Macau labour groups in favour of gambling ban for casino staff

Two Macau gaming labour groups declared they back the introduction of rules banning gaming workers from casino floors outside work hours.

Macau.- After the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) announced there was a possibility to issue rules banning gaming workers from casino floors outside work hours, two Macau gaming labour groups supported the initiative. Members of these groups believe this would help curb problem gambling among casino employees, specifically card dealers.

On Sunday, DICJ director Paulo Martins Chan said his bureau was studying barring casino workers from entering the city’s casinos to gamble and a decision on the matter would be made this year.

“We’ll see what everyone’s opinion is, gather our legal team’s studies, then we’ll move on with our works,” said Chan adding that that DICJ would meet with the city’s gaming labour groups over the next few weeks to collect their opinions on the matter.

Forefront of Macao Gaming and Power of the Macao Gaming Association have both expressed their support for the measure.

“We definitely support a ban on casino employees taking part in any sort of gaming activities, especially employees working at [casino] gaming tables,” said Lei Iok Po, director of Power of the Macao Gaming Association. “We have witnessed many cases of dealers that entered a cycle of accumulating big [amounts of] gaming debt, [by] borrowing heavily to gamble and losing all the money. Casino dealers are much more prone to this condition because they are very exposed to casino table gambling; many of them believe they can win just as their clients do, but later they eventually turn into problem gamblers.”