Macau’s new draft gaming bill, the Law to Combat Gambling Crimes, may fall short when it comes to prevention of such crimes, according to consultants in the Chinese special administrative region (SAR).
As reported by GGRAsia, the bill updates the city’s longtime Illegal Gambling Regime, established in 1996. It’s “advantageous” for the government and casino concessionaires because it could help keep the industry free of criminal elements, said Macau lawyer Bruno Ascenção.
But António Lobo Vilela, former gaming adviser to the local government, said the proposed legislation does not create a “comprehensive” law that prevents as well as punishes crime.
The bill “merely creates the crime of illegal online gaming operation—for games of chance or pari-mutuel (betting)—and, surprisingly, repeals the two crimes of gambling in an authorized place, as well as repeals all crimes related explicitly to animal racing,” Vilela told the news outlet.
But “the essence of a criminal law is not only to repress crimes, but also to foster some preventive measures,” he added. “I believe a golden opportunity has been missed to pass a modern law on illicit gambling in line with the importance of Macau’s gambling sector.”
In a joint statement, the lawyers said it’s “unclear” whether sports betting is included in a section of the bill on illegal online games of luck and chance and parimutuel betting.
They said, “This is because sports betting may be qualified as ‘lotteries,’ i.e., ‘gaming activities offered to the public’ and not as parimutuel betting: the Macau SLOT concession expressly refers to sports lotteries—football and basketball bets. It would be important to clarify this matter in order to protect the incumbent concessionaire of sports betting in Macau and avoid illegal operation of sport betting.”
Ascenção noted that in the draft bill, lawmakers proposed banning any “operation, promotion and organizing” of “online games of fortune and mutual betting,” but was vague about “promotion” in this context. “Its wording … needs to be clarified, as the scope of agents that it may apply to could be extremely wide,” he said.
Moreover, lawyers Carlos Coelho and Francisco Leitão of the law firm MdME told GGRAsia the bill doesn’t adequately address illicit currency exchanges in or around Macau gaming halls. “From a legislative standpoint,” in their opinion, “it would be doable to criminalize such conduct, and the best opportunity to do so would be with the (draft) law, (but) it seems that was not the government position.” Currently, unauthorized money exchanges are subject to fines only.
Last November, Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon told lawmakers, “We need a comprehensive study into the subject (of criminalization) … We are not considering tackling the topic within the (amendment). But the subject itself is still being followed up and studied by the relevant government departments.”
In comments last month, Cheong added that unauthorized money changers, including those who prowl casinos in search of victims, accounted for most gaming-related fraud cases in 2023.
According to Asia Gaming Brief, last week the Legislative Assembly approved the first reading of the draft bill, which now goes to one of three committees of the assembly for further evaluation. The committees may recommend revisions before a second and final reading.
