The term of Macau’s current Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, is set to expire in less than three months, after a five-year tenure that has seen him guide the city through a series of key challenges. Public opinion on his efforts is mixed, but it’s hard to deny that he has left a lasting impression on the future of Macau.
On 21 August, the Chief Executive of Macau, Ho Iat Seng, announced that he would not run for a second term in the upcoming Chief Executive election. This means that his term will end on 20 December, making him the first Chief Executive who has not sought reelection since the handover of Macau in 1999.
Ho had previously served as chair of the Legislative Assembly and was elected to the fifth term of the Chief Executive of Macau in 2019 with 392 votes from a possible 400. However, barely a month after Ho took office, Macau encountered the COVID-19 outbreak and a pandemic that persisted until January 2023. As a result, during his tenure, much of Ho’s focus was on policies of pandemic control, and this formed the basis of three of his five policy addresses.
The overall policy directions during his term were as follows:
2020
“Fight the pandemic, protect jobs, stabilize the economy, care for people’s livelihoods, promote reform and encourage development.”
2021
“Control the pandemic, revitalize the economy, benefit people’s livelihoods, promote diversification, advance reform and foster innovative development.”
2022
“Prevent the pandemic, stabilize recovery, safeguard livelihoods, encourage diversification, strengthen cooperation and seek development.”
2023
“Boost the economy, promote diversification, alleviate citizens’ difficulties, control the pandemic and ensure steady development.”
2024
“Consolidate recovery, focus on diversification, optimize livelihoods and enhance development.”
During Ho’s five-year term, his assertive style and straightforward manner left a strong impression on society when reviewing his work, particularly his attitude towards the gaming industry. After the third confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported in Macau on 4 February 2020, he decisively announced the closure of all casinos for 15 days, making him the first Chief Executive to implement such a policy since the handover of Macau.
He also directly criticized and expressed disappointment towards Macau’s gaming concessionaires in March 2020 for their reluctance to lend hotels to the SAR government as quarantine facilities.
“This is an examination for you (the six major gaming concessionaires). Macau residents see in their eyes and keep in their minds,” he stated.
Despite the concessionaires experiencing three consecutive years of losses due to the pandemic, Ho told reporters, “In business, you can’t always make a profit.”
He emphasized that although the concessionaires lost money over the past three years, their profits over the past decade had been astonishing.
One of the most significant events during his tenure was the re-tendering of gaming licenses in 2022, along with the winding down of the junket industry.
He also oversaw the amended Gaming Law, which abolished Macau’s sub-concession model and brought into question the future of satellite casinos. Not surprisingly, the re-tendering of gaming licenses in 2022 awarded concessions to the six incumbent concessionaires, but the contracts were limited to 10 years and required these companies to invest a combined MOP108.8 billion (US$13.6 billion) in non-gaming projects over the next decade.
Ho also capped the number of slot machines in the Macau market at 12,000 and gaming tables at 6,000 – this could still change over time – while the crackdown on satellite casinos saw the total number of casinos in the SAR fall from 41 to 30.
The collapse of the junket industry resulted from the arrests during Ho’s term of former Suncity Group CEO Alvin Chau and Tak Chun Group chairman Levo Chan, later found guilty of and jailed for various crimes related to their junket operations. Subsequently, laws such as the Junket Law and the Gaming Credit Law were further revised to restrict the scale of once dominant junket promoters.
The demise of junkets has been widely viewed as a positive for the long-term health of Macau’s gaming industry, although there are some dissenters. Legislator José Maria Pereira Coutinho, for example, suggested recently that “Macau’s SMEs are struggling due to a lack of clientele, partly due to the ‘chronic death’ of the gaming promoters and VIP room businesses.”
Also collapsing during Ho’s term after many years of losing money was Macau Jockey Club, which had been in operation for nearly 44 years. On 1 April 2024, the MJC terminated its exclusive operating contract with the SAR government and officially ceased operations, returning the club’s land to the government.
Looking back over the past five years, Ho’s decisive actions have garnered both approval and criticism from the public. Some argue that his hardening policies hurt the interests of certain people, while others argue he has helped move the SAR forward through critical and challenging times.
Ultimately his achievements will be judged by history, while in the meantime all eyes are looking ahead to see what the next Chief Executive, almost certain to be Sam Hou Fai, will bring to Macau.
