Part V: Regional & Cultural · Asia-Pacific Regional Terms

Bate-ficha

Macau — Historical/Informal FinanceREPORTED

Bate-ficha is a Portuguese term used by Macau police for the trade in “dead” (non-negotiable) gaming chips: chip rollers, known in Cantonese as dap-ma-chai, exchange players’ dead chips for cash chips or cash and earn a commission on the rolling. The practice is specific to Macau casinos and is not defined in law, though police monitor it. Academic research (Angela Veng Mei Leong, QUT Law Review, 2002) found the trade highly vulnerable to triad involvement.

In practice

Bate-ficha was part of Macau’s VIP gaming ecosystem in the monopoly era; Leong’s study links it to loan sharking and to triads selling private protection.

One entry from the Casino Industry Glossary, 1,090 terms written for surveillance, compliance and operations professionals rather than for players. Definitions describe industry usage; where a term carries a regulatory meaning, verify against the instrument that governs your jurisdiction.