Macau: gaming staff activist to stand at legislative election

Cloee Chao Sao Fong, a casino labour activist, will be the lead candidate for the New Macao Gaming List in September’s election for the Legislative Assembly.

Macau.- Macau’s Legislative Assembly will see thirty-three seats reshuffled in September, and Cloee Chao Sao Fong, head of the New Macau Gaming Staff Rights Association will be a candidate.

The activist will be the lead candidate for the New Macao Gaming List. She has already presented her group’s political programme and list of candidates to the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission.

According to local media, Sao Fong has said she will focus on getting better benefits and rights for casino workers, although she recognised that it will be difficult to win one of the fourteen seats elected directly by citizens. She ran for the elections four years ago but failed to win a seat.

During the elections, twelve seats will be indirectly elected via local functional constituencies and the remaining seven will be appointed by the chief executive after elections.

Angela Leong On Kei, co-chairman and executive director of Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd, will stand for re-election as a member of Macau’s Legislative Assembly. This time, Leong will be part of the indirect-election portion of the process.

A public consultation on an amendment to Macau’s gaming law is likely to be held after legislative elections as Macau’s current casino licences are due to expire in June 2022.

Some analysts have suggested the upcoming retendering of Macau’s casino licences could be the ideal time to implement changes to the licence criteria and to allow online gambling.

A research paper has also suggested that Macau should add requirements for operators to invest in the diversification of Macau’s economy, which is highly dependent on the tourism sector.