{"id":777024244,"date":"2025-03-19T09:44:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T12:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777024244"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:42:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:42:29","slug":"10-arrested-in-macau-for-alleged-illegal-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/10-arrested-in-macau-for-alleged-illegal-gambling","title":{"rendered":"10 arrested in Macau for alleged illegal gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The arrests were made in the NAPE district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Macau.-<strong>\u00a0The Judiciary Police (PJ)\u00a0<\/strong>has arrested<strong> 10 people <\/strong>for\u00a0alleged involvement in illegal gambling. Those arrested include the alleged operator, an employee and gamblers. Police said a raid was carried out after a tip-off. They seized\u00a0two poker tables, chips and playing cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The alleged operator reportedly admitted renting the premises for MOP13,377 (US$1,673) per month last August, earning a commission of 5 per cent per game, and employing a 43-year-old former croupier at a daily rate of MOP500. The eight gamblers told the police that they learned about the venue through messaging apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New legislation on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-proposes-new-penalties-for-illegal-gambling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">gambling crimes<\/a> entered into force last October. It bans the operation, promotion, and organisation of online gambling and mutual betting irrespective of the physical location of associated systems and devices within Macau. It also increases penalties for illegal gambling to up to eight years and the maximum duration of pretrial detention to a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Macau sees rise in gaming-related crimes in 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The PJ has reported that&nbsp;gaming-related crimes rose by 28.6 per cent&nbsp;year-on-year to&nbsp;1,423&nbsp;in 2024. The number was 34 per cent lower than in 2019. The PJ noted there were&nbsp;<strong>252 cases involving illegal gambling loans<\/strong>&nbsp;and 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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The PJ also recorded&nbsp;<strong>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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There were also&nbsp;<strong>689 cases of phishing messages and fraudulent websites&nbsp;<\/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\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/1643293734mark-six-lottery-returns-at-the-end-of-september-300x200.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\"><span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/6-arrested-in-macau-for-allegedly-selling-mark-six-lottery-tickets\">6 arrested in Macau for allegedly selling Mark Six lottery tickets<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The arrests were made in the NAPE district.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26498,"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 arrested 10 individuals for illegal gambling, including an alleged operator, following a raid that seized poker equipment. This incident highlights the enforcement of new legislation, enacted last October, which bans online gambling operations and increases penalties for related offenses. Concurrently, Macau has reported a 28.6% year-on-year increase in gaming-related crimes in 2024, alongside a significant rise in online fraud and phishing scams causing substantial financial losses.","focusai_entities":"Judiciary Police (PJ)","focusai_location":"Macau, NAPE","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.85), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.8), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Impact Assessment","query":"What specific metrics are being used by Macau's Judiciary Police to assess the effectiveness of the new gambling legislation enacted last October, particularly concerning the reduction of illegal online gambling operations?"},{"label":"Operator Risk Mitigation","query":"How are licensed iGaming operators in Macau adjusting their internal compliance frameworks and fraud detection protocols in response to the reported 28.6% increase in gaming-related crimes and the rise in online fraud?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[20326],"class_list":["post-777024244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-illegal-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024244","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=777024244"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777024277,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024244\/revisions\/777024277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777024244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777024244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777024244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}