The number of casino-related suspicious transaction reports (STR) increased almost 24% year-on-year in Macau in 2016, figures presented by the Macau Financial Intelligence Office and cited by casino news outlet GGRAsia showed.
The rise in STRs came after the local government carried out an overhaul of its anti-money laundering policies. Stricter regulations on the matter were introduced in May 2016. Among other things, those urged Macau’s casino operators to tighten monitoring and prevention procedures in relation to money laundering and other illicit money transactions that could occur at gambling premises.
There were as many as 1,546 casino-related STRs filed over the twelve months ended December 31, 2016, Macau’s Financial Intelligence Office reported. Those represented over 66% of all such reports presented to local authorities last year.
The special administrative region’s financial sector was also a large contributor to the STRs bulk with 696 reports submitted in 2016, up 38.3% year-on-year. The Financial Intelligence Office was also presented with 79 STRs from merchants and different institutions.
With that said, there were a total of 2,321 STRs submitted in Macau last year, reflecting an increase of 28.4% from the previous year. Around 240 of those were sent for prosecution.
Macau is the only Chinese territory where casino gambling is allowed. The special administrative region hosts almost 40 casinos and has over the years established itself as the world’s leading gambling hub. And it is not on rare occasion that properties of this kind are found suitable for illicit financial transactions.
To tighten its anti-money laundering policies, Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau introduced stricter regulations for the sector, which is known to be the biggest contributor to the city’s overall economic growth and development.
Under the new set of rules, casino operators and their junkets, companies hired to promote gambling services to potential customers from all around the Asia-Pacific region, were required to adopt more comprehensive money laundering prevention tools and to report suspicious activities in a timely manner, among other important things.
However, it is important to note that despite the otherwise massive overhaul, regulators did not raise the threshold for casinos to report one transaction or another as suspicious. At present, large or potentially suspicious transactions are ones over MOP500,000.
Macau’s decision to leave the threshold unchanged has met international criticism over the past year. The US Department of State has called for regulators to reduce the amount to around MOP25,000. Thus, the special administrative region will bring its own anti-money laundering policies in line with those required by international standards, the department has pointed out.
