Macau Court Jails Au Kam San, With a Secrecy Count Over Gaming Concession Talks

Macau's first national security judgment ends in a sentence of 12 years and six months for the former legislator. One of the four counts on which he was sentenced concerns closed-door committee meetings in 2021 on the renewal of the city's gaming concessions.

• The Primary Court of the Court of First Instance sentenced Au Kam San to a single term of 12 years and six months on 6 November, in the first case under the Law on Safeguarding National Security since the Macao SAR was established
• He was convicted of one count of subversion of state power, two counts of acting with organisations outside the SAR to endanger national security and one count of breach of secrecy, and acquitted of two further subversion counts
• The secrecy count, which carried nine months, concerns confidential information the court found he obtained as a legislator in 2021 at closed-door meetings on the renewal of gaming concessions and disclosed to an overseas organisation
• The court's account does not identify the information, the organisation or the meetings, and names no operator and no tender bid
• The renewal under discussion in 2021 ended with six 10-year concessions from 1 January 2023, whose investment commitments the operators are still delivering

Macau's First National Security Judgment Ends in a 12 Years and Six Months Sentence

The Primary Court delivered its judgment on Friday 6 November in the criminal proceedings against Au Kam San, a Macao resident, according to a release issued in the court's name by the Government Information Bureau on Monday 9 November. The Public Prosecutions Office filed charges on 27 March 2026, and the pre-trial judge confirmed them on 2 July: three counts of "subversion of state power", three counts of engaging in acts endangering national security in collaboration with organisations, groups or individuals outside the SAR, and one count of "breach of secrecy". The Criminal Court heard the case on 16 and 18 September. The court says it appointed a lawyer, whom Au accepted, because he had not engaged one himself.

Au served 20 years in the Legislative Assembly before stepping down in 2021, and was arrested in 2025, according to the Associated Press.

The Findings and the Sentences

The court found Au had "for a long period" collaborated with "overseas hostile organisations" to collect and publicly disseminate material it described as aimed at subverting state power, or false and distorted, and that this continued after the law was amended in 2023. It imposed 11 years and three months for one subversion count under Law No. 2/2009, as amended by Law No. 8/2023, with no separate penalty for the matching collaboration count, citing apparent concurrence.

It also found that from 2023 to 2024 Au worked with multiple overseas organisations to spread "false and manifestly distorted information", with intent including to "disrupt the progress of the election for the sixth-term Chief Executive". It convicted him on two collaboration counts, at three years and nine months each, and acquitted him of two subversion counts on the principle of in dubio pro reo.

The secrecy count under Article 348(1) of the Penal Code drew nine months. From a concurrent range of 11 years and three months to 19 years and six months, the panel imposed 12 years and six months. It said Au was a first-time offender who had confessed to "a substantial part" of the acts, but that his intent was "extremely high".

The Gaming Concession Count

According to the court, Au, "in his capacity as a member of the Legislative Assembly in 2021", disclosed to an overseas organisation confidential information acquired through "closed-door meetings of the Legislative Assembly's Follow-up Committee on Land and Public Concessions regarding the renewal of gaming concessions". The release does not say what the information was, when the meetings took place or which organisation received it.

The government's Macao Yearbook 2022 lists among the committee's reports covering 2021 one titled "Follow-up on the contract concessions of gaming operations". On 23 June 2022 the government extended the concessions, due to expire on 26 June, to 31 December 2022 because the new public tender could not be completed in time. On 16 December 2022 the then Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, signed new contracts with MGM Grand Paradise, Galaxy Casino, Venetian Macau, Melco Resorts (Macau), Wynn Resorts (Macau) and SJM Resorts, effective from 1 January 2023 for 10 years.

The Gaming Link Is the Smallest Part of the Sentence

The secrecy count carries nine months of a 12 years and six months term; the length of the sentence rests on the subversion conviction. The court makes no finding about the 2022 tender, its bids or its outcome, and names no operator. Calling this a casino licensing case goes further than the court's own account.

Closed Committee Sessions on Concessions Now Carry a Criminal Precedent

What the count does establish is that information from closed-door sessions of the Assembly's concessions committee was treated as protected under the Penal Code's secrecy provision. Concession oversight is likely to stay on that committee's agenda while the current contracts run to the end of 2032. The conviction shows that what is said there in closed session is protected by criminal law, not by convention alone. Nothing in the judgment points to any effect on the six contracts, and it adds no operator exposure to the wider regulatory picture in Macau.

The gaming element is a narrow count inside a national security case. Its lasting relevance to the sector is the confidentiality it confirms for the Assembly's concession oversight.