Macau Government blocks 36,000 illegal gambling sites in H1 2024
Illegal gambling sites have been impersonating legitimate Macau operators.
Macau’s Government blocked around 36,000 illegal gambling websites in H1 2024.
According to Macau news media and the report from the Office of the Secretary for Security, the illegal gambling websites had been impersonating the websites of Macau’s legal gambling operators.
This would not only “undermine the safety of public property,” but also “damage the image of Macau’s gaming industry,” as quoted.
Macau’s Judicial Police have been in cooperation with the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, as well as the legal gaming and gambling operators of Macau, in a “three-way joint-effort mechanism” to effectively crack down on such illegal activities using the names of legal operators.
In addition, police forces from Macau, Hong Kong and also the Guangdong province have established long-term intelligence exchanges and investigation efforts, to combat cross-border syndicates involved in said illegal gambling and other crimes.
Examples of such joint operations include two cases reported in July, in which the police busted a cross-border illegal gambling syndicate, as well as a cross-border loan shark group targeting Hong Kong gamblers gambling in Macau.
In the first case, about 50 people were arrested, including a security officer and over RMB 1bn were recovered.
In the second case, a Macau resident and five other Hong Kong residents were arrested in connection to the syndicate.
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