Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau has restricted Macau gaming operators from transferring to third parties – based in Macau or elsewhere – any information related with their respective “gaming activities or operations, including customer personal data”. The restriction by the casino regulator – a body also known by its Portuguese acronym DICJ – additionally covers the city’s junket operators, reported the Macau News Agency.
The new instruction comes into force today (Monday), said the media outlet, adding that it had seen the document.
The report said the instruction defined information on gambling activities or operations as “all data related to the individual and object of the gambling activities, or related to the operation of casinos and gambling activities, including but not limited to the personal data, place of origin or nationality, profession or the gambling clients’ activity and other information such as their representatives or accompanying persons, the time of entry into and out of the casino or the gaming table, the amount of bets, the credit, the amount of the bet placed, the payment of prizes and the purchase and redemption of chips (tickets), slot machines tickets (tokens), etc.”
Macau News Agency quoted a written reply from DICJ saying that the new instruction does not ban the transfer of information but imposes the need for gaming operators and promoters to gain authorisation from the city’s gaming regulator for such transfer.
“These requests will be subject to consideration within the scope of their legal provisions,” said the gaming regulator, adding that the new instruction sought to “ensure” that the transfer of any information to third parties by the city’s gaming concessionaires and junket operators was done in accordance with relevant Macau laws.
The prohibition on the transfer of information is said to include and is “not limited to, the company, the representative, the branch or the delegate of its associated entities or the same economic group,” said Macau News Agency.
The DICJ instruction said exceptions were possible when “the consent or power of attorney of the interested parties were obtained or are in compliance with the provisions of the [Macau] Personal Data Protection Act.” However, “authorisation from DICJ for each concrete transfer act” will be mandatory, according to the report.
Macau-based companies already have to comply with the provisions of the city’s Personal Data Protection Act when sharing information about their activities. In 2012, Macau’s Office for Personal Data Protection found Wynn Macau Ltd guilty of unauthorised transfer of information outside the Macau Special Administrative Region – to the casino firm’s its parent company in the United States – and fined the firm MOP20,000 (US$2,500).
