Macau lawmaker Leong Sun Iok has called on the government to tighten its laws on money exchange gangs following a number of related homicide cases in recent years.
Leong’s push was made in a speech at Thursday’s Legislative Assembly meeting in which he noted there have been five homicide cases related to money exchange gang members since May 2021, adding it was vital to ensure the safety of casino staff and tourists.
“With the relaxation of the immigration policy and the increase of visitors to Macau, illegal money exchange, violence and loan sharking activities will resume,” he said.
“Casino money exchange gang members have organized themselves into professional group operations, and every time one group is eliminated another group enters.”
Leong claimed the current law is too lenient on money exchange gang members, who are expelled and banned from entering the country if they are foreigners, but face far fewer deterrents if they are local residents.
Insisting the law lacks sufficient deterrents, he suggested the government consider the criminalization of money exchange gang activities and increase penalties in order to strengthen the “deterrent effect”.
Of the five homicides referenced, the most recent occurred on 4 May at The Parisian Macao, where a mainland man killed a money exchange gang member while engaged in illegal exchange activities.
The current Macau law does not criminalize the status of being a money exchange gang member, with such activity instead considered only a violation of Macau’s financial management regulations. This does not entail a criminal offense.
If Macau police intercept a money exchange gang member, they will usually deport them under the law of “incompatibility with tourist status”.
In 2022, Macau police intercepted 3,505 people for illegal money exchange, a decrease of 55.6% compared to 2021 due to COVID-19. However, it is widely held that illegal money exchange is linked with fraud, detention and violent crimes such as serious injury or murder.
In 2019, a total of 6,960 people were found to be involved in illegal money exchange.
