{"id":29106,"date":"2022-04-20T07:23:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T10:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=29106"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:28:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:28:38","slug":"macau-legend-co-chairman-questions-government-diversification-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-legend-co-chairman-questions-government-diversification-plan","title":{"rendered":"Macau Legend co-chairman questions government diversification plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>David Chow, Macau Legend\u2019s co-chairman, says the gaming and tourism industries are still Macau\u2019s core business and that the government should focus on supporting them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Macau.-\u00a0David Chow, Macau Legend\u2019s co-chairman, has\u00a0urged authorities to listen to focus on core local industries. He says that is the only way Macau can recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chow attended an event to announce the results of a survey of around 500 local SMEs conducted by the Federation of Macau SMEs. Most respondents said they had a very negative view of the business environment due to high rental costs and a drop in tourist arrivals due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the meeting, Chow said: \u201cI don\u2019t know what the government is doing. Do they even know themselves?\u00a0<strong>The gaming industry is very important for Macau<\/strong>, it has continued for 20 years but now they have cut a lot of things.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chow questioned the government&#8217;s diversification strategy and <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-gaming-law-amendment-bill-first-reading-approved\" target=\"_blank\">proposed changes to the current regulatory framework<\/a>\u00a0for the gaming industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: &#8220;The gaming industry in Macau is important. Don\u2019t worry about going on a new programme, concentrate on the old industries and make them grow. It is the only way to survive in the next five years.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-to-continue-to-promote-economic-diversification\" target=\"_blank\">Macau\u2019s chief executive Ho Iat Seng<\/a>\u00a0has previously said Macau needed to\u00a0<strong>promote the development of creative and distinctive non-gaming industries<\/strong>\u00a0to attract more international and diversified tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, David Chow said Macau\u2019s core business was still tourism and gaming. He said: &#8220;We wanted to show the government how critical the situation is due to casino closures, the gaming law amendment and the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We hope with the survey results and other proposals authorities can advance policies that can offer a light at the end of the tunnel.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Macau mass GGR down 8.8% in Q1<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<strong>Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau (DICJ)&nbsp;<\/strong>has reported that mass-market games, including slot machines, accounted for nearly 72.8 per cent of all Macau casinos\u2019 gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the first quarter of 2022, at nearly MOP12.94bn (US$1.60bn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, mass-market revenue was down 8.8 per cent year-on-year and 10.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Mass-market games, including slot machines, accounted for<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/74-3-of-macaus-q4-ggr-came-from-mass-market-gaming\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">74.3 per cent of Macau\u2019s GGR in the fourth quarter of 2021<\/a>, at nearly MOP14.18bn (US$1.77bn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>VIP baccarat, which accounted for nearly half of Macau\u2019s GGR in 2019, accounted for 27.2 per cent in the three months to March 31 \u2013 just under MOP4.84bn. Mass-market baccarat revenue accounted&nbsp;<strong>for 60.9 per cent of GGR&nbsp;<\/strong>at MOP10.82bn. Slot machines accounted for 6.2 per cent at MOP1.1bn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Chow, Macau Legend\u2019s co-chairman, says the gaming and tourism industries are still Macau\u2019s core business and that the government should focus on supporting them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"David Chow, co-chairman of Macau Legend, has publicly challenged the Macau government's diversification strategy, asserting that gaming and tourism remain the region's core economic drivers essential for post-pandemic recovery. He advocates for policies supporting these established industries, citing a significant decline in Q1 2022 mass-market GGR and negative sentiment among local SMEs. This stance directly contrasts with Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng's push for non-gaming industry development.","focusai_entities":"David Chow, Macau Legend, Federation of Macau SMEs, Ho Iat Seng, Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau (DICJ)","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Macau Policy Impact","query":"What specific policy adjustments or regulatory framework changes is David Chow advocating for to bolster Macau's core gaming and tourism industries?"},{"label":"GGR Diversification Strategy","query":"How does the Q1 2022 mass-market GGR decline, juxtaposed with the government's diversification strategy, influence the long-term capital allocation decisions for integrated resorts in Macau?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,156],"tags":[23911,23906,22593],"class_list":["post-29106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-macau-casinos","tag-macau-legend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29106","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=29106"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29116,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29106\/revisions\/29116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}