Lawmaker-cum-restaurateur Andrew Chan Chak Mo, who chairs the Legislative Assembly’s 2^nd Standing Committee, said yesterday that the biggest difference between the existing casino credit law and the government-initiated gaming credit bill is that management companies hired by the gaming concessionaires are no longer able to run gaming credit operations in the casinos.

Addressing a press briefing after yesterday’s closed-door meeting reviewing the government’s gaming credit bill, Chan said that there were “not too many” revisions to the bill, adding that they were mainly technical adjustments compared with the current casino credit law that took effect in 2004.

No government officials attended yesterday’s 1 ½-hour meeting. Chan stressed, however, he believed that the committee will have to meet once again with government officials as soon as possible.

The gaming credit bill currently under review by the committee would, if passed by lawmakers in its second and final reading, replace Macau’s current law regulating the city’s casino credit operations.

The bill proposes that only gaming concessionaires and junket operators – officially known as gaming promoters, can be credit-granting entities, while management companies hired by the city’s six gaming concessionaires are no longer be allowed to engage in gaming-related credit business, as they will have no access to the concessionaires’ financial operations, according to Chan.

Chan also said that the gaming concessionaires can directly lend to gamblers, while the gaming promoters can lend directly to the gamblers only after signing a credit operation contract with the respective gaming concessionaires, whereby the gaming concessionaires can directly grant credit to the gaming promoters.

The bill does not specify any penalties, Chan said, adding that some committee members planned, however, to ask the government that the bill clearly state the penalties for breaching the law. 

Lawmaker-cum-restaurateur Andrew Chan Chak Mo (right), who chairs the legislature’s 2nd Standing Committee, talks to reporters after the committee’s closed-door meeting reviewing the government’s gaming credit bill yesterday, while the committee’s secretary, Lam Lon Wai, looks on. – Photo: Ginnie Liang