A report on organized crime in Macau has been released in the British Journal of Criminology, detailing the changes that the triad underworld has undergone since the handover in 1999, and concluding that VIP rooms “remain to this day dominated by triads.”
The report, entitled “Triad Organized Crime in Macau Casinos: Extra-legal governance and entrepreneurship,” asserts that the Chinese criminal underworld is simultaneously developing as traditional territory-based gangs and dynamic businesses produced by entrepreneurs.
“New forms of betting and crime have emerged to meet the needs of high-end gamblers, thus resulting in the formation of a triad-enterprise hybrid that comprises territoriality and reputation of violence commonly found in extra-legal governance and the dynamic entrepreneurship of small firms,” reads the article.
Macau-based gangs have readjusted their traditional use of violence and intimidation and instead adopted market-based business strategies to continue their extra-
legal activities.
“[Triads] continue to treat the VIP rooms as their economic territories and provide extra-legal governance,” the article concludes. “They monopolize the VIP rooms, treat them as their territories and ensure that rivals would not steal their whales [high rollers]. They punish cheats and frauds that occur in their territories, where occasional use of violence is seen.”
Gaming-related crimes continue to account for a significant portion of reported crime in Macau. The Times reported last week that gaming-related cases surged 38 percent to 1,553 cases last year, which law enforcement agencies accredit to heightened police attentiveness to gaming operators as the industry undergoes an “adjustment period.”
The article was written by two academics at City University of Hong Kong from the Department of Applied Social Sciences, T. Wing Lo, and Sharon Ingrid Kwok.
According to Lusa, the study was developed over 30 months between 2012 and 2015 and included interviews with 17 members of triads, VIP hall operators, local officials, and visits to a VIP room of a casino not identified in the report. Daniel Beitler
dicj says it knows of no triads in vip rooms
The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) has said that it has no knowledge of the existence of triads in VIP rooms of Macau casinos, as per the study released in the British Journal of Criminology. “So far, we have not verified any triad selected by casinos or working with junket VIP gaming promoters,” the bureau stated, cited by Lusa. However, they promised to take “appropriate measures” should irregularities be detected and said they would continue monitoring “the fulfillment of their [operators’] legal, statutory and contractual obligations, and other responsibilities stipulated in the legislation.”
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