The government has drafted an amended administrative regulation to supplement the requirements for the upcoming bidding process for the city’s future gaming concessions and to specify the documents that have to be submitted for the bids, the Executive Council revealed in a statement yesterday.
According to the statement, the administrative regulation (by-law) will take effect the day after its promulgation in the Official Gazette (BO).
The regulation complements the gaming law passed by the Legislative Assembly (AL) last month that reshaped the city’s gaming industry, given that the policy direction for the future development of the sector is quite different to that of the 2001 public tender for the city’s gaming concessionaires.
According to the statement, the regulation requires all bidders participating in the tender to detail in their proposed agreements their plans how to expand their foreign customer markets, as well as the benefits they will bring to Macau in terms of gaming and non-gaming investments, and the social responsibilities they will assume, among others.
Also, according to the statement, given the amended gaming law, the bidders are required to submit information to verify their suitability and financial capacity, which now can even be done online.
Considering that the sector’s casino management companies will be regulated by the government’s junket bill regulating the city’s gaming promoters, which is currently being reviewed by the legislature, the articles related to management companies will be revoked in the administrative regulation dated back to 2001, according to the statement.
Under the junket bill, the future gaming concessionaires would not be allowed to share their revenues with, or pay commissions to, the casino management companies, but are only permitted to pay them a management fee for their services.
Macau’s government-granted casino operations are concessions – not “simple” business licences – that give the government considerable clout in how the gaming operators are running their businesses.
Yesterday’s statement by the Executive Council – the government’s top advisory body – did not say when the administrative regulation will be promulgated in the Official Gazette (BO), only after which it will come into force.
According to the amended gaming law, the government can grant up to six gaming concessions. Sub-concession will no longer be permitted.
