Are China’s illegal sports betting operators getting better at hiding their activities or are local police getting worse at catching them in the act?

On Monday, a Macau Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson told the Macau News Agency that the PJ have yet to make a single illegal sports betting arrest, despite the 2018 FIFA World Cup tournament getting almost into the knockout stage by now.

The spokesperson indicated that the PJ ramped up their detection and enforcement protocols as they do for every major quadrennial football extravaganza and would continue to carry out their inspections through to the end of this World Cup. It’s just that they haven’t caught anyone yet.

By this stage of the 2014 World Cup, Macau police had busted what may have been the largest illegal sports betting operation to have ever set up shop in the special administrative region of China. That betting ring, which was linked to online betting operator/high-stakes poker player Paul Phua, reportedly handled HKD5b (US$645m) worth of World Cup wagers in just the first week of the tournament.