Macau’s Office of the Secretary for Economy and Finance has confirmed that Paulo Martins Chan will step down from his current position as Director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).
According to information gathered by Inside Asian Gaming, Chan will return to the Public Prosecutions Office, where he previously served as Assistant Prosecutor General, at his own request. His successor “will be announced in due course,” the Office of the Secretary for Economy and Finance said.
Confirmation of Chan’s impending departure comes after Macau News Agency reported that Chan was to be replaced as head of the gaming regulator by Adriano Ho, currently a key advisor to Macau’s Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak. The MNA report said Ho would take over at the DICJ in June.
If true, Ho’s appointment would certainly make for a strong one. Before joining the Office of the Secretary for Security in 2014, he was the head of the Macao Sub-Bureau of the China National Central Bureau of INTERPOL from 2004 to 2010, head of the Judiciary Police Criminal Investigation Department from 2010 to 2012 and head of the Gaming-related and Economic Crimes Investigation Department from 2012 to 2014.
Last year he presented as a representative of the Office of the Secretary for Security alongside the DICJ in meetings with gaming operators and the security sector discussing the strengthening of casino security. This followed an incident outside Galaxy Macau in January 2019 in which a police officer fired a warning shot after being attacked by a mainland Chinese man who had been asked to stop smoking in a prohibited area.
Chan, who was first appointed DICJ Director in December 2015, was last year granted a 12-month extension as head of Macau’s gaming regulator until 1 December 2020. It now appears likely he won’t see out the remainder of his term.
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