The illegal transactions in the Macau casino industry are thriving, and the data that the Macau’s Financial Intelligence Office is concerning. The body released the data from 2023, and the suspicious transaction reports (STRs) rate is higher than ever.
The suspicious transactions in Macau:
In 2023, there were 3.431 suspicious transactions, according to the Financial Intelligence Office. The body started tracking the transactions in 2006, and in 2023 there were more suspicious transactions than ever since the beginning of reporting.
The Financial Intelligence Office collaborates with Macau’s Public Prosecutions Office, to whom they sent 116 transaction reports for the potentially suspicious transactions. However, it’s still unknown if the update is heading towards “games of fortune operators”, “financial and insurance companies”, or “other institutions”.
The operators have an obligation to report to the local government all transactions worth at least MOP500,000 or US$62,075, according to the city law related to financial activities and large transactions. However, not all transactions are suspicious, despite the amount of money.
When it comes to the aggregated transactions in 2023, there were almost three times more than in 2022. However, in 2022, COVID-19 measures were still in place, so traveling to Macau wasn’t possible and everything was up to the domestic customers. However, the number was bigger than it was in 2019, the year before the pandemic, as the local government released.
As GGRAsia reports, the STR percentage was 74.4% in Macau. There were 4.614 transactions in total in all sectors. Compared to the results from 2022, an increase of 191.5% is recorded, since in 2022 it was 1.177 recorded transactions. When it comes to aggregate results from 2019, the increase of 187.6%, with a total number of transactions of 1.913 in 2019.
However, the city’s Financial Intelligence Office didn’t comment on the recent numbers.
An increase in revenue after the pandemic measures are lifted:
Other figures and the results the city achieved in 2023 are released as well. The gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the 2023 calendar year was MOP183.06 billion, or US$22.73 billion. Compared to the previous year, an increase of 333.8% is recorded. When it comes to 2019 results, the GGR is 62.9% higher, with a total amount of MOP292.46 billion.
The results exceeded expectations, since in August the Financial Intelligence Office announced the expectations for the 2023 financial year, and it was expected for the Macau market to finally reach the 2019 levels since the industry is recovering from the consequences of the global pandemic. On top of that, the city worked hard on implementing the new anti-money laundering and countering-the-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations.