Macau‘s new Illegal Gambling Law introduces criminal sentencing for illegal money exchange. It also targets activities like betting under the table. It presents more challenges for the decreasing junket industry of the city.
The Legislative Assembly of Macau officially greenlit the new Illegal Gambling Law after nearly a year of deliberation. The Assembly had previously passed the law’s second reading. The law presents a complete legal framework for combating illegal gambling. After officially coming into effect as of October 29, it operates in conjunction with Macau’s new gaming law. This is the law on junkets and the law on the legal regime of gaming credit.
The introduction of these new regulations targets to strengthen the supervision of the gaming industry as well as protecting consumer rights while fostering the healthy development of the industry from the perspective of the government. Yet, some have expressed concern about excessive regulation, which could hinder innovation and competition. It leads to a decline in market vitality. There are also concerns that strict legal clauses could provide it difficult for smaller-sized operators to survive, especially junket operators.
The revision of the four gaming laws will indeed have an impact on the sector for veteran junket representative U Io Hung.
He said that looking back at all the laws, there are rules like junket operators have to give up revenue share and can only serve one concessionaire. The space for the industry has for sure shrunk.
Day or night, the Illegal Gambling law itself has added clauses that allow for undercover investigations and the managing of searches at any time. The maximum penalty for illegal gambling is also added to significantly eight years.
Some industry members feel that the new laws are too strict in U Io Hung’s opinion.
He said that from the legal perspective, the matter has escalated to the level of organized crimes. It is as if these gambling crimes are as serious as those like murder or arson.
