The Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) is preparing amendments to the laws regulating financial and monetary activities in Macau to address the problem of illegal currency exchange activities, the Office of the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak said in a reply to a written inquiry from lawmaker Ella Lei.
These activities, which usually take place at casinos or their surrounding areas, started to be popular in Macau in 2017 when local ATMs were installed with a facial recognition system to prevent mainland users from withdrawing money from accounts that were not theirs. The system would also record the mainland identification card the user had used to withdraw money in Macau.
As most mainland gamblers did not want their withdrawals registered, the activity gave rise to currency exchange “freelance agents” who offered better rates than currency exchange shops.
This activity allowed several types of scams and other crimes, and several violent crimes involving murder in Macau in the past few years. This led authorities to establish a joint taskforce between the AMCM and the Judiciary Police to crack down on entities involved in both criminal offenses and illegal financial activities.
Now, as announced by security authorities, AMCM has stated, as a result of the inquiry, that “the government is reformulating the Legal Regime of the Financial System to strengthen penalties for illegal financial activities.”
Doing a review of recent data, the same officials disclosed that “to prevent and curb illegal activities such as illegal currency exchange, from January to April 2023, the Public Security Police Force has carried out a total of 186 operations against the activity in the surroundings of the casinos. In the first quarter of 2023, the police intercepted a total of 3,655 people suspected of performing this activity, which is an increase of 78.4% from the 2,049 intercepted in the same period last year.”
Attributed to the return of visitors and gamblers post-pandemic, it was also said that the hike has prompted authorities to resume being alert to the problem.
“Concurrently, in response to the fact that illegal currency exchange activities have continued to be active in casinos or surrounding areas in recent years, and cases of fraud, robbery, and even murder have occurred from time to time, the Judicial Police (PJ) has paid close attention to this issue and held a meeting with representatives of the AMCM on May 30, 2023. At the meeting, the PJ reported the current situation of these activities inside and outside the casinos as well as its adverse impact on public security. In future, the two parties will continue to work together to increase surveillance over the activity to reduce its living space,” the Office of the Secretary for Security concluded.
