The Macau Police Judiciary (PJ) has announced the arrest of 37 people for allegedly introducing automatic payment terminals at the Union Pay financial institution in Macao, which would allow them to illegally raise money using cards from mainland China

According to the portal Macau News, PJ spokesman Leng Kam Lon said on Wednesday that about 1.2 billion yuan (153 million euros) was illegally raised through this scheme.

According to PJ, the financial institution will have lost almost 2.4 million yuan (about 305 thousand euros) with this criminal practice.

The modifications to the automatic payment terminals of the Union Pay financial institution would aim to raise large sums of money to be played in the territory’s casinos and thus pay less fees during the transaction.

According to Leng, 21 people were arrested in Macau on Monday, while another 16 were detained in several mainland cities on the same day.

During the search, several automatic payment terminals and about five million Hong Kong dollars (555,000 euros) in cash were seized.

Macau News portal also reported that the PJ froze about 25 million Hong Kong dollars (2.8 million euros) in VIP gaming rooms in one of the territory’s casinos.