Macau’s top legislator has confirmed that lcoal authorities are cooperating with Beijing to monitor mainland public officials’ visits to Macau casinos.

Speaking on the sidelines of this weekend’s National People’s Congress in Beijing, Macau Legislative Assembly president Ho Iat Seng told reporters that Macau authorities “know right away when a government official from the mainland walks in the door.”

Macau’s Portuguese-language media outlet Ponto Final quoted Ho saying that some of these officials have received telephone calls from their departmental superiors mere seconds after they sit down at a gaming table in a Macau casino. Ho claimed that Macau casino had “internal methods” of determining who was or wasn’t a public official whose presence in a gambling venue would interest mainland authorities.

These ‘internal methods’ are believed to be increasingly reliant on facial recognition technology, like the kind installed on all UnionPay ATMs in Macau last year in a bid to reduce unauthorized capital flight by mainland residents visiting the Special Administrative Region.