Macau, China, July 8, 2026 (Lusa) - The number of suspicious transactions recorded at casinos in Macau, the gambling capital of the world, rose by 8.7% in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2025, according to official figures.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (GIF) reported that the six casino operators in the Chinese region submitted a total of 2,018 reports of transactions suspected of money laundering or terrorist financing.
According to statistics released on Tuesday, the GIF cited “the increase in the number of reports submitted by the gaming sector” as the main reason for a 9.5% rise in the total number of suspicious transactions.
Between 1 January and 30 June, the office received 2,753 reports, of which 73.3% came from casino operators, 19.1% from banks and insurance companies, and 7.6% from other institutions and organisations.
The sectors in question, including pawnbrokers, jewellers, estate agents and auction houses, must report to the authorities any transaction equal to or exceeding 500,000 patacas (around €54,000).
In 2025, the GIF received 4,925 reports, 6.1% fewer than in the previous year, when the semi-autonomous Chinese region had set a record for the number of suspicious transactions.
At the end of March, Taiwan’s Public Prosecutor’s Office charged 10 people with using Macau’s casinos to launder 33 billion Taiwanese dollars (€893 million) derived from illegal online gambling.
In March 2022, the US State Department designated Macau as one of the world’s leading money-laundering hubs, singling out high-roller recruiters (known as ‘junkets’) and the “illicit activities they often facilitate”.
This occurred even after the authorities arrested Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, head of Suncity, then the world’s largest VIP gambling operator, in November 2021.
In early April, organised crime experts told Lusa that Macau remains a “key hub for money laundering” by criminal organisations, despite the dismantling of the ‘junket’ system.
“Although major Chinese criminal syndicates have shifted operations across South-East Asia in response to crackdowns, Macau remains an operational hub and meeting point for these deeply entrenched networks,” said Martin Pubrick, a former member of the Hong Kong Royal Police and an expert on corruption and organised crime.
“Currency exchange bureaux, pawnshops and transactions via credit cards have absorbed this demand, which may mean that money laundering in Macau is now less centralised and less visible,” said John Wojcik, a senior researcher at Infoblox Threat Intelligence and a former analyst at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
VQ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
