes-new-penalties-for-illegal-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-proposes-new-penalties-for-illegal-gambling","title":{"rendered":"Macau proposes new penalties for illegal gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Penalties will be extended to up to eight years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Macau.- Director of the Legal Affairs Bureau,<strong>\u00a0Leong Weng In<\/strong>, has presented the draft <strong>Law on Combating Illegal Gambling Crimes<\/strong>, which is intended to replace Macau&#8217;s existing Illegal Gambling Law (Law 8\/96\/m). Leong also said the bill would increase penalties for illegal gambling to up to eight years and the maximum duration of pretrial detention to a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>See also:<\/strong>&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-considers-criminalising-unauthorised-money-exchange-in-casinos\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Macau considers criminalising unauthorised money exchange in casinos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The legislation includes under-the-table or multiplier betting within illegal gambling operations in a bid to avoid potential legal disputes arising from diverse interpretations of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Secretary for Administration and Justice,\u00a0<strong>Andr\u00e9 Cheong Weng Chon<\/strong>, had clarified the necessity of addressing the varying legal interpretations of under-the-table betting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bill also proposes a ban on the operation, promotion, and organisation of online gambling and mutual betting irrespective of the physical location of associated systems and devices within Macau.\u00a0It introduces provisions enabling searches of residences from 9pm to 7am and restricting detainee communication before judicial interrogation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>See also:&nbsp;<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/gaming-related-crimes-in-macau-up-178-6-in-first-nine-months-of-the-year\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gaming-related crimes in Macau up 178.6% in first nine months of the year<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Penalties will be extended to up to eight years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26452,"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 Legal Affairs Bureau has introduced a draft Law on Combating Illegal Gambling Crimes, set to replace existing legislation. The bill proposes significantly increased penalties for illegal gambling, including up to eight years imprisonment, and explicitly criminalises 'under-the-table' betting and online gambling, irrespective of system location. It also introduces new provisions for searches and detainee communication.","focusai_entities":"Leong Weng In, Legal Affairs Bureau, Andr\u00e9 Cheong Weng Chon","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.95), payments_fraud_aml (0.75), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on GGR","query":"How might the explicit criminalisation of 'under-the-table' betting and the ban on online gambling impact Macau's reported Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) in the short to medium term?"},{"label":"Enforcement Challenges","query":"What specific challenges might Macau's regulatory bodies face in enforcing the ban on online gambling, particularly concerning systems and devices located outside the SAR's physical borders?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,154,158],"tags":[23911,23906],"class_list":["post-777011817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777011817","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=777011817"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777011817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777011850,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777011817\/revisions\/777011850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777011817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777011817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777011817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}