2023 casino crime figures half of 2019

A total of 2,717 investigations related to casino crimes were conducted last year, the Judiciary Police (PJ) announced in a press conference yesterday.

There were 5,428 such cases in 2019. However, both gross gambling revenue (GGR) and tourist arrivals in 2023 were incomparable to those in 2019.

Among the 2,717 cases, six involved investigations requested by third parties, 1,604 involved simple investigations, and 1,107 involved inquisitive investigations.

Elaborating upon the figures, the PJ said the number of casino crimes had dropped significantly.

In addition, the severity of these crimes has mitigated, with occurrences of gambling usury and related confinement having dropped 80.2% and 90.4% when compared with the figures from 2019.

Illegal gambling and money laundering in casinos, among other similar crimes, have significantly decreased.

“The gambling industry is healthily developing in the correct direction,” the PJ said.

Illegal currency exchanges still occur in casinos internationally, “presenting a severe threat to the safety of local casinos,” the PJ added.

Last year, over 11,000 illegal currency exchange practitioners were intercepted in or near casinos. Of those, 2,048 people were banned from local casinos under the authority of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).

Apart from combating the practice here in Macau, efforts have also been used in communication and cooperation with the mainland police to investigate the origins of these practitioners and disconnect them from their financial streams.

Other efforts to combat illegal currency exchanges included negotiations and studies conducted alongside local governmental and private entities on the introduction of legal tools. Promotions were also conducted at local immigration checkpoints and other tourism locations.

Online and telecom frauds also rose last year. The PJ attributes the increase to more habitual online activities forged by three years of the pandemic and associated lockdowns.

Last year, there were 407 cases of telephone fraud, a year-on-year increase of 2.6 times. The main method of this fraud was to impersonate government agency personnel. There were 871 cases of internet fraud, a year-on-year increase of 42.8%.

There were 329 cases of credit card abuse cases for online consumption, an increase of 89.1% year-on-year. Phishing sites were responsible for initiating half of these crimes. In addition, there were 133 cases of nude chatting and extortion, an increase of 52.9% year-on-year (though, in 2019, it should be noted that there were only five such cases).

Public education campaigns

Last year, the PJ established the Anti-Fraud Coordination Centre to coordinate and plan against such crimes and malpractices. A lot of resources were invested to promote all-round and in-depth work in three aspects: prevention, recovery and crackdown.

As far as suspected fraud goes, these three aspects are sequential.

For example, public education campaigns attempt to prevent the occurrence of such crimes.

In a case involving a proposed fund transfer to an alleged scammer, financial institutions will try to persuade the account owner to not to execute the transaction. The last aspect focuses on combating future illegal practices of similar natures.

Following these aspects, and through additional mechanisms, the banking industry has managed to stop 531 fraudulent wire transfers with account owners’ consent, rescuing MOP130 million.

In the same year, the PJ reported 361 allegedly-fraudulent bank accounts to the local banking industry, so that the industry could take preventive measures against these accounts. The PJ described these preventative measures as “crucially useful” in combating online and telecom scams.

Another mechanism the police established with the local telecom industry blocked 194 phishing sites between July and December last year. External policing cooperation efforts were also used to combat these types of crimes.

Rise of investigations

In 2023, a total of 12,390 investigations were conducted, a 43.9% increase year-on-year and a drop of 20.5% in comparison to 2019. Among them, there were 6,804 criminal investigation and prosecution cases, an increase of 52.2% compared with 2022, and an increase of 7.1% compared with 2019. Throughout 2023, the police transferred 2,516 people to judicial authorities for further action.

Last year, the number of serious crimes remained low. There were four homicides, 45 arson cases, and 33 robberies during the year. There were no serious assault or kidnapping cases.