Inside Asian Gaming

Oct 2007 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING Politics 39 W hen it was announced recently that Hong Kong and Macau had agreed to negotiate with the main- land government on a combined entry visa for mainland tourists, it was unlikely local of- ficials were making policy on the hoof. It will have been part of a carefully cho- reographed tri-partite policy initiative be- tween the two Special Administrative Re- gions (SARs) and the central government in Beijing. It was probably spurred by behind- the-scenes discussions at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held in Beijing last month. It also highlights the volatile nature of travel permit policy as applied to residents of the People’s Republic wishing to visit Macau. In May, Guangdong province, which accounts for 80% of Macau’s mainland visi- tors, clamped down on multiple permit ap- plications in an effort to curb illegal workers and problem gambling. Casino operators told Inside Asian Gaming it resulted in an immediate 10% fall in visitor numbers that ultimately fed through to the bottom line. In June, visitor numbers fell by 16.5% accord- ing to Macau government figures. By August the crackdown appeared to ease off. The official explanation from Guangdong was that it had created a back- log of applications that had to be cleared. But the tensions between the needs of the central government authorities to maintain a ‘harmonious society’ and the needs of the free market to maintain investor confidence in Macau and to support the territory’s gam- ing-fuelled tourism industry haven’t gone away. Guangdong is still declining to auto- matically issue travel passes for government, Stop Go China’s policy on travel to Macau takes another turn