The officials and casino operators of Macau have been putting in extra effort to keep the picture of the gambling landscape in the area clean. Although there are some ongoing troubles that they have to face along the way, they are doing their best to weed out some old problems as well.
One of the things that seem to have thrived in Macau is kidnapping, and law enforcement of this area managed to suppress it to the minimum.
With several great police efforts made in the last couple of years, kidnappers are virtually no more. Moreover, police in Macau pays a lot of attention nowadays to possible signs of kidnappers, and their actions are definitely paying off. But why was kidnapping a problem to start with?
Places such as Macau and Las Vegas have a lot of gambling options, and people sometimes tend to get carried away with playing games. If problems such as gambling addiction kick in and are not discovered and treated, that could lead to problem gamblers borrowing money from loan sharks.
These illegal money lenders have unusually high interest rates, and it just so happens that gamblers often fail to give back the money on time.
One of the ways loansharks operate in Macau is to extort money from individuals by kidnapping them. Being a very serious threat to the image of Macau, both loansharking and kidnapping had been a problem for Macau law enforcement for a long time.
Therefore, they decided to put a stop to these illegal processes by discovering and prosecuting the ones who offered such services.
At the moment, neither loansharking nor kidnapping is completely eradicated, but they are not as present as they used to be.
Loansharks’ Primary Target — Police Discover A Lot Of Them
According to Sit Chong Meng, the Director of Macau’s Judiciary Police, law enforcement managed to discover a total of 59 cases of loansharking in 2019 alone. To make matters worse, all of these loansharks operated exclusively inside casino facilities.
Three different units have been actively searching and discovering individual cases of loansharking inside casinos.
In 2019 only, a total of 274 instances of operations that are related to loansharking were discovered. That’s 25.7 percent more compared to the previous year.
Moreover, the number of loansharking reports was up 20.8 percent, with a total of 471 instances. Nevertheless, Sit Chong Meng believes that the numbers would have been even higher if the police hadn’t intervened to put a stop to these illegal actions.
Police finally managed to discover and break up the gang that consisted of approximately 55 persons who had run one of the biggest loansharking networks in Macau.
The presence of the police that often operated undercover had a very positive impact on the landscape. Loansharks were not only discovered but also discouraged from taking part in any similar actions. Therefore, Macau is now a safer place, doing its best to attract more tourists.
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