Suspicious transaction reports filed by Macau gaming sector up circa 8pct y-o-y in Jan-Sept: govt

Macau’s gaming sector filed 2,968 suspicious transaction reports (STRs) in the first nine months of this year, up circa 7.9 percent year-on-year. That is according to an update from the Financial Intelligence Office of the city’s Unitary Police Service. Gaming-sector STRs accounted for 71.7 percent of Macau’s overall 4,138 STRs in the January to September period. The city-wide number of STRs grew 10.3 percent year-on-year, according to the office’s data. The office’s quarterly update on the STRs reporting from various sectors in the city – including the gaming sector – does not include the reasons for the changes in the instances. For the first six months of this year, the STRs reported by the city’s gaming sector typically involved several types of trigger event, including “chips conversion without or with minimal gaming activities”, or “chips conversion on behalf of third parties”, the Financial Intelligence Office had earlier confirmed to GGRAsia. In 2025, the office recorded a total of 1,469 suspicious transaction reports that involved “chips conversion without or with minimal gaming activities”. That made such a scenario the most common form of flagged transaction city-wide for the third consecutive year, according to office’s 2025 annual report.