Gambling in Macau
[9]: 11 The casino wars were largely attributable to rival Triad groups who sought to gain control of Macau's illicit industries before Portugal transferred the territory back to China.
[9]: 11 The Portuguese authorities of Macau mostly failed to address the violence, which resulted in 122 deaths, or to catch those responsible.
[10] In 2002, the Macau government ended the monopoly system and granted three (later six) casino operating concessions (and subconcessions) to: Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM, an 80% owned subsidiary of STDM), Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, Galaxy Entertainment Group, the partnership of MGM Mirage and Pansy Ho Chiu-king, and the partnership of Melco and PBL.
After the handover of Macau from Portugal to China, the SAR released gambling licenses to other companies to eliminate the monopoly played by the STDM.
In 2002, the government signed concession contracts with two Macau gaming companies, Wynn Resort Ltd. and Galaxy Casino.
This opened the gambling market for competition and increased government tax revenue significantly.
Due to Xi Jinping's promise on cracking down of corruption across mainland China, casino profits from across Macau have been reporting a decline in monthly profits[11] In addition, a proliferation of other gambling venues in the region is drawing the target demographic away.
Macau's 2018 grew 13% over the prior year, but this lagged behind the 41% growth in emerging casino markets in Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia, according to Fitch Ratings.
[13] Taxes from gambling revenues fund a robust welfare system and an annual cash payment to Macau's citizens.
The main casino operators in Macau are SJM Holdings, Galaxy Entertainment Group and Las Vegas Sands with respective revenues of 9.7, 4.8, and 4.2 billion in 2011.
[14] A form of VIP contractual system called the junket trade operates in Macau.
[9]: 10 The practice developed in the 1980s, when Stanley Ho began subcontracting private gambling rooms in his casinos to independent agents.
[9]: 9 A wide range of games are available, including roulette, blackjack, baccarat, boule, Sic bo, Fan Tan, keno and slot machines.
[9]: 241–242 Although punto banco baccarat is a pure game of chance on which no rational bet can be made, many gamblers record the succession of Player or Banker wins in an effort to discern patterns.
[9]: 242 Gamblers typically do so on a chart called the Big Road on which Player and Banker wins can be recorded so that streaks can be readily observed.
[9]: 243 The popularity of tracking such results among gamblers in Macau has led to the practice being used at casinos throughout the world where Chinese people gamble.
Today, Wynn Macau, StarWorld, and the Venetian offer live-dealer cash game poker tables.
Horse-racing mainly takes place every Tuesday and Saturday or Sunday at the race-course on the Taipa Island of Macau.
The race-course has an area of 450,000 square metres and 18,000 seats for gamblers, and is open only for people over 18 years of age.
After negotiations with the track's owner and intense fundraising by an international group of volunteer-run, greyhound adoption organizations led by Anima, 517 greyhounds received veterinary medical care and were shuttled out to be adopted in Europe, North America, Australia, and, for a few, locally in Macau.
The details are listed in Law 16/2001 (regime jurídico da exploração de jogos de fortuna ou azar em casino), and other laws regulating the activity of gaming promoters and credit for gaming.
Under Macau law, it stated that a permit issued by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau is required for the operation of lotteries sales, lucky draw or similar activities, and the initial procedure in the application on the operation of lotteries sales, lucky draw, or similar activities is to submit a notification to the relevant government department ten days prior to the application.
[18] In addition, general laws on the prevention and repression of money laundering and the financing of terrorism through casinos apply.
If the person realises that their gambling activities begin to cause trouble, they can turn to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau to ban them from entering the casino.
The government of Macau is seeking the opinions of the citizens on the possibility of establishing a programme that will allow excluding problem gamblers from all casinos without their consent.
[9]: 10 In 2011, the Macau government implemented a citywide cap on the expansion of table games, which remained in effect through 2022.
[9]: 237 Thus, stadium style electronic games where one live dealer serves dozens of gamblers are still counted as one table for purposes of the cap.
