Macau: Assembly urges govt to discuss gaming law

Macau’s Legislative Assembly (AL) has demanded the government submit the draft amendment of Macau’s gaming law.

Macau.- The Legislative Assembly (AL) has asked the government to submit a draft amendment of the gaming law. Legislators are hurrying the SAR government on the grounds that they need time to debate the law.

President of the AL’s Monitoring Commission for Land Issues and Public Concessions, legislator Lei Cheng I, talked to the media after a meeting of the commission and said legislators wanted to discuss the gaming law as soon as possible because the licences of all six current concessionaires expire in June 2022.

Lei said: “The gaming industry is the most vital source of our economy and relates to a large number of employees. The influence and impact is great and wide. The current gaming concessions will end by 2022, so we want to know the planning for the amendment of gaming licenses.”

According to some industry commentators, the re-tendering of concessions should be delayed in order to allow Macau more time to focus on its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong has already stated that the government has no intention of postponing the re-tendering process. The amendments to Macau’s gaming law are scheduled to be introduced in 2021.

The 6th term of Macau AL will end next summer and AL members are due to be re-elected in around September of 2021, which suggests that any amendment to the gaming law would need to be passed within the next 11 months to avoid a delay in re-tendering.