Less gaming means less crime in 1H, but there are exceptions

The significant drop in gaming activities in Macau is also the cause of the reduction in crimes recorded in the first half of this year (1H), statistics released yesterday by the Office of the Secretary for Security show.

According to the release, the number of crimes related to gaming has registered a significant drop in the first half of this year, even when compared with the same period two years ago.

Among the gaming-related crimes that reduced the most are: kidnapping, which dropped by 82.4%; theft (-68.8%); and murder and bodily harm, both decreasing by 50%.

This decrease contributed to a general drop in violent crime rates in Macau by 35.7% on 1H.

The reduction in these crimes would have been more significant than reported but for the increase in the rates of sexual abuse against children. In the first semester of this year alone, the rates of this crime increased by 70%, or seven cases, more than the previous year’s total of 17.

Sexual abuse against children is also responsible for the worsening of violent crimes which, despite the increase rates of child sexual abuse, still registered a decrease of 8.1% due to the drop in kidnapping (-82.4%), and also general reductions in other crimes like bodily harm (-18%), threats (-12.3%), and rape (-12.5%).

Also related to the crimes usually linked to the gaming industry, there is 15% recorded decrease in the crime of usury.

The pandemic prevention and control measures’ effect on the borders have also resulted in an exponential decrease in the number of visitors to Macau which, when combined with other local guidelines calling on people to avoid leaving the home, made the crime of residential robbery almost impossible. Residential robbery had the greatest reduction of 86.7%.

Scams appear to be immune to the measures related to Covid-19 as, in most cases, they occur via phone or the internet. In fact, during the peak of the pandemic, several reported scams were loosely related to the Covid-19 pandemic. This contributed to scams showing less variation year-on-year, registering only a slight decline of 2.8% and a total number of cases reaching 648 in the first six months.

The trafficking and consumption of drugs also registered reductions of 28.2% and 15.4%, respectively.

Authorities are concerned about cybercrime; the government has been passing more laws and regulations over this category of crimes. Cybercrime has registered a significant drop year-on-year (-82.7%) from 617 cases on the 1H of 2021 to just 107 cases this year.

With more control over the borders, there were also fewer opportunities for incidents of illegal immigration, which dropped by over 50%. Still, a total of 80 illegal immigrants were detected, with 70 of those related to people from the mainland.

A total of 5,971 people were also found to be overstaying their visas. This crime is another that did not reduce noticeably when compared to others, registering a decline of just 10.8%.

Reduction in tourists not enough to stop taxi offenses

In the first half of 2022, police processed a total of 131 offenses committed by taxi drivers, a figure that represents an increase of six cases compared to the same period last year (+4.8%).

The offenses include two cases of excessive charging, 19 cases of passenger refusal, and 110 cases of other undisclosed infringements.

Concurrently, the police prosecuted a total of six cases of illicit operation of taxi service, which is an offense that decreased by two cases, or 25%, in frequency when compared to the same period last year.

In all the aforementioned cases, police are said to have applied lawful sanctioning measures  in close cooperation with the Transport Bureau.

Security Chief forecasts instability due to unemployment

Analyzing the impacts of the recent significant growth of the unemployment rate in Macau, the Office of the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, forecasted that, “if in the future the unemployment rate in Macau continues to increase, various conflicts in society will intensify, which will inevitably bring more factors of instability to the general security of Macau.”

Nonetheless, the same officials said that currently and despite the current high rate, “the rising of unemployment has not had a significant negative impact on the security of society, especially on crimes directly related to gambling.”