Occupational crimes in casinos: employee theft in Macau, China

AbstractIt is virtually impossible to accurately measure employee theft across the casino industry using official statistics. In this paper, we use the self-report method for measuring crime to (a) estimate the prevalence, incidence, seriousness, and versatility of occupational offending in casinos in Macau, China —the largest casino gambling location in the world; and (b) identify characteristics which correlate with that offending. One in seven employees in our sample (14%; 38 out of 281) reported engaging in at least one of six offenses (theft in the workplace, falsification of documents, computer fraud, bribe offering, bribe accepting, and white-collar exploitation) in the 12 months prior to their survey response. The great majority of active offenders specialized in crime type: 61% of the active offenders in our sample (23 out of 38) committed just one of the six occupational crimes. Criminal “ specialization” notwithstanding, offenders committed their crimes relatively frequently; occupational crimes were particularly costly to casinos in the long run; and these offenses varied in their severity and extent depending on crime type. Demographic characteristics of casino employees—in par ticular, male gender, occupational position, work schedule, and work-related experience—were associated with whether an employee engaged in workplace crime. Regarding psychological and lifestyle characteristics of employees, only financial pressure and gambling behavior were sig...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - Category: Criminology Source Type: research