By Mark Baber
June 23 – Macau police claim to have smashed two illegal gambling rings, arresting 26 people in separate hotel raids and seizing cash and other evidence. The raids uncovered evidence of HK$5 billion in illegal bets on World Cup football matches in a week – including a single HK$40 million (£3 million) bet on one World Cup match.
Macao is a Special Administrative Zone of the People’s Republic of China, with an economy largely based on gambling and tourism, and the authorities periodically clampdown on illegal operators.
After two raids on the same hotel on Thursday and Friday, police showed off handcuffed and hooded suspects, gambling slips and some of the more than HK$2.5 million in cash seized to journalists.
Four of those arrested came from Hong Kong, nine from mainland China and nine Malaysians. The raid was the fruit of cooperation between police in Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China, with Interpol also involved.
The ringleaders were said to be a mainland Chinese man and a man from Malaysia – and the police are now looking into who was placing the bets.
Macau police spokesman Suen Kam-Fai said: “Information indicates that this syndicate accepted bets before and after the matches kicked off. That’s why they needed a lot of manpower to take bets via the internet and telephone.”
The arrests come as a similar crack-down in Hong Kong has netted 39 suspected illegal bookmakers and confiscated betting slips worth nearly HK$85 million since the start of the World Cup.
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