Macau’s government has pledged to crack down on unauthorised outdoor advertising promoting gambling services.

Macau Economic Services revealed that it had investigated 316 suspected instances of illegal gaming-related advertising in the last six months of 2014. Only 14 of these ads had been approved by the Civic and Municipal Services Bureau, the body responsible for issuing ad permits.

Compounding matters, those ads that had been approved - many of them promoting online gambling sites - were apparently okayed in error. MES deputy director Tai Kin Ip said these ads had been “deceptive enough to have cheated the IACM authorities for the go-ahead.”