Macau: money laundering cases down 30%
Latest Financial Intelligence Office stats show a dip in the number of anti-money laundering reports related to gaming in Macau.
Macau.- The Financial Intelligence Office (GIF) has revealed that the number of suspicious money laundering or terrorism financing transactions reported by gaming operators in Macau in 1Q20 has dropped by 30 per cent year-on-year to 356 reports.
In total, 606 suspicious transactions were reported in the first three months of the year, down 13.7 per cent on last year, with reports from the gaming sector representing almost two-thirds of the total.
Last October, the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) said the city was considered to have made good progress in addressing its anti-money laundering ‘deficiencies’.
The report indicated that Macau has made good progress in ‘addressing the technical compliance deficiencies identified in its 2017 mutual evaluation report, including through drafting revised legislation and guidelines’.
The Macau gaming sector has been greatly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, with gross gaming revenues in the first quarter down 60 per cent year-on-year to MOP30.4 billion (US$3.8 billion).
