Macau’s gaming-related crime may be on the wane, but the struggling VIP casino gambling market is still providing opportunities for criminal scammers.

Last month, Macau’s Judiciary Police (PJ) released its crime statistics covering the first half of 2020, during which a total of 4,691 criminal investigations were opened, nearly one-third fewer than the first half of 2019.

The H1 report was unique in that it failed to include any statistics regarding crimes associated with Macau’s gaming industry. The PJ justified the omission by stating that “the statistics on crimes involving the gaming industry in the first half of 2020 are not representative” due to the dramatic reduction in the number of gaming tourists due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That said, the PJ noted that there were only 29 kidnappings in H1, a nearly 83% reduction from the same period last year. Many Macau cases of forcible confinement involve gamblers who took out ill-advised loans from sketchy figures who then hold them for ransom from family and friends on the mainland. Loan-sharking and fraud cases were also dramatically reduced, falling 83% and 25%, respectively.