Gaming-Related Rate of Crime in Macau Fell

Gaming-related crime rate in Macau recorded a year-on-year decline in a variety of categories for the first 9 months of 2020, the latest statistics released by the Secretary of Security Office revealed. Unlike previous authorities releases of statistics, the most recent report did not include an average statistic for gaming-related violence over the nine-month timeframe specified.

High Crime - Low Crime

The fall coincided with the downturn in China's Special Administrative Region (SAR) casino gross gaming revenue (GGR), which plunged 82.5% for the period January to September 2020, relative to the same nine-month stretch of the previous year.

Cases of pickpocketing inside casinos for the first 9 months of the year were 23, almost 85% down from the 148 cases reported by Macau police between January and September 2019.

Alleged gaming-related scams for the nine-month period in 2020 went down with 231 cases, down to 60, almost 80%, and more than half of the recorded fraud cases were connected to currency trade, and no reports of theft inside casinos were seen in the first nine months of 2020.

Falsified Digital Money

Counterfeit gaming chips were found in only 3 cases during the first nine months of 2020, with a cumulative amount of HKD1.02 million ($2.4 million) either in use or in the process of being used. The majority of that number is extracted from one bogus gaming currency token with a face value of HKD1 million. No comprehensive information on the distribution of both the real and the near-used fake casino chips as to which casinos were affected has been given in the official report.

Macau police found 189 imitation gaming chips with a combined value of almost HKD17.5 million from January through September 2019.

The only gaming-related crime that registered an uptick for the time mentioned was illegal gambling, as 52 incidents were identified, up 27% from the 41 cases corresponding to the same nine-month stretch in 2019.

Overall loan-sharking cases fell to 57 for the first 9 months of this year, down 87.9% from the same period the previous year, but local authorities did not offer any additional information as to how many of these incidents were linked to gaming.