(AsiaGameHub) –   Gambling-related offenses in Macau have jumped 63% year over year, with the main driver being the criminalization of illegal money exchange carried out to support gambling activities.

Macau’s Office of the Secretary for Security announced that 2025 recorded a historic high number of gambling-related crimes, with the total rising from 1,456 cases in 2024 to 2,373 cases in 2025.

This overall increase came even after legislative adjustments in October 2024, when the local government updated its Law on Combating Illegal Gambling Crimes.

In Macau, currency exchange services are only legally permitted when provided by entities authorized by the Macau Monetary Authority.

However, unregulated currency exchange outside this official system has seen strong demand in recent years, particularly exchanges of Chinese Yuan to Hong Kong Dollar. This activity helps people gamble in Macau’s casinos while getting around cross-border capital flow restrictions.

Macau authorities stated that cases related to this anti-illegal-exchange regulation surged from 89 in 2024 to 471 in 2025 — a jump of more than 400%. Fraud cases, which are often closely tied to illegal currency exchange, also doubled from 333 to 667 in 2025.

As an example of the scale of these crimes, a September enforcement operation led to the arrest of 252 people and the discovery of 19 suspected criminal syndicates linked to illicit currency exchange.

To centralize oversight and gain clearer visibility into currency exchange activity, the Macau government has also adopted a more lenient policy toward casinos that provide currency exchange services.

In February, authorities confirmed that Galaxy Entertainment Group, Melco Resorts & Entertainment and SJM Holdings are permitted to offer these services after their licenses were reauthorized.

Despite the worrying overall crime statistics, the trend for serious and organized gambling-related crime is much more positive. Cases involving criminal syndicates and illegal gambling dropped by 50%. Meanwhile, gambling-related false imprisonment and loan sharking cases fell by 40% and 23% respectively.