{"id":777027527,"date":"2025-06-09T06:09:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T09:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777027527"},"modified":"2026-04-21T22:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:06:06","slug":"2-arrested-for-stealing-casino-chips-in-macau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/2-arrested-for-stealing-casino-chips-in-macau","title":{"rendered":"2 arrested for allegedly stealing casino chips in Macau"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The arrests were made at a casino in Cotai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Macau.- Two Chinese nationals have been arrested for\u00a0allegedly stealing casino chips worth HK$45,000\u00a0(US$5,700) from a gambler at a casino in Cotai. The Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kam Fong said those arrested were a 45-year-old man named Cheng and a 43-year-old man named Zhang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Macau Post Daily, police say Cheng stole stole chips from a gaming table throughout a game, putting them in his coat pocket. He then went to the toilet where Zhang was waiting for him and handed him the stolen chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The victim said he met Cheng at the casino on Saturday evening and that Cheng claimed to be a skilled gambler and offered to help him win. The victim trusted Cheng and gave him HK$30,000 in chips to gamble on his behalf. Police seized chips and two mobile phones. Both suspects have been sent to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the first quarter of the year, the PJ reported that&nbsp;gaming-related crimes rose by 61.5 per cent&nbsp;year-on-year to&nbsp;567. The rise was partly attributed to the new legislation&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-proposes-new-penalties-for-illegal-gambling\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">criminalising illicit money exchange<\/a>, which entered into force in October. The PJ said there were&nbsp;132 cases of illegal currency exchange for gambling, accounting for over 60 per cent of the year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/08\/httpswww.ggrasia.com60pct-macau-airport-august-flights-cancelled-operator-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-casino-spend-per-visitor-rises-in-february-analysts-say'>Macau casino spend per visitor rises in February, analysts say<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The arrests were made at a casino in Cotai.<\/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":"Two Chinese nationals were arrested in Macau's Cotai district for allegedly stealing HK$45,000 in casino chips from a gambler. This incident occurs amidst a significant 61.5% year-on-year increase in gaming-related crimes in Q1, largely driven by new legislation targeting illicit money exchange. The rise in criminal activity highlights evolving operational and regulatory challenges within the Macau gaming jurisdiction.","focusai_entities":"Cheng, Zhang, Cheong Kam Fong, Judiciary Police (PJ), Public Prosecutions Office (MP), Macau Post Daily","focusai_location":"Macau, Cotai","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Impact Assessment","query":"What specific amendments or new provisions within the illicit money exchange legislation are driving the observed increase in reported gaming-related crimes, and how are these impacting operator compliance frameworks?"},{"label":"Operational Risk Mitigation","query":"Beyond the reported arrests, what enhanced security protocols and surveillance technologies are Macau casino operators implementing to counter the rising trend of chip theft and illicit money exchange activities?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[29,229,225],"class_list":["post-777027527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-casino","tag-gambling","tag-legislation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027527","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=777027527"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777027531,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027527\/revisions\/777027531"}],"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=777027527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777027527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777027527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}