Virtual currencies such as bitcoin may help Macau’s gambling industry—which now relies on little-used currencies—attract foreign players.
That came from Bobby Lee, founder of BTC China during a France Macau Business Association breakfast meeting.
“Macau is an international gaming destination. The pataca is not widely recognized, not very popular outside Macau. The Hong Kong dollar (the currency used in casinos) has more influence. It is therefore very simple: Bitcoin may allow travelers to Macau and visitors, especially for the gaming industry, a means of transferring funds, regardless of their countries of origin, to come play in casinos,” Lee said during a France Macau Business Association meeting.
Lee, speaking to reporters later, said gamblers coming to Macau can bring bitcoins instead of converting to local currencies, noting that the system follows the same procedure for Chinese, Filipino or Thai customers.
Lee did acknowledge that there are fears associated with virtual currencies including that it could be used for money laundering, but said that happens “with or without” bitcoins.
“To solve this problem you need to catch criminals,” he said. “The bitcoin already exists. Blaming something that was already invented is not useful. I think we should better our efforts to provide better regulation. Obviously financing terrorism is bad, but how do we stop it? The way to stop is to catch the terrorists, not shut down the online payment network.”
