Corruption caused by gaming industry ‘growing problem’: report

Corruption ‘growing problem’: report

Widespread corruption linked to the gaming industry is “a major and growing problem in Macau,” a US report warned. The document released last week also highlights the restrictions of the ability of locals to have a say in the territory’s politics.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s 2011 annual report recalls that the MSAR dropped three spots to 46th among 178 countries and territories in the 2010 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. Corruption is “a serious issue,” they add.

However they also say that a local scholar, Eilo Yu Wing Yat, argues that corruption in the city has not necessarily worsened. Rather, business people are simply more aware of the problem, he told Macau Daily Times last October.

The report brought to public attention by Portuguese news agency Lusa says the boom in the gaming sector “has been accompanied by widespread corruption, organized crime, and money laundering”.

The industry is fuelled by a “movement of cash from mainland Chinese governments and state-owned companies into Macau,” it says, quoting a 2011 Reuters story.

A 2009 study based on official Chinese media reports found that ‘‘57 percent of Chinese high-stakes gamblers in Macau are either government officials or senior managers in state-run companies. (…) On average, these officials and managers each lost USD 3.3 million [MOP 26.4 million] — nearly all of it public money,’’ the document adds.

The commission that includes US Congress members and Government officials called for “regulatory experts from states with gaming industries, such as Nevada, to provide technical training and assistance to Macau authorities on how to control criminal activity”.

The move would “ensure that U.S. casino owners and operators in Macau are adhering to the highest standards for the gaming industry,” it wrote.

Suffrage restrictions

“The mainland government has called for changes to the Macau economy. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for Macau to improve regulation and diversify its economy beyond gambling,” the report adds.

The document also stresses that “the ability of the people of Macau to influence their government is restricted by Macau’s constitutional system”.

The commission said that the MSAR Chief Executive was chosen by an electoral committee and that only 12 of the 29 Legislative Assembly seats are selected directly by voters. And even the political changes approved in Hong Kong “fell far short of universal suffrage,” the document adds.

“The United States supports the rights of the people of Hong Kong and Macau to enjoy an independent judiciary and an open society in which the freedoms of speech, movement, and assembly are largely respected,” the commission said.

One positive sign is the lack of convictions under the national security legislation enacted in 2009. “As of the end of 2010, there had been no arrests under the legislation, and thus the impact of the law is not clear at this stage,” the report says.

In a leaked 2008 diplomatic cable, the Consulate General of the US in Hong Kong had expressed concern about “whether this standard of law could be used against those reporting on scandals or making critical evaluations of government performance (…) or against groups like Falun Gong”.

Also:

Corruption growing in Macau: U.S. Congress commission


Casino-related crimes on the rise: Public prosecutor

Macau’s public prosecutions office says the number of casino-related cases is increasing.

“There was a growth in the number of money-laundering cases connected with the gaming industry, mainly with illegal gambling in VIP rooms,” the public prosecutions office said today in a press release.

During the first eight months of 2010, the number of money-laundering cases handled by the public prosecutions office soared by 40 percent year-on-year, the body said, without providing figures.

At the same time, illegal gambling and loan sharking cases went up by 6 percent, while those of extortion and fraud went up by 11 percent.

According to the public prosecutions office, theft and robbery cases went up by 23 percent year-on-year from January to August, with a “significant increase” in the number of thefts taking place inside casinos or somehow related to the gaming industry.