The Macau government is considering dropping a proposal that a corporate entity holding a gaming concession from the city would need to be dissolved in the event it failed to gain fresh gaming rights. Local legislator Chan Chak Mo mentioned the issue in remarks to local media on Thursday.
A number of commentators had in January told GGRAsia such a step might be legally and commercially problematic, as such an entity would still have responsibility for its non-gaming facilities, which would not automatically revert to the local government in the manner of the gaming space.
Mr Chan, who heads a Macau Legislative Assembly committee tasked with reviewing the city’s planned amendments to its gaming law framework, referred to Article 50 of the bill, which deals with concession dissolution.
“Many gaming operators have asked about this article: why their companies need to be dissolved if it were not granted a gaming licence, instead of simply allowing them to amend their business scope,” said Mr Chan, following a closed-doors meeting between his committee and government officials.
“The government did explain that a historical… legal stipulation is that a concession can only be granted to a company whose [exclusive] objective is to engage in gambling business,” said Mr Chan.
“But in the past 20 years, many operators have been engaging in various other businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, and the MICE business,” he added, referring to the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions trade.
The government would now consider making changes to Article 50, “so that the [gaming] company would be able to adjust their charter and change their business scope, for non-gaming businesses to continue,” said Mr Chan.
“In that way, they can avoid having to undergo the complications of transferring their non-gaming assets to other entities,” he added.
