Macau Casinos Report 4,000 Suspicious Transaction Reports in 2024
Macau casinos reported nearly 4,000 reports оf suspicious money movement оn their gaming floors last year.
On Wednesday, Macau’s Financial Intelligence Office reported that casinos filed 3,837 Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs). That represented a 12% year-over-year uptick іn the number оf forms completed.
The city’s Financial Intelligence Office іs tasked with preventing and combating crimes оf money laundering and terrorist financing. The agency also monitors the cross-border flow оf cash and bearer negotiable instruments like checks, money orders, traveler’s checks, postal orders, and bonds.
Casinos are required to complete large-sum transaction reports whenever a person transacts MOP500K (US$62,325) or more in a 24-hour period. The six gaming operators are additionally obligated to complete an STR when a cage worker identifies suspicious activity of the person wishing to make the transaction, regardless of the amount of money involved.
Suspicion of money laundering or the financing of terrorism are automatic STR triggers. Cashiers, who are required to undergo suspicious transaction training, are not allowed to tip off the customer that their transaction prompted an STR filing.
Post-Pandemic Changes in Macau and Focus on Junket Groups
Macau is a much different version of itself than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Though casino gambling is the Chinese Special Administrative Region’s economic driver, People’s Republic President Xi Jinping ordered the enclave’s government and Judiciary Police to better monitor junket groups amid the global health crisis.
Junkets, or VIP travel organizers, had longstanding partnerships with the casinos in Macau. Junkets sold costly trips, often ranging over $100K, to the mainland’s elite. The packages provided first-class travel and accommodations, plus a stack of gaming chips roughly equal to the total price of the travel package to gamble in private high-roller rooms.
The junkets and casinos shared in the net revenue won from the VIP players. Xi, however, said the massive flow of capital from the mainland into the tax haven presented national security risks.
After Macau successfully prosecuted Alvin Chau in 2023, who at the time was the face of the junket industry throughout Asia, and sentenced him to 18 years in a Chinese prison, nearly all other junket firms fled Macau.
The casinos continue to face heavy supervision from local law enforcement personnel from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. It’s presumably why there were 406 more STR filings last year than there were in 2023.
Casinos accounted for 73.2% of the 5,245 total STR filings received by the Financial Intelligence Office. Banks and insurance companies were next at 20.9% with 1,097 filings. “Other institutions” accounted for the remaining 5.9%.
Reasons Behind the Rise in STRs at Macau Casinos
Representatives from the Macau casino industry said most of the STR reports made by the resorts were related to gamblers purchasing gaming chips but only gambling minimally or not at all. The “conversion of chips without or with minimal gaming activities” was a major tell that a person could be seeking to launder dirty money.
Casinos also filed many STRs for gaming chips being redeemed by a different person who first acquired them with cash, which could hint at a financial exchange from one party to another.
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