The bill raising the minimum age of people allowed into casinos staff and patrons alike passed its first reading at the Legislative Assembly yesterday, as reported by the Macau Daily Times today. It seems inevitable that, despite objections from lawmakers who usually object to the government's bills, anyone under the age of 18 will not be allowed onto the casino floors. How do we come up with such a confident prediction? 

Well, for a simple reason. It makes legislators like Angela Leong and Chan Chak-mo look benevolent. To whit: There are more and more youngsters entering casinos and becoming pathological gamblers, Leong said. This law is inevitable and it's urgent to regulate this issue. It will be good to protect our youth, so they have less opportunity to be in touch with gaming. And Chan: "Do we want all of our kids to end up as card dealers?" These are the same people, keep in mind, who watered down the anti-smoking legislation. So protecting frontline 18-21-year-olds from the dangers of second-hand smoke is clearly not as big a concern for them. 

But this legislation also will keep 18-21-year-olds from outside Macau out of their casinos, too, so we suppose they ought to be lauded for their self-sacrifice to a certain extent, too. This will hit their revenues. Naturally, we can hear the question on your minds, dear readers: if 18-21s are going to be banned from gambling, which concessionaire will this affect most? Our colleagues at Market Insights Macau are on the case, and will provide an update on this before the bill is passed, so stay tuned.  Use with permission & copyright IntelMacau.com