Macau authorities revealed Thursday that a total of 13 people have been arrested in relation to the wild brawl that broke out in a Cotai casino on Monday – all of them from mainland China.
New details of the incident were provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) and the Public Security Police Force (PSP) at a press conference on Thursday morning, with the 13 men now banned from entering Macau for between one and five years. They were accused of fighting, supporting fighting and overstaying.
According to the authorities, 10 men were found to be the main participants in the fight, while three of the arrested did not actually fight but were cheering and shouting at the scene.
Those involved in the fight itself included a group of four men taking on a group of six after a disagreement broke out while playing baccarat. The four men, led by a man named Sun, mainly bet on Banker while the other six men, led by a man named Lui, bet on Player.
The PJ pointed out that the two parties were betting against each other, and there was a dispute between them at the beginning of the game. As betting progressed, the dispute between the two sides becomes more intense and eventually turned from a verbal argument into a physical confrontation.
First to intervene was casino security, who were able to stop five of the participants and the three who were shouting in support of the fight. Those eight people were handed over to the PJ before police arrested five more people at a residence in Macau on Tuesday.
These five were all found to have overstayed their Macau visas for between one and three months. All 13 people have been banned from entering any Macau casinos for two years by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).
The PSP said that because video of the fight had circulated on social media, it had created a negative image of Macau tourism and was therefore being treated as a serious incident.
Of the arrested men, the five arrested on Monday were banned from entering Macau for four years while the three onlookers were banned for one. Meanwhile, the five overstayers have been banned for five years.
