We have news for you from Macau, where the issue of fake chips is being dealt with the most these days. If you haven't heard of anything like that before, we will bring you closer to the whole issue in this article.
We move on to the Galaxy Macau casino in Cotai, which reported to the police on the evening of August 21 that one of their dealers had noticed a strange chip texture. Some of the HK$10,000 ($1,275) worth of chips that came his way were rough. Upon closer inspection, it was found that these tokens did not contain an RFID chip, making it clear that they were fake.
Police immediately arrested two players from mainland China, but the other six managed to escape from Macau through a border checkpoint back to the mainland. As they fled, they threw the remaining fake chips into a trash can.
The police subsequently discovered more than 100 fake chips with a nominal value of HK$10,000 each in the waste incinerator. More than 180 fake chips and 19 real ones were found with the accused. According to the police, the criminal gang worked in the casino for more than 2 hours. During this time, they exchanged chips with 10 other players and, according to the initial count, they found 493 fake chips worth more than HK$700,000 ($89,240). Police said as many as 804 counterfeits were involved in the entire case, costing the casino at least HK$5.7 million ($727,000).
However, this is not the first such case in Macau. In recent years, this type of casino fraud has been on the rise. In 2021, for example, Macau authorities said they discovered 65 counterfeits worth HK$2 million ($255,000) in the first quarter. At the end of 2020, the police caught 4 people who used fake chips in the casino and defrauded 3 men of HK$4.9 million ($625,000).
In 2019, 352 counterfeits were found with a total face value of up to HK$18.5 million ($2.4 million). In 2017, Galaxy Casino recorded counterfeits worth HK$600,000 ($76,500) in just 4 days.
According to the latest reports from the Macau police and security forces, the number of gambling-related crimes in the first three months of 2023 increased by 24.4 percent year-on-year, and most of them related to illegal currency exchange activities, which represents an increase of up to 78.4 percent compared to with last year.
Source: asgam.com, casino.org, agbrief.com, business traveller, policia judiciaria, macau business, macaupostdaily.com
