Macau consultation finds support for 6 casino licenses, reduced length, higher standards for junkets
The Macau government has issued a report to its consultation aimed at reviewing and changing rules for the Chinese enclave’s casino market. Respondents have supported plans to keep the number of operators allowed in the market at six, as the current concessions expire on 26 June 2022.
The consultation opened in September 2021 to consider changes to Law No. 16/2001 – “The Legal System for Casino Gaming Operations”. In total, 1,340 responses were received, mostly from individual citizens. One of the key subjects with most responses was the number of concessions that the Macau government would issue in future tender processes, with 217 answers.
Twenty-two of these responses indicated they wished to see no more than six concessions issued. A further 95 said they would prefer exactly six concessions, while 36 supported there being more than six concessions. The remaining responses did not have a clear preference.
The previous bidding process allowed for only three concessions, but it also enabled winning bidders to issue sub-concessions to their own licence, a concept the government proposed removing in the consultation. The report noted that removing sub-concessions was a popular idea with respondents.
“A large number of bids hinders the diversified development of the industry and may lead to unhealthy competition in the gaming market and increase the difficulty and administrative cost of the government’s supervision of the industry,” the Macau government said. “If the number of grants is too small, it will weaken Macau’s international competitiveness.”
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