GGRAsia – Macau bet-credit law to get reading at Legislative Assembly

Macau bet-credit law to get reading at Legislative Assembly

Apr 21, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

The Macau government has drafted a new bill on casino concessionaire- and junket-issued credit for gambling. The bill proposes that the junkets – known as licensed gaming promoters – must have a formal contract for the purpose of granting credit, with any gaming concessionaire they tie to.

That is according to a new bill briefly outlined during a Friday press conference by André Cheong Weng Chon (pictured right), acting as spokesman for the city’s Executive Council, an advisory body to the city’s government; and Adriano Marques Ho (pictured left), director of the city’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.

If passed into law by the Legislative Assembly, the bill would replace an existing gaming credit law – Law No. 5/2004, Mr Ho explained to the press during the briefing.

The Macau government has also proposed that, via the bill, so-called management companies – the new term for the non-concessionaire entities permitted to run “satellite” casino venues under a concessionaire licence – would not themselves be allowed to “establish any casino gaming credit contract” or perform any related “legal acts”.

Neither of the officials at the Friday briefing gave further details on the differences between the newly proposed bill on gambling credit, and the existing gaming credit law.

At the Friday briefing, Mr Cheong confirmed – in response to a question from GGRAsia – that the government was still reviewing an existing regulatory regime dealing with illicit gambling, and formulating new legal proposals.

The existing regime for that – Law 8/96/M – has been applied by Macau prosecutors recently – namely in relation to ‘under-table’ bets and proxy betting – in the criminal cases brought respectively against ex-junket boss Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, formerly of Suncity Group; and Levo Chan Weng Lin, former boss of Tak Chun Group, who was on Friday jailed for 14 years for a number of crimes, including gambling-related ones.

The Executive Council spokesman Mr Cheong – who is also the city’s Secretary for Administration and Justice – remarked on Friday: “We will duly deliver [the new legal proposal regarding illicit gambling] to the Legislative Assembly this year for deliberation.”

He added the aim of the update was to create “a system that represents a comprehensive review of gaming’s development and the illicit gambling behaviours that came along, and not only merely [a response to]… what happened in one or two criminal cases.”