{"id":777031728,"date":"2025-09-16T08:42:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T11:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777031728"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:08:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:08:50","slug":"close-to-600-people-arrested-in-macau-for-alleged-unlicensed-foreign-exchange-for-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/close-to-600-people-arrested-in-macau-for-alleged-unlicensed-foreign-exchange-for-gambling","title":{"rendered":"Close to 600 arrested in first nine months of new Macau foreign exchange law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Combating Illegal Gambling Crimes Law was implemented in October 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- Police have arrested 597 people in nine months for alleged gambling-related foreign exchange crimes. The Office of the Secretary for Security (GSS) Wong Sio Chak said in a statement that HKD71m (US$9.1m) in cash and chips had been seized by the Judiciary Police (PJ) between when the Combating Illegal Gambling Crimes Law<\/a> was implemented on October 29, 2024, until the end of July this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The office said the detentions followed investigations into 387 cases involving illegal money exchange. The money seized included more than HKD56m in cash and over HKD15m in gaming chips. It said the Judiciary Police will continue to review the implementation of the law, optimise enforcement efforts, and adjust strategic deployments \u201dthrough robust, uninterrupted, and precise operations\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new legislation criminalises unauthorised currency exchange when carried out for gambling purposes regardless of whether it occurs inside or outside casinos. Police need evidence to prove that a transaction is for gambling. The bill also\u00a0bans the operation, promotion, and organisation of online gambling\u00a0and mutual betting irrespective of the physical location of associated systems and devices within Macau.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Woman arrested for alleged illegal currency exchange at Macau casino<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Combating Illegal Gambling Crimes Law was implemented in October 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":777031731,"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 police have arrested 597 individuals and seized HKD71m (US$9.1m) in cash and chips over nine months for alleged gambling-related foreign exchange crimes and online gambling offenses. This enforcement follows the implementation of the Combating Illegal Gambling Crimes Law in October 2024, which criminalizes unauthorized currency exchange for gambling and bans online gambling operations regardless of system location within Macau.","focusai_entities":"Office of the Secretary for Security (GSS), Wong Sio Chak, Judiciary Police (PJ)","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.8), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on VIP GGR?","query":"What are the projected impacts of this intensified enforcement on Macau's Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR), particularly within the VIP and high-roller segments, given the focus on illicit foreign exchange?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution?","query":"Are there any anticipated amendments or further legislative enhancements to Macau's Combating Illegal Gambling Crimes Law based on these initial enforcement outcomes and identified operational gaps?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[4503,257],"class_list":["post-777031728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-legal","tag-macau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031728","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\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777031728"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777031768,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031728\/revisions\/777031768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777031731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777031728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777031728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777031728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}