Casinos in Macau are unfortunately no stranger to crime, and the recent increase in casino-related crimes have resulted in operators taking additional measures for their legal liabilities. Operators of casinos in Macau have begun to take out VIP kidnapping insurance due to gamblers being kidnapped after not being able to pay their debts.

According to the Macau Judiciary Police, the amount of casino crimes have escalated as much as one-third during the first half of this year. An increase of unlawful detention cases have occurred in Macau, with gamblers who have not paid their debts being held, not of their own accord, while family and friends try to raise money to set them free. VIP gamers are looking to avoid gaming laws by borrowing money from junket operators who go to great and sometimes unorthodox lengths to be repaid.

It is because of this that operators in Macau, both hotel and casino, have been looking in to specialized risk policies that would help with the potential fallout from a kidnapping incident that would involve a VIP player. A specialty policy would protect casinos from being legally liable from any suite filed by the victim or a relative. The policy would also allow operators to provide crisis responders who could remedy a situation before it escalated.

In Macau, it is common for a gambler to be held in a hotel room that is attached to the casino in which the debt is owed. Casino hotels have now been called out by officials of Macau, with a duty to protect their customers. Ashley Coles of Jardine Lloyd Thompson is the assistant director of credit, political and security risks who states that is a correlation between mainland China, Macau and the interest and purchase of this particular insurance policy type.