Macau, China, Jan. 16, 2025 (Lusa) - The number of suspicious transactions recorded in Macau casinos reached a new record in 2024, rising by 11.8% year-on-year, as gambling revenues in the Chinese region rebounded after the pandemic.
The Financial Intelligence Bureau (GIF) revealed that the six casino operators in Macau submitted a total of 3,837 reports of transactions suspected of money laundering or terrorist financing.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the GIF emphasised that it had received 3,431 reports in 2023, the previous annual record.
The office points to "the increase in the number of suspicious transaction reports reported by the financial sector" as the main reason for a 13.7% rise in the total number of suspicious transactions.
In 2024, the GIF received 5,245 reports, of which 73.2% came from casino concessionaires, while 20.9% came from banks and insurance companies and 5.9% from other institutions and entities.
The sectors mentioned, including pawnshops, jewellers, real estate agents and auction houses, are obliged to report any transaction of 500,000 patacas or more (around €60,500) to the authorities.
Of the total of 5,245 reports, last year the GIF referred 142 suspicious transactions to the public prosecutor's office for investigation, 26 more than in 2023.
In 2024, Macau's gambling sector collected a total of 226.8 billion patacas (€27.5 billion) in revenue, 23.9% more than the previous year.
These figures remain far from those recorded before the pandemic, partly due to the fall in so-called VIP (high-stakes) gambling, following the arrest in November 2021 of the leader of the world's largest VIP bookmaker.
The former CEO of Suncity, Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, was sentenced in January 2023 to 18 years in prison for money laundering, in a case that saw the number of gambling promoter licences, known as ‘junkets’, issued in Macau fall from 85 to 18.
In March 2022, an annual report by the US State Department said that Chau's arrest "casts doubt on the future of the junket business and the illicit activities it often facilitates".
However, the document named Macau as one of the world's main money laundering points.
According to the GIF's annual report, Macau was the only member of the Asia-Pacific Group Against Money Laundering that complied with "all 40 international standards" on the prevention of money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Macau's GIF has signed agreements to exchange information with 33 countries and territories, including the Financial Intelligence Unit of Portugal's Judicial Police in 2008, the Financial Intelligence Unit of Timor-Leste's Central Bank in 2018 and, in 2019, Brazil's Financial Activities Control Board and Cabo Verde's Financial Intelligence Unit.
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