Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING JULY 2018 48 little bit of that – accepting people as they are. Before, I was in my world in Portugal and that is what I knew. Here there are so many realities and cultural backgrounds. OG: In terms of professional challenges, what was the hardest challenge you faced when you came to Macau? CEC: When I came to Macau the type of work I was involved in was very demanding. You had to be very responsible because of the size of the matters, of the amounts involved, and so it made me grow very quickly in the sense that I really had to be a good professional. I really had to adapt and step up my game, so that was a challenge in the beginning. It was challenging working with the international lawyers who were very savvy INDUSTRY PROFILE I expect to see, with the concessions coming to an end, several changes happening. There might be one new operator or more than one new operator in the market, and I think we will have a better industry. with a lot of expertise. Having them as your counterparts, well, I had to learn. I had to step up my game. OG: How did you end up working within the gaming sector specifically? CEC: I think it is very difficult to be in Macau as a lawyer and not have any exposure to gaming. Less or more exposure, it depends, but you’ll always have exposure. If your clients are not directly related to gaming, they are indirectly related to gaming so I think it started a little bit like that. I worked several years for STDM, a previous concessionaire and still the major shareholder of SJM, so that was, directly or indirectly, a lot of my gaming exposure. From there I started working with gaming manufacturers and slowly I started to understand better this industry and I started