Macau Ponders Future Even As Tourists And Gamblers Return

Macau, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jan, 2023 ) :Macau's streets were packed in the run-up to the Lunar New Year after pandemic controls were abruptly lifted but it is far from business as usual as the Chinese casino hub wrestles with questions about its future.

Mainland Chinese tourists filled winding passages leading up to the historic Ruins of Saint Paul's, and stores selling local snacks like almond cookies and meat jerky had trouble keeping up.

"We don't have enough goods for this Lunar New Year as we didn't expect this," a business owner surnamed Li told AFP.

Tourists may now be back, but Beijing wants the former Portuguese colony to diversify its casinos-reliant economy.

The city of some 700,000 is the only place in China where casinos operate legally and for years has relied on mainland Chinese gamblers as its economic lifeline.

Last year Macau saw gaming revenues plunge to a record low of 42 billion patacas ($5.2 billion) after the government shut down most businesses at the height of a coronavirus wave.

- 'Can't use the old ways' - Macau issues just six operating concessions for a multi-billion-dollar industry that, until the pandemic hit, generated six times the gaming revenue of Las Vegas.

In December, the government awarded new decade-long concessions to all incumbents, effectively keeping the status quo but adding new requirements for non-gaming investment.

The firms have since pledged a total of $14.9 billion on projects including theme parks, convention and exhibition centres, fine dining and performance venues.

Former lawmaker Sulu Sou said it was "a step forward" for Macau to set clear demands for diversification, instead of relying on vague slogans as it had for years.

"Changes in the industry and shifting attitudes toward gambling in mainland China forced the (Macau) government to spell these requirements out in black and white," he told AFP.

Sou pointed to the downfall of "junket king" Alvin Chau, who was sentenced to 18 years in jail last week for hosting illegal gambling on a vast scale.

"It was a major signal to society that even as we return to normality, we can't use the old ways to make a fortune anymore," Sou said.

Chau was the figurehead of an industry that thrived on enticing high rollers from mainland China to gamble in Macau, by running VIP rooms and extending credit for bets.

VIP guests contributed around 15 percent of industry earnings before the pandemic, but the majority of this would be "permanently gone" due to regulatory concerns, according to Credit Suisse analysts.

"China's multi-year campaign against capital outflow and cross-border gambling carried on, rather than eased," they wrote earlier this month.