First-reading vote on Macau gaming bill on Jan 24
Macau’s Legislative Assembly (pictured) will conduct on Monday (January 24), during a plenary session, a formal first reading of the draft bill to amend the city’s gaming law, according to a notice on the assembly’s website.
The bill – which was tabled on the Legislative Assembly’s website on Tuesday – will after the first-reading vote be sent to a sub-committee. It will consider it further and possibly make recommendations for revisions, before a second and final reading and vote at a further plenary session of the assembly.
The whole process might not be completed by the time the six current casino concessions expire on June 26 this year, said the city’s Secretary for Administration and Justice, André Cheong Weng Chon, in comments to the media on January 14, at the time a summary of the bill was released.
Were that to be the case, the Macau government would consider an extension of the existing concessions, as permitted under the current gaming law. The draft bill says that up to six new concessions will be permitted, with a term of 10 years – with a three-year extension feasible under certain circumstances – rather than the 20-year duration of the current concessions.
The government has said previously Macau’s gaming law needs to be updated as a linked issue to a fresh public tender process for Macau gaming rights associated with the expiry of the current permits.
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