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A 52-year-old casino visitor allegedly used physical impacts to trigger machine errors six times in an hour, causing losing bets to be cancelled and returned to his gaming balance.
Macau's Judiciary Police have arrested a 52-year-old casino visitor suspected of manipulating an electronic gaming machine to cancel losing bets.
The suspect, identified by police as a mainland Chinese businessman surnamed Wu, allegedly triggered system errors by kicking the machine after unfavourable outcomes.
The malfunction caused affected rounds to be declared invalid and the stakes that would otherwise have been lost to be returned to his gaming account.
Police said he used the method at least six times within approximately one hour.
The incident took place at a casino on the Macau Peninsula on the evening of October 6.
According to police, surveillance employees became suspicious after repeatedly seeing malfunction alerts from the same electronic sic bo gaming machine.
A review of CCTV footage allegedly showed Wu physically striking the machine shortly before each error appeared.
Investigators said the behaviour occurred when the outcome of a round was unfavourable to his wager. The resulting system error voided the affected bet and restored the stake to his account.
The casino reported losses of at least HK$13,000, approximately $1,670.
Authorities are still investigating the total amount the suspect allegedly obtained through the scheme.
Wu returned to the same casino on October 7.
Security employees intercepted him and contacted the Judiciary Police, who subsequently took him into custody.
Officers seized HK$3,500 in cash that they suspect represents proceeds connected with the activity.
Police said there were strong indications that the suspect had committed fraudulent gambling and transferred the case to Macau's Public Prosecutions Office for further proceedings.
The casino involved has not been publicly identified.
The Judiciary Police said this was the first case they had identified in Macau involving this specific method of manipulating a gaming machine to invalidate losing wagers.
The case also illustrates the role of casino surveillance systems in identifying patterns that may not initially appear as conventional fraud.
Rather than detecting a single unusually large transaction, employees noticed recurring technical faults and then used surveillance footage to connect those errors with the same player's behaviour.
Electronic casino products can automatically respond to technical faults by cancelling a round or returning stakes to protect players from genuine equipment failures.
In this case, police allege that the suspect deliberately exploited that safeguard to avoid losses.
The investigation remains ongoing, and the amount ultimately attributed to the alleged fraud may change as authorities review the suspect's gaming activity.
A 52-year-old casino visitor allegedly used physical impacts to trigger machine errors six times in an hour, causing losing bets to be cancelled and returned to his gaming balance.
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