The Macau Judiciary Police have arrested five Chinese nationals suspected to be related to a cross-border criminal syndicate. The criminal organization, according to the authorities, uses counterfeit chips in casinos in Macau.

The arrests followed a recent report from a casino in the Cotai area where a customer exchanged fake chips for money. After the staff realized that they had been scammed they referred the matter to the police.

Local authorities immediately launched an investigation into the matter and quickly arrested five men from mainland China at the casino. Aged between 21 and 28, the five arrestees were suspected of being a part of a criminal organization that imports fake chips into Macau. The police are currently on the lookout for three other suspects who might be related to the case.

In addition to arresting the five men, the police were able to seize a whopping 585 fake chips worth approximately $750,000. More than 130 of those were discovered in toilets and taxi compartments near the border and might have been abandoned by other participants in the criminal scheme.

Upon careful inspection, the police concluded that the fake chips were extremely realistic and difficult to differentiate from real ones at first glance.

The Macau authorities believe that they are dealing with a fairly new criminal organization. According to the police, the group is believed to have started its illegal scheme in March.

The investigation is still ongoing.

Macau Seeks to Crack Down on Gambling Crime

Speaking of gambling crime in Macau, the country recently proposed a law that would exempt minor gambling offenders from prosecution, or at least reduce their penalties, if they provide evidence against others.

In addition to exempting whistleblowers from penalties, the new law would allow the police to search the property of potential witnesses or suspects during the night.

Additionally, Macau lawmakers proposed an amendment to the region’s Criminal Procedure Code that would allow it to implement an extension of detention measure. This matter was raised after Alvin Chau, the chairman of the controversial Suncity junket, argued that the detention period of certain individuals in the Suncity case had already expired.

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A Pennsylvanian man has ripped off a store by redeeming fake skill gaming vouchers at a convenience store. The local police are now searching for the culprit, hoping to bring him to justice.

According to the Pennsylvanian authorities, the man in question entered the Dillsburg Tobacco Outlet at 1 US Route 15 on October 7 at around 9 pm. He presented eight $500 skill gaming vouchers to the cashier, claiming to have won them on a skill gaming terminal.

The cashier didn’t realize that the vouchers were fake at first and, after inspecting them for a short while, gave the man the $4,000 he had allegedly won.

The route distributor of the skill games later inspected the tickets only to realize the forgery attempt.

After inspecting the security cam footage, the local police realized that the fraud was wearing a wig with long dark hair and fingerless white gloves. The man also kept the hood of their black hoodie on in a further attempt to conceal their identity.

The Carroll Township Police Department published a photo of the individual and asked anyone who may be able to identify the thief to contact the department.

Skill Games Remain a Controversial Topic

In the meantime, Pennsylvania continues to discuss the controversial skill gaming machines. Skill games are much similar to slots but allow players to define the winning paylines, which is considered an element of chance.

Skill games currently sit in Pennsylvania’s legal gray sector and are one of the most discussed topics in the state’s gambling industry. Last week, lawmakers discussed the machines, which have now become ubiquitous.

The casino industry has slammed skill games as illegal gambling that steals money from the licensed gaming sector. In addition, industry representatives have argued that skill gaming machines do not offer the same player protections that legal gambling does.

However, the machines are supporting many small businesses across Pennsylvania and have strong support from local audiences.

In May, the Senate tried to introduce a 16% state tax on skill games and limit the number of skill gaming terminals businesses are allowed to have. However, these measures did not sit well with representatives of Pennsylvania’s gambling industry.

The future of the vertical remains uncertain but many agree that the machines should either be prohibited or properly regulated.

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The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has released an explicit public statement to warn people against a growing number of illicit online gaming websites which operate without licensing and oversight.

These websites are displaying the PAGCOR logo but they only do that to feign authenticity; the government regulator insists that they have never been approved or licensed by the authorities.

The respective PAGCOR logo has been found on multiple online casinos that upon verification have been confirmed to be lacking a valid license from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.

The National Police in the Philippines is currently investigating this matter, with support from the Department of Information and Communication Technology and the National Bureau of Investigation.

Alejandro Tengco, the Chairman and CEO of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, reassured the public that the authorities have so far been able to shut down most of the illicit online gambling websites. However, he warned that some of these entities that are operating illegally can create new online gaming websites “almost immediately.” Tengco has asked the public to cooperate and be vigilant to “help us weed out these scammers.”

Further Steps Considered

Moreover, Alejandro Tengco added that PAGCOR is working “in coordination with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)” to monitor illegal online casinos that have not yet been blocked or taken down.

“Another option is to create a landing site to redirect bettors to a website that will warn them about illegal sites that they are accessing,” the PAGCOR Chairman explained. The government-owned corporation also announced that it has begun working on contacting payment providers and asking them to stop allowing payments toward these illegal online gambling websites.

Such fake online casinos can be a part of financial scams or might even be stealing personal information from unsuspecting users, so consumers must be careful and double check the authenticity of such outlets.

In fact, PAGCOR urged the public to go through the official list of licensed operators on the official government website and see whether a certain operator is on the approved list or not. The presence of the PAGCOR logo on a website is not enough to demonstrate that an online casino is legit.

Source: “PAGCOR warns vs fake online gaming sites“. PAGCOR. September 12, 2023.

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The police in Thailand have arrested a man who not only pretended to be a cop but also scammed people across the central Thai countryside. Then, Thaiger reported, the fraud would gamble the dirty money away in casinos in Cambodia.

The man presented himself as Pol. Col. Wuttisak Phittakchan-im, 58, claiming to be a police lieutenant. He would go from village to village, armed with an unlikely weapon – photos of cows. The man would claim that he owns the animals in the photos and is looking to sell them for a fair price.

When Wuttisak arrived in a village in the Chang Lek subdistrict, he told village chief Pairat Unha that he sells cows and buffaloes for 250,000 baht (around $7,200). The fraudster went a step further, promising a discount of 1,000 baht for each animal if Pairat bought all of them.

Luckily, Pairat had seen some of the photos in an online chat room for cattle traders and immediately suspected that Wuttisak was lying. The village chief called the police, which quickly arrived at the scene.

The officers were dressed in plain clothes so that Wuttisak wouldn’t suspect them and escape. They spoke with the man and asked him to present his police ID. Instead of providing one, the con artist tried to make an escape. Luckily, he was successfully arrested and detained.

The Uniform Gave the Fraudster Credibility

Although the man had lied about being a policeman, his name was indeed Wuttisak Phittakchan-im, the police understood. They searched his car and found a bunch of police equipment and several fake registration plates.

Unfortunately, chief Pairat was not the first person Wuttisak had tried to scam. Even worse, his previous attempts at scamming people had been more successful.

Amnat Ayupool, a 26-year-old man from the Lop Buri province, told the police that he had given 330,000 baht (around $9,555) to buy a herd of cattle that never arrived. Amnat told officers that the fake uniform made Wuttisak seem trustworthy and reliable.

As it turns out, this is exactly the reason why Wuttisak wore the uniform in the first place. When the police interrogated the con artist, he admitted that it gave him a sense of credibility that made scamming people easier.

Wuttisak also admitted that he used the money he took by deception to gamble in Poipet, Cambodia. He would gamble away all of his money, at which point he would return to central Thailand to scam more people.

Deputy Commander of Pra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Provincial Police, Pol. Col. Teerawut Saengmanee believes that there are many more victims of this scam that the police are yet to hear about.

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