Six casino operators, along with the Government, reached a consensus that Macau’s gaming sector should not be expanded indefinitely.

The consensus was reached in a meeting with the Secretary for the Economy and Finance, Tam Pak Yuen (譚伯源), with representatives of six casino operators.

Tam said that in view of signs of recovery after the financial crisis, it is time for the Government to resume the review on Macau’s development of the gaming sector.

The next step the Government will do is to set an appropriate number of gaming tables based on ’scientific reasoning’ and ‘public consultation’, he said.

Tam also revealed that the Government will complete drafting two administrative regulations on slot machine parlours and casinos within the next two to three months, one of which will raise the lower age limit for casino entry from 18 to 21.

Source: BlogMacau.Info

Oct 17, 2009 2:10 PM

澳门行政长官在其2008施政报告的答问会议中宣布了一项政府议案，根据该议案，准许进入澳门赌场的年龄下限将从18岁提高至 21岁。

澳门行政长官何厚铧说，在该政策实施后，将会有一个三年的过渡期，这样已在赌场工作的年龄在18岁至21岁之间的人员仍然可以留在赌场中工作。

进一步的情况将由经济财政司司长谭伯源在11月21至22日向立法会提交经济与财政政策时宣布。

何厚铧说，政府将不允许博彩业无限制地扩张，因为政府了解这样做会增加相应的社会成本.

他进一步指出，澳门可以参照其它国家的博彩业发展与政策制度，但是也要考虑到澳门的本土情况。

将会给社团组织提供资助，以便社团组织能够为赌博上瘾者提供更多的辅导服务。

澳博（SJM）与澳门金沙（Sands Macau ）拒绝对该议案发表评论，银河赌场（Galaxy Casinos）告诉香港明报说，这项议案不会影响他们的业务。

香港政府民政事务局也表示他们会紧密关注澳门的发展，但在目前阶段，在香港的投注站中引入类似议案还“为时尚早”。

About 2,000 members of staff working for the casino hotel at Crown receive pay cut in response to the global economic crisis.

They have to choose one out of four options offered by the employer in order the keep their jobs, including two to four extra days of unpaid leave per month, or three to six months of supsension from work, a switch from permanent to temporary positions, or receive four-day training sessions every two working days.

A majority of the staff had chosen the first option.

Some told Macao Daily News that they began to worry about their job security when the employer decided to dismiss certain employees on grounds of ‘providing false information’.

Meanwhile, SJM has reportedly transferred scores of croupiers to work for the card-selling divisions, while still receiving salaries as croupiers.

However, the newspaper pointed out that once their contracts are expired, they may be required to sign up new contracts that will result from a pay cut of MOP4,000.

On the other hand, pay cuts are not heard of from other casino operators.

Source: Blogmacau.info

Nov 24, 2008 10:57 PM

About 11,000 local and foreign workers will be affected after LV Sands decided to put its projects in the Cotai Strip on hold.

President in Asia Stephen Weaver said in a press conference in Macau that the USD2.1 billion raised in the past few days will all be used to the operations of the firm, including the Singapore project.

However, LVS is not intended to use the new funds to the Cotai project, and will seek for funds under more appropriate conditions.

Talks are being held with banks in Europe and Asia to raise USD1.5 to 2 billion of money to invest in the suspended Cotai project. The construction contract has correspondingly been extended to six months.

Of the 11,000 workers affected by the suspension, 2,000 are from Macau and 4,000 are from Hong Kong. The rest are from mainland China.

Non-resident workers from mainland China have been arranged to leave their positions by cancelling their permits.

Local workers will be arranged to work in other projects including clearing up.

Meanwhile, Labour Affairs Bureau officers will be sent to the sites of the suspended projects to monitor dismissals of workers.

Source: BlogMacau.info

Nov 15, 2008 7:56 PM

The Central Government in Beijing may relax restrictions imposed to mainland Chinese residents to visit Macau, in a move to save Macau from possible economic downturn.

Meanwhile, academics in Guangdong said in a seminar in Guangzhou that Beijing has included Macau’s development positioning into the Development Plan of the Pearl River Delta Region.

Director of the Insitute of International Economy of the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, Qiu Shan (丘杉) said that the document will explicitly indicate that the Central Government ‘fully supports Macau to reinforce its position as a world-class tourism and leisure centre’.

The newspaper speculates that the Central Government will also assess the impact made to Macau’s small businesses as a result of recent restriction imposed to residents in the neighbouring province of Guangdong to visit Macau.

The paper said that restrictions imposed at that time was to prevent Macau’s economy from overheating, but since market situation is now completely different, it is also of mainland China’s interest to ensure a steady growth in the economy.

A 170-strong team of officials and experts had been to the Pearl River Delta region in September, and a seminar was held in Guangzhou to listen to opinions of academics and officials in Guangdong, Macau and Hong Kong on drafting the Development Plan for the Pearl River Delta Region.

The Plan is said to last for at least 20 to 30 years.

On the other hand, Citibank quoted sources from Melco PBL Entertainment that Beijing may relax restrictions of mainland Chinese residents to Macau at or before the middle of 2009.

Source: Blogmacau.info

Oct 27, 2008 5:03 PM

The Government announce three measures to reduce non-resident workers in Macau, following a global economic slowdown.

Economic and Financial Secretary Tam Pak Yuen (譚伯源) announced that from 1 January 2009 onwards, the Government will not accept new applications for non-resident workers working as supervisors in casinos, with the aim to promote all local croupiers to the positions by next year.

New applications for introducing non-resident workers to the construction sector will also be unaccepted with immediate effect, while a review of the number of non-resident workers in the sector will be undertaken in order to cut the numbers further ‘according to the actual requirements’.

