Macau reported a significant reduction in gaming-related unlawful detentions in the first quarter of 2018, even as the overall crime rate rose.
On Monday, Macau’s Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak released the official crime statistics for the special administrative region of China over the first three months of 2018. The Macau Judiciary Police (PJ) handled 3,547 cases in Q1, a modest 1.7% increase from the same period last year.
The number of gaming-related cases decreased 9.4% to 384. There was a 20% rise in the number of cases related to loan sharking (107), of which 102 were gaming-related. The increase came despite Wong saying that the PJ had broken up several loan-sharking rings during the quarter.
However, the number of gaming-related detentions – in which gamblers are held until relatives or friends on the mainland can make good the debt – was down nearly 44% to 59. Wong didn’t offer specifics on how the drastic decrease was achieved.
Macau reported zero murders (again) in Q1, and the mild uptick in the overall crime rate was attributed to rises in theft (primarily pickpocketing), burglaries and fraud. None of Macau’s 16 arson cases in Q1 were deemed to be gaming-related.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Wong said Macau’s authorities were renewing their efforts to combat illegal money exchange businesses that operate on casino property or on the periphery of casino zones, approaching gamblers with offers to exchange yuan or Hong Kong dollars at favorable rates.
Earlier this month, Macau police arrested 226 individuals over their alleged connections to such services. The five-day campaign followed the widespread circulation of a viral video showing a brawl outside the Venetian Macau casino involving 10 men, some of whom were alleged to be unauthorized money exchangers.
Macau law classifies unauthorized money-changing as a civil offence, and thus most offenders are simply deported to the mainland if no ties to other criminality can be proven.
