Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon, who is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council, announced yesterday that the government has finished drafting a bill that proposes to raise the penalties for certain illicit gambling activities, expressly bar the operation of online betting, and clearly define parallel betting as an illicit gambling activity.
The bill proposes to establish a new criminal law on illicit gambling to replace the current one enacted in 1996.
The bill will be submitted to the Legislative Assembly (AL) in due course for debate, review and vote.
Cheong made the announcement during a press conference at Government Headquarters yesterday.
Pointing out that the current illicit gambling law has been in force for over 20 years, Cheong underlined the government’s commitment to continuing to improve its work on combating various crimes on illicit gambling.
According to gaming industry sources, some of the now defunct junket operators ran untaxed parallel betting (aka side betting) schemes that reduced both the government’s gaming tax receipts and the gross gaming revenues of some of Macau’s gaming concessionaires and sub-concessionaires.
According to Cheong, the bill proposes to clearly define parallel betting (aka betting under the table) and include it in the scope of illicit gambling.
The bill proposes to expressly bar the operation, promotion and organisation of online gambling activities, regardless of whether the respective IT systems, devices and equipment are installed in Macau or not, Cheong said.
The bill also proposes to raise the penalties for certain illicit gambling crimes, Cheong said.
According to the current illicit gambling law, Law 8/96/M, those operating gambling activities at any place that are not permitted by the law face a prison term of up to three years.
Legal Affairs Bureau (DSAJ) Director Leong Weng In said during the press conference that the bill proposes to raise the penalty for the offence to a prison term of between one and eight years.
Cheong also said considering that illicit gambling crimes are often conducted at night, the bill proposes that the police will be allowed to search private homes between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. while investigating suspected gambling crimes.
Leong pointed out that according to the current Penal Procedures Code, police officers investigating a crime are not allowed to search private homes between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. unless the residents concerned agree to the search.
Leong said that the bill proposes that for investigating certain gambling crimes, the police will be allowed to search one’s home between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. without permission from those concerned.
Meanwhile, Cheong also said that the government has concluded that for the time being “there are still no conditions” for criminalising illegal currency exchange activities.
Leong said that the possible criminalisation of illegal currency exchange activities would require amendments to the city’s financial legal system.
Legal Affairs Bureau (DSAJ) Director Leong Weng In (left) speaks during yesterday’s Executive Council press conference at Government Headquarters as Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon looks on. – Photo courtesy of TDM
