Macau to hold a public consultation to review the city's gaming law

Macau will start a public consultation process on Wednesday September 15 regarding the revision of the city's gaming law, according to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (also known as DICJ), the Macau regulator. The public consultation period will run until October 29.

During a media briefing held on Tuesday, Lei Wai Nong, Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, mentioned a public policy aspiration contained in Macau’s latest Five-Year Development plan, which involves the growth of the gambling industry through improvements to the regulatory system of casinos. He also mentioned a public-policy aim to increase the competitiveness of the city’s casino industry. 

However, he declined to comment when asked whether the Macau government will seek to extend the current gaming concessions. He also failed to comment on the schedule for completing revision of the city’s gaming law, which is expected to be done by the fourth quarter this year.  

One of the main topics to address during the consultation will be the licensing system, and the amount of licenses to be granted. 

Currently, the world’s largest gambling hub has six gambling licenses, four of them, held by Melco PBL Gaming (Macau), Galaxy Entertainment Group, Venetian Macau and Wynn Macau, expire in 2022 unless authorities grant a form of limited extension as permitted under the current Macau gaming law. 

Wynn Macau

Lei mentioned during the briefing that the consultation will cover nine main topics, in which the public will be invited to comment on issues such as the amount of concessions there should be, the duration of any new concession term, new regulatory requirements to be applied to concessionaires, steps to protect local employment, among others.  

Authorities will also consider introducing non-gambling elements into the licensing framework, such as the corporate social responsibility of the industry, and how to tackle the issue of deposits made by private investors in the gaming sectors, among others. There will be five in-person consultation sessions run by the gaming regulator. The first will take place on September 20 with the gaming companies and junkets only. The other four will be for the public on September 29, October 9, 13 and 19.