{"id":25648,"date":"2021-12-16T11:11:22","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=25648"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:51:25","slug":"macau-handled-only-52-gambling-disorder-cases-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-handled-only-52-gambling-disorder-cases-this-year","title":{"rendered":"Macau handled only 52 gambling disorder cases this year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Macau\u2019s Social Welfare Bureau has confirmed the city’s lowest problem gambling rate in a decade with only 52 gambling disorder cases this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- Richard Cheang Io Tat<\/strong>, chief of the\u00a0Social Welfare Bureau\u2019s (IAS) Drug Addiction and Rehabilitation Department<\/a>, has confirmed the city saw 52 gambling disorder cases in 2021, down from 77 last year. During an event titled \u201cLost Control, Lose Family\u201d, Io Tat said the decline in gambling disorder cases could be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic and the temporary closure of casino venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that of the 52 cases, 80 per cent were local residents, and most were people aged between 35 and 49 with children. He said 27 per cent worked in the gaming industry and that most were heavily in debt\u00a0and seeking help from the bureau to resolve their financial situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said\u00a0the bureau has stepped up its publicity efforts to educate the public about gambling disorders<\/strong>\u00a0and has strengthened ties with family support associations to increase the likelihood of detecting cases of gambling disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morgan Stanley lowers Macau GGR forecast for 2022<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Morgan Stanley Banking Group<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>has lowered its estimate of Macau\u2019s gross gaming revenue (GGR) for 2022 by 30 per cent to US$15bn. According to analysts, the market has seen an intermittent recovery, but travel restrictions and regulatory uncertainty will remain in the first half of 2022.\u00a0They have also reduced their estimate for 2023 by 20 per cent to US$26bn.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group now predicts that\u00a0casino GGR in 2022 and 2023 will reach 42 per cent and 70 per cent\u00a0<\/strong>of pre-pandemic levels in 2019, respectively.\u00a0It forecasts that\u00a0Macau casino earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) will fall by 40 per cent\u00a0and 8 per cent in 2022 and 2023, respectively, to US$3.81bn and US$8.31bn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macau\u2019s Social Welfare Bureau has confirmed the city’s lowest problem gambling rate in a decade with only 52 gambling disorder cases this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau's Social Welfare Bureau reported a decade-low of 52 problem gambling cases in 2021, attributing the decline to the COVID-19 pandemic and casino closures. Concurrently, Morgan Stanley Banking Group significantly lowered its Macau GGR forecasts for 2022 and 2023, citing intermittent recovery, travel restrictions, and regulatory uncertainty.","focusai_entities":"Richard Cheang Io Tat, Social Welfare Bureau, IAS, Drug Addiction and Rehabilitation Department, Morgan Stanley Banking Group, Morgan Stanley","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GGR Recovery Drivers?","query":"Given the persistent travel restrictions and 'regulatory uncertainty,' what specific policy changes or market dynamics are most likely to drive or hinder Macau's GGR recovery beyond 2023?"},{"label":"Problem Gambling Interventions?","query":"How does the demographic profile of problem gamblers (local residents, gaming industry workers, 35-49 age group) inform the Social Welfare Bureau's targeted intervention strategies and responsible gambling mandates for operators?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,23876],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-25648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-social-news","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25648"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25657,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25648\/revisions\/25657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}