Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming May 2016 28 It is our intention to run many more such courses in the future, on a wide range of subjects with a variety of course leaders. The two constants will be that courses will always relate in some way to the Asian gaming, entertainment, tourism and hospitality industries and that we will endeavor to always have program leaders of the highest caliber. Industry Training senior executive skills in Macau. And we’re not the only ones – just google “Macau skills shortage” and you’ll see a litany of articles, commentary and analysis bemoaning the situation. The biggest culprit is the totally unprecedented growth of Macau since the liberalization of the gaming industry. Genuine poverty in Macau is still well within living memory, but that all changed with the introduction of competition heralded by the opening of Sands Macao in 2004 and the boom that followed – with GGR increasing an average of 20% year on year for a decade. That growth, and the effect it had on the labor market, is a story that has been told again and again in the pages of this magazine. Unemployment inMacau remains consistently around 2% and the median wage has more than tripled over the last 15 years. The boom, coupled with the Macau government’s policies of actively promoting locals, has led to many locals being super fast-tracked through the managerial ranks. Some would say this has resulted in the Peter Principle, where managers rise to their lowest level of incompetence rather than their highest level of competence, being alive and well in Macau. Macau parents are even known to encourage youngsters to skip University in favor of the quick cash available in the gaming industry. IAG, through our training courses, is doing its part to improve the attitude, work ethic and managerial skills of Macau locals.