Mr Paulo Martins Chan, the director of Gaming Inspection and Coordination Buraeu (DICJ)
2019 MGS Summit opened and hot topics related to industrial policy, innovation, entertainment, technology and investment environment were the highlights of discussion. Paulo Martins Chan, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) Director, stated in his opening speech, in order to seize the development opportunities of the Greater Bay Area and welcome an increasing number of tourists, DICJ will promote the industry's healthy and orderly development by following the policy of "moderate supervision, monitoring and control and healthy growth". It is also helpful to build Macau a pleasant place for travelers.
Being the head of DICJ, Mr. Chan looked back at times past and said local gaming industry has experiences different stages and changes, while the department also adjusted its supervision strategies to cope with needs of respective stage of the industry's development, as well as to continuously optimise supervisory of DICJ. In order to seize the development opportunities of the Greater Bay Area and welcome an increasing number of tourists, DICJ will promote the industry's healthy and orderly development by following the policy of "moderate supervision, monitoring and control and healthy growth". It is also helpful to build Macau a pleasant place for travelers.
According to Mr. Chan, DICJ has strengthened the promotion of responsible gambling and strives to build up the correct gambling awareness and attitude in community and among tourists, acting in concert with Macau's construction of a city with optimal conditions for tourism and leisure. Since October of last year, DICJ has requested all casinos to stop broadcasting any advertisements and messages related to gambling in smoking lounges. Instead, starting from the last 1st January, all smoking lounges in local casinos must keep playing messages on responsible gambling. A survey shows that the prevalence rate of excessive gambling of local residents dropped sharply from 2.5% in 2016 to 0.8%, representing the lowest since the first similar survey. It indicates that all stakeholders have joined hands to promote responsible gambling and remarkable results have achieved. Last month, all casinos in Macau are equipped with Information Pavilion special for responsible gambling, which also continues to pass related messages to surrounding areas.
In addition to promoting responsible gambling, it is also important to provide a safe travel environment for tourists. Therefore, DICJ works closely with relevant enforcement authorities to continuously improve the quality of casino security and conduct comprehensive reviews on casinos' security measures, aiming to ensure the safety of tourists and residents. Mr. Chan introduced that till last year, DICJ has coordinated gaming operators, police and relevant government departments to conduct emergency drills for the second consecutive year in a bid to strengthening emergency response capabilities of information reporting, joint command and dispatch, and coordination. The Bureau also asks all operators to upgrade and install metal detector doors at entrances of every casino. Moreover, suitcases are forbidden in casinos since mid-July of this year, while security guards of the casinos must check belongings of visitors, with the purpose of securing the safety and normal operation of local casinos.
Mr. Chan explained DICJ has put in a lot of resources to prevent and combat illegal online gambling in order to safeguard the city's tourism image and protect interests of tourists and residents. Measures, including extensive publicity and promotion through different platforms, assault patrol gambling exhibitions and venues that operated by gaming promoters, are to prevent criminals from using these platforms to conduct illegal activities with the name of Macau or casinos in Macau. DICJ continues to strengthen supervision on gaming promoters, while related laws and regulations were revised. At the same time, it also updates the technical standards of the gaming machines, the minimum internal control standards, anti-money laundering regulations, etc., with the aim of providing tourists with a more orderly and enjoyable environment for entertainment.
DICJ not only strengthens the Bureau's supervision on the gaming industry, also adopts policy measures to encourage gaming operators to carry out projects that are conducive to the promotion of local tourism industry, including through strict control and approval of the number of new gaming tables, which ensures the gaming industry gives room to the development of other non-gaming projects. Through goal-oriented, policy-led, and industry cooperation, DICJ continuously drives gaming operators to bring more non-gaming elements as support to the construction of the World Tourism and Leisure Center. It is expected to increase the proportion of non-gaming business revenue 9% or above by 2020, while it only took 6.6% of the total revenue of gaming operators in 2014. It also encourages large-scale integrated tourism and leisure enterprises to cooperate with local SMEs, allowing more historical shops with unique features to enter integrated resorts for business, consolidating Macau's status as a Gourmets' Capital and showing the unique charm of Macau to the world.
The three-day Summit will explore a number of topics, including the development of the Greater Bay Area promotes the development of Macao's diversified economy, the current and future planning for the Japan IR market, the direction and development of electronic gaming manufacturers, and ICBC (Macau) helps the moderate economic diversification of Macao by supporting the development of SMEs. Experts, scholars and industry leaders from different countries and regions will give their insights during the Summit, share the latest industry information, and jointly promote the healthy development of relevant industries.
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