A 52-year-old man has been arrested for kicking the door of a “tai sai”* gaming machine cabinet to trigger a system malfunction, causing losing bets to be voided and returned to his gaming account, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Ka Weng said during a special press conference yesterday.
Ho identified the suspect, surnamed Wu, as a mainland Chinese businessman.
According to Ho, police received a report from a casino in the peninsula at about 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday after casino security staff intercepted Wu over suspected fraudulent gambling.
An investigation showed that casino surveillance staff noticed a “tai sai” gaming machine repeatedly displaying an error signal while Wu was gambling at about 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Ho said casino security observed that before each fault signal appeared, Wu had kicked the cabinet beneath the display screen. The physical impact caused the machine to generate a system error, invalidating the round’s outcome and returning bets that would have been lost back to Wu’s gaming account balance.
Wu used this method six times within roughly an hour on Tuesday night whenever a round’s outcome was unfavourable to his bet. He returned to the same casino on Wednesday and was intercepted by security staff, who immediately notified the police, Ho added.
According to Ho, the casino reported losses of at least HK$13,000 as a result, while the total illicit amount gained by Wu remains under investigation.
The Judiciary Police seized HK$3,500 in suspected illicit proceeds from Wu.
Ho also confirmed this is the first case uncovered in Macau involving this specific method of fraudulent gambling.
Wu faces charges of fraudulent gambling. The case has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for further legal proceedings.
*“Tai sai” is the Cantonese pronunciation of the Chinese term “댕鬼” (“big [and] small”). It is a popular dice game also known in English as “sic bo” or “cussec”. This game of chance is played with three dice. Players bet on the total sum of the three dice or on specific combinations. The core bet involves predicting whether the total will be “Big” (generally 11 to 17) or “Small” (generally 4 to 10), which is where it gets its Chinese name. It is local casinos’ second most popular table game after baccarat. – DeepSeek, MPD
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the hooded Chinese mainland suspect in the “tai sai” gaming machine fraud case from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a PJ vehicle en route to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday. – Photo: Sherwin Hng
