Regarding a fight between two groups of gamblers at a casino in Cotai on May Day, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam and Public Security Police (PSP) spokeswoman Lai In Hong announced yesterday in a joint special press conference that the 13 mainlanders involved in the brawl over baccarat banker and player betting will be banned from entering Macau’s casinos for two years, and they also have been banned from entering the city between one and five years.
Lai and Ho did not identify the casino where the scuffle happened.
According to Ho, at 1:45 a.m. on Monday, the Judiciary Police were notified by the security guards of a casino in Cotai that a fight involving two parties with four in one group and nine in the other had broken out there, so PJ officers were dispatched to the scene, where they arrested six men and two women, aged between 26 and 54, on the spot.
While further investigating the melee, the Judiciary Police arrested on Wednesday the five others involved who had fled the scene after the free-for-all in the casino. The quintet were nabbed at a guestroom of a hotel in the city centre, Ho said, adding that the five men, aged between 22 and 48, had been overstaying in Macau for one to three months.
Ho said that 10 of the 13 suspects, most of them from the northern province of Shandong, have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of causing bodily harm.
Lai said that the rumpus between the 13 people in the casino “obviously” posed a danger to the public, adding that the video of the fracas was widely circulated on the internet, which also had a negative impact on Macau’s image.
According to Lai, the Public Security Police have revoked the stay permits of the eight people who were arrested earlier. Among them, five suspects have been banned from entering Macau for four years for causing bodily harm, while the other three people, who instead of stopping the fight kept yelling and cursing at the scene, have been banned from entering the city for one year.
Lai said that the eight brawlers have already been deported back to the mainland.
The five suspects who were arrested on Wednesday have been barred from entering Macau for five years for joining in the fight and overstaying in the city, Lai added.
Informed sources said last night the quintet would also be sent back to the mainland.
Meanwhile, when asked whether the related videos circulated on the internet about the fight violated the regulations which prohibit photo taking and video recording in local casinos, Ho said that the Judiciary Police would take measures against the video circulating on the internet, such as requiring the respective social media platform to delete the clips.
This handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday shows five of the 13 casino brawl suspects from the mainland being detained by PJ officers at a hotel in the city centre on Wednesday.
