Field guide
Loan-Sharking for Gambling (Casino Usury)
How it works
A lender offers cash or chips to players in or near the casino at high interest or for a share of their winnings, often keeping the player’s identity document as security until the debt is repaid. In Macau, lending money or any other means for gambling with intent to profit is a crime under Law 20/2024 (Article 10): one to five years in prison, rising to two to eight years when the lender demands or accepts the borrower’s identity document as security. A loan made in a casino, including adjacent hotel, shopping, entertainment and cultural areas, is presumed to be for gambling, and the borrower is not punished. A conviction also carries an accessory penalty: a ban from entering gaming establishments for two to ten years (Article 15).
Where it appears
Players who have run out of funds, especially visitors without access to casino credit
On the record
Macau’s Law 20/2024, the Law to Combat Illegal Gambling Crimes, was published in the Official Gazette on 28 October 2024 and took effect the next day. Article 10 sets out the crime of illicit lending for gambling, and Article 15 adds the ban from gaming establishments for anyone convicted of it.
Detection & preventionADVISORY
The paid halfHow a monitoring room catches loan-sharking for gambling (casino usury), and what stops it recurring, written for the desk, not the reader.
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Sources
Sources last checked 2026-08-14
Published as a detection reference for surveillance, compliance and gaming-operations professionals. Thresholds and tuning are set by the property. Nothing here is instruction: the method is described so it can be recognised.