{"id":777019929,"date":"2024-10-17T10:08:54","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T13:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777019929"},"modified":"2026-04-22T05:04:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T08:04:42","slug":"gaming-regulation-in-macau-legislative-assembly-approves-gambling-crimes-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/gaming-regulation-in-macau-legislative-assembly-approves-gambling-crimes-bill","title":{"rendered":"Gaming regulation in Macau: Legislative Assembly approves gambling crimes bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>All 32 lawmakers attending the plenary session approved the bill on the second reading vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Macau.- The Legislative Assembly has passed the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-proposes-new-penalties-for-illegal-gambling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bill on Combating Illegal Gambling Crimes<\/a> at its second reading with all 32 votes in favour. The bill will come into effect today (October 17).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new legislation criminalises unauthorised currency exchange when carried out for gambling purposes regardless of whether it occurs inside or outside casinos. Any gambling-related foreign exchange activity considered part of a business operation could fall under its provisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police will need to obtain evidence, such as testimony from the unlicensed currency trader or the client, to prove that a transaction is for gambling. The bill also <strong>bans the operation, promotion, and organisation of online gambling <\/strong>and mutual betting irrespective of the physical location of associated systems and devices within Macau.\u00a0It also introduces provisions enabling searches of residences from 9pm to 7am and restricts detainee communication before judicial interrogation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September, the Office of the Secretary for Security in Macau reported that\u00a0gaming-related crimes rose 61.8 per cent\u00a0year-on-year to\u00a0683\u00a0in the first half of the year. The figure remained 29.4 per cent lower than in 2019.\u00a0Authorities attributed the rise to the increase in visitor traffic and the recovery of the gaming industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Casino-related scams accounted for 23.3 per cent of cases, with 159 instances. That\u2019s an increase of 67.4 per cent in year-on-year terms. Among these cases, 82 instances involved currency exchange, reflecting a 90.7 per cent rise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All 32 lawmakers attending the plenary session approved the bill on the second reading vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777004926,"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 Legislative Assembly has enacted new legislation criminalizing unauthorized currency exchange for gambling purposes and explicitly banning the operation, promotion, and organization of online gambling, irrespective of system location. This regulatory enhancement, effective October 17, aims to curb a significant rise in gaming-related crimes, particularly those linked to currency exchange and casino scams, observed amidst the industry's recovery.","focusai_entities":"Legislative Assembly, Office of the Secretary for Security","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.95), investor_analyst (0.85), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on VIP Operations?","query":"How will the criminalization of unauthorized currency exchange specifically impact the operational dynamics and revenue generation from Macau's high-roller and VIP gaming segments?"},{"label":"Enforcement of Online Ban?","query":"Given the global nature of online gambling, what specific enforcement mechanisms and cross-border cooperation strategies will Macau authorities employ to effectively combat the newly criminalized online gambling activities?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,154],"tags":[23911,23906],"class_list":["post-777019929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legislation-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777019929","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=777019929"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777019929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777019961,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777019929\/revisions\/777019961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777004926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777019929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777019929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777019929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}