Macau’s Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, said Monday there were a total of 9,653 criminal activities in the SAR between 1 January and 30 September 2023 of which 716 were gaming-related.

He also revealed that gaming-related crimes were up 176% year-on-year compared with a 31.7% increase for all crimes combined. Gaming-related crime was, however, down 55.2% compared with the same period in 2019.

According to Wong, the 716 gaming-related cases included 155 cases involving fraud – an increase of 90 cases or 139% year-on-year – and 129 cases of theft in casinos, an increase of 107 cases or 486% year-on-year.

The nine-month period also saw police intercept 9,633 “money exchange gang member”, an increase of 230% year-on-year, while the number of fraud cases involving “money changers” rose to 137.