UN: China's Clampdown on Gambling Leads to Money Laundering in Other Regions
A representative from the United Nations has revealed that China's efforts to control cross-border money transfers related to gambling in Macau have pushed criminal gangs to launder their illegal funds through casinos and online gambling sites in other Asian regions. Benedikt Hofmann, the deputy representative for the UN Office of Drugs and Crime in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, disclosed this information in a recent conversation with Voice of America, a US-owned news network.
First, around 2013, Macau's casinos raked in a record $45 billion from gamblers. However, Chinese President Xi Jinping was displeased with this achievement, claiming that a significant portion of this money derived from criminal organizations laundering their illicit funds. Moreover, Xi expressed concerns about the potential national security threats posed by the vast amounts of money flowing into and out of Macau, which functions as a tax haven.
Hofmann believes that several criminal entities have relocated their operations to Southeast Asia since China started monitoring money transfers more closely. He identified Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam as the preferred destinations for money laundering nowadays. Hofmann further explained that these countries have witnessed an upward trend in annual gaming revenue due to the Chinese government's clampdown on Macau-bound junket groups. The COVID-19 pandemic has also prompted criminals to switch to unregulated offshore gambling platforms with minimal money laundering protections.
According to Hofmann, the proliferation of online gambling has heightened this problem, as the sheer volume of large, anonymous transactions, lax regulation, and transnational nature of these services make them ideal venues for concealing commercial transactions.
The United Nations considers it imperative to prevent money laundering globally in order to ensure international peace and economic stability. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime's website explains that money laundering entails "the processing of criminal proceeds to disguise their illegal origin." The UN is addressing this issue through the Global Program Against Money Laundering (GPML), which assists member states in building robust anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism systems. All five lower Mekong countries mentioned earlier, as well as the Philippines, are members of the UN.
In fact, the Philippines itself has recently been singled out for lacking sufficient measures to hinder money laundering. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global organization funded by the G7, has placed the Philippines on its "Increased Monitoring" list. Recently, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has committed to adopting better measures to fight money laundering.
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Source: www.casino.org