The Government will also aim to cut the number of non-resident cleaners and security guards by half when their contracts are due to expire.

Tam appealed to the public not to look at the number of non-resident workers alone, and should also look at the unemployment rate of the local labour force.

He said that unemployment in Macau remains low by international standards, although he admitted that further observations are necessary on the effects of the global economic prospects, in order to establish whether the Government can control the unemployment rate to under 4%.

Meanwhile, Director of Labour Affairs Bureau Shuen Ka Hung (孫家雄) said that training courses will be provided so that local croupiers will be capable to handle supervisory positions in the future.

Shuen also appealed to the local croupiers to take part in these courses, particularly to enhance their efforts in learning foreign

Source: Blogmacau.info

澳门博彩业9月份收入为44亿葡币，根据数据，年同比增长15.7%。

同时，根据澳门日报基于收入比例的估算，澳博（SJM）占澳门大约55至58%的市场份额，金沙（Sands）占20％，银河（Galaxy）占15％，永利（Wynn）大约占7－8%.

另一方面，Steve Wynn在拉斯维加斯告诉媒体，澳门永利在其开张的前13天就售出了总计价值为70亿港币的筹码。

按照2.5%的庄家收益率计算，澳门永利平均每天收入为1300万港币，相当于澳门博彩业日收入的 10％.

澳门理工学院曾忠禄教授指出，尽管澳门永利的设计可能会吸引一些赌客，但随着其它大型赌场的陆续开张，例如星际酒店（Star World Hotel）和新葡京酒店（Grand Lisboa.），澳门永利在澳门的市场份额会保持不变。

一知情人士告诉澳门日报，澳门永利前期的成功是因为永利以非常诱人的佣金比例邀请了几个非常资深的VIP经理来运作其VIP业务。

该知情人士还告诉澳门日报说，尽管澳门永利在开业时获得了一些成功，金沙的市场定位是吸引大多数中国大陆游客。

澳门金沙给由其建立起来的澳门博彩业带来更大的影响。

The Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah said that competition in the gaming sector is inevitable and normal.

He said that not everyone will be happy in the process of competition, and the major players are surely “very angry”, and pointed out that any competitions directed by the Government are not competitions at all.

Ho also told local media that he does not believe that the casino operators will lose money because of the comeptitions, because the base of the gaming sector has expanded, and all of them will have to think of promotional ideas.

He appealed to the public to take a long-term approach when looking at competition, saying that this is a matter of decades.

He also revealed that the Government will not issue any further concession license for the time being, and the “3+3” situation will be maintained in a long term.

Ho also said that, in his personal opinion, the competition at the first stage is only the beginning, and any feelings of rapid development is only because there was no competitions in the gaming sector in the past.

He also reminded the public that Macau is also facing competition within the Pearl River Delta region, saying that with the intercity railway network completed, the distance between Macau and the Chinese cities will be reduced, which will “overturn” the existing consumption pattern.

Source: BlogMacau.info

澳门行政长官何厚铧称博彩业内的竞争是正常的，也是不可避免的。

他说，竞争的过程不可能让所有人都高兴，其中涉及到的一些主要公司当然会“非常生气”，他同时还指出任何由政府所引导的竞争根本就不算是竞争。

他还告诉当地媒体说，他并不相信赌场运营方会因为竞争而亏钱，因为博彩业的整个基础扩大了，而且所有赌场还会考虑采取促销的手段。

他向公众呼吁以长远的眼光来看待竞争，他说这需要几十年的时间。

他还透露说，目前政府不会进一步颁发任何特许经营权，目前的”3+3″形势将会长期保持。

他也提到，以他个人看来，第一阶段的竞争只是一个开始，过去的任何快速发展的感觉只是因为当时在博彩业没有形成竞争。

他还提醒公众，澳门还面临珠三角的竞争，随着城际铁路线的完工，澳门与中国城市之间的距离将会被缩短，这会对目前的消费模式起到颠覆性作用。

Scores of redundant casino workers went to seek for help from the Labour Affairs Bureau, after two outsourced casinos run by Galaxy Casinos announced a job cut of 270 because of fierce competition.

These workers, most of them are croupiers, claimed that they felt ‘threatened’ by the employer who told them to sign letters first before they were allowed to leave.

Although they were promised to receive compensation according to labour regulations, and that they will be re-employed once new casinos are open, they doubted why the employer did not made non-resident workers redundant first before making them redundant.

Some pointed out that non-resident workers who work outside of their authorised domains of activities create ‘extreme unfairness’ to them.

Together with the representatives of two non-mainstream trades union, they demanded a dialogue with the Secretary for the Economy and Finance Tam Pak Yuen (譚伯源) on 2 July on the issue of giving priority to local workers.

They threatened for further action if they did not receive ’satisfactory response’. Galaxy Casinos issued a statement later which said that the redundancy decision was ‘helpless’, and expressed regret to those who are affected. It also claimed that letters that promised to re-employ these redundant workers had been issued to those affected. They could be re-employed once the Galaxy Mega Resort is open. The two outsourced casinos affected are Grand Waldo in Taipa and President in Macau.

Legislator Kwan Tsui Hang (關翠杏) from the trade union stream expressed concern to the recent developments, saying that it reflects the fact that the gaming sector in Macau has entered a period of adjustment.

She also said that it is time for the Government to assess fully the labour needs of the gaming sector, particularly to create opportunities to allow local croupiers to be promoted to become supervisors.

Source: Blogmacau.info

Jul 5, 2008 1:16 AM