Any violation of Macao law would not be tolerated, and people working in the gaming industry had strictly to abide by the law, said on Monday (29 November) the Secretary for Security, Mr Wong Sio Chak, in comments to reporters after outlining Macao’s 2022 policy guidelines on public security to members of the Legislative Assembly.

Mr Wong made the remark in response to a recent case of alleged illicit gambling operations and money laundering, involving a suspected criminal syndicate based in Macao.

The investigation into the criminal case was based on intelligence and evidence collected earlier by Macao police, he noted.

During his presentation of the coming year’s policy guidelines at the legislature, the Secretary for Security pointed out that the authorities would maintain a close watch on evolving trends in gaming-related crimes. He added that the mechanisms regarding placement of police officers around the city, and where they were asked to patrol, would be optimised, while surprise inspections would be introduced in a bid to tackle effectively criminal activity and any other contingencies that might arise at gaming venues.

Mr Wong said the authorities would continuously assess the impact on public security in Macao of a varied number of factors, and analyse the trends in various categories of crime. Collaboration with other departments and neighbouring regions would also be strengthened, and deployment of police officers would be adjusted in a timely way, to ensure the social stability of Macao.

The Judiciary Police had gathered, starting in 2019, evidence that an alleged criminal group had been making use of VIP gaming operations based in Macao to establish an overseas Internet gambling platform so as to organise residents of mainland China to take part in illicit online gambling.

After a thorough investigation, the key members of the alleged syndicate were identified: its suspected leader and 10 other members were detained during a police operation in the early hours of Saturday (27 November).