{"id":777022694,"date":"2025-02-07T09:16:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T12:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777022694"},"modified":"2026-04-22T02:02:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:02:40","slug":"3-arrested-for-allegedly-broadcasting-gambling-from-macau-vip-gaming-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/3-arrested-for-allegedly-broadcasting-gambling-from-macau-vip-gaming-room","title":{"rendered":"3 arrested for allegedly broadcasting gambling from Macau VIP gaming room"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An alleged illegal gambling syndicate orchestrated at least 11 operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- The Judiciary Police (PJ) <\/strong>has arrested three men aged between 29 and 35 for\u00a0alleged involvement in an illegal gambling syndicate from mainland China that sent agents to secretly broadcast activities in a VIP gaming room in Macau. Those arrested allegedly targeted people via the Chinese messenger application WeChat and invited them to take part in “under-the-table” betting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An initial investigation, which was prompted by a tip-off, found the group had conducted at least 11 operations <\/strong>from last August to this month. The amount of bets placed at the gaming tables was approximately HK$790,000 (US$101,461), while undisclosed bets reached around HK$5.36m (US$688,500).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police seized mobile phones, headphones, HK$344,000 (US$44,185) in chips and HK$600,000 (US$77,067) in cash. It is believed that at least 10 people remain at large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also:<\/strong> Macau DICJ appoints new deputy director<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macau sees rise in gaming-related crimes in 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The PJ has reported that\u00a0gaming-related crimes rose by 28.6 per cent\u00a0year-on-year to\u00a01,423\u00a0in 2024. The number was 34 per cent lower than in 2019. The PJ noted there were\u00a0252 cases involving illegal gambling loans<\/strong>\u00a0and some 47 cases of related unlawful detentions. Both figures were higher than those in 2023 but lower than in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the new legislation on gambling crimes<\/a> entered into force last October, a total of 120 people have been arrested in connection with unlicensed foreign exchange<\/strong> and the PJ seized over MOP11m (US$1.4m) in cash and gaming chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PJ also recorded 354 cases of telephone fraud<\/strong>, down 13 per cent year-on-year. However, online fraud cases increased by 4 per cent. However, the increase in 2024 was much smaller compared to the previous year, where the growth rate was 42.8 per cent. Authorities attributed the decline to anti-fraud campaigns carried out by the government to mitigate the growth of such crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were also 689 cases of phishing messages and fraudulent websites <\/strong>designed to steal credit card information, up 1.1 per cent in year-on-year terms. These scams caused over MOP14m (US$1.8m) in losses to both businesses and people, making them the largest-growing category of online crime in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An alleged illegal gambling syndicate orchestrated at least 11 operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":33583,"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 Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested three individuals linked to an illegal gambling syndicate from mainland China, which orchestrated at least 11 \"under-the-table\" betting operations in VIP rooms using WeChat, involving millions in illicit wagers. This incident coincides with a 28.6% year-on-year rise in gaming-related crimes in Macau for 2024, despite new legislation, highlighting persistent challenges in regulatory compliance and enforcement.","focusai_entities":"Judiciary Police (PJ)","focusai_location":"Macau, Mainland China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.9), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.95), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Countering Under-the-Table Betting?","query":"What specific measures are Macau's DICJ and Judiciary Police implementing to counter the rise in \"under-the-table\" betting and online fraud, particularly within licensed VIP operations, following these arrests?"},{"label":"Impact on Investor Confidence?","query":"How will the increased incidence of gaming-related crime, despite new legislation, impact investor confidence and the regulatory outlook for Macau's concessionaires and the broader capital markets?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[23911,23906],"class_list":["post-777022694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022694","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=777022694"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777022709,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022694\/revisions\/777022709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777022694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777022694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777022694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}