Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2010 40 migrant workforce in Macau. In February this year (the most recently published figures), there were 6,637 Vietnamese officially working in Macau, representing around 2%of the city’s working population, according to the Labour Affairs Office. Vietnamese are now the third largest group of legal migrant workers in the territory, behind mainland Chinese in first place (40,914 of them, or 13% of Macau’s working population in February this year) and Filipinos in second place (10,817 or 3.4% of the working population). Vietnamese workers took over the third ranking fromHong Kong workers in October 2009. That coincided with the winding down that autumn of construction work on new casinos in Macau—a sector that employs large numbers of Hong Kong workers— following the soft opening of City of Dreams in June and completion of works in the following months. Themajority of legalVietnamesemigrant workers (5,100) were employed as domestic helpers as of February this year. A further 1,075 were working in ‘recreational, cultural, gaming and other services’. That includes sex workers legally imported by Macau saunas as well as casino workers. That’s an aspect of Macau’s migrant worker policy rarely dwelt on by populist politicians when making claims that outsiders are taking local jobs. Common practice The imposition of visa controls on certain nationalities has many precedents in several jurisdictions around the world—often in response to an actual or perceived external risk such as unauthorised immigration or terrorism. The introduction or maintenance of visa controls even on citizens of neighbouring, friendly countries is not necessarily incompatible with the commercial aim of building Macau’s status as a global gaming and tourism resort. Singapore, for example, requires Indian passport holders to obtain a visa prior to travelling to the Lion City, even though Indian customers are a declared major target group for Las Vegas Sands Corp at its newly opened Marina Bay Sands integrated resort in Singapore. The United States—and by extension Las Vegas—also requires a majority of foreign passport holders, including those from the People’s Republic of China, to obtain entry visas prior to arrival. Yet freedom of movement and freedom of trade is not something that should be treated in a cavalier way. It is the very foundation of Macau’s status as a Special Administrative Region within the People’s Republic of China. For such presumptions of freedom to be sacrificed—seemingly at the first sign of populist pressure and possibly without rational consideration of the facts— is arguably not a sign of strength, but of parochialism. Macau’s gross gaming revenue appears to be on an unceasing growth track, driven by mainland China’s increasing affluence. Eventually, though, Macau is bound to encounter a road bump, possibly as consequence of Chinese central government policy—such as fresh visa restrictions or monetary tightening to cool the housing market. Then, Macau may once again look to woo visitors from other regional source markets to fill the gap. Next time, though, Macau’s advances may receive an even more muted response from its neighbours. Log onto www.asgam. com for the latest industry intelligence and a subscription to our digital edition—all absolutely free A Sure Bet Macau Policy