Macau casino-related crime rises one-third, illegal detentions more than double

Macau’s casino decline has been accompanied by a corresponding rise in the number of illegal detention cases as gamblers find themselves unable to pay their debts.

On Wednesday, Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak announced that the number of recorded crimes in Macau fell 2.2% to 10,347 in the first three quarters of 2015. While overall crime fell, the number of casino-related crimes rose by one-third to 1,118, roughly 11% of the total.

The number of false imprisonment cases spiked 135% to 308, and over 70% of these cases took place within casino property. Loan-sharking cases were up 35.6% to 240 while illegal gambling crimes more than doubled to 44.

In the illegal detention cases, both perpetrators and victims tended to be non-Macau residents, suggesting the perps were determined to get someone to pay the debt before the borrower returned to the mainland, where gambling debts are illegal and thus unenforceable through normal methods.