Inside Asian Gaming

IAG AUG 2019年8月 亞博匯 74 A cademic leader in the promotion of responsible gambling inMacau, Professor Davis Fong has undertaken more than 40 gambling and tourism related research projects for the Macau SAR Government. AsidefromhispositionasDirectoroftheInstituteforthe Study of Commercial Gaming, he has been a Consultant for the local Economic Development Committee since 2017, a member of the Talents Development Committee since 2014 and part of the Consultative Committee of Statistics since 2015 (UM Representative). He is also a Deputy of the sixth Legislative Assembly of Macau. Inside Asian Gaming speaks with Professor Fong about the progress Macau has made in his time promoting responsible gambling and the latest initiatives to identify and assist those with a gambling problem. Oscar Guijarro: You’ve just launched the Responsible Gambling Promotions 2019. Can you tell us about this year’s RG initiatives? Davis Fong: T his is the first time we have invited all stakeholders on the same platform to showcase what they will do in the coming year. In previous years, as the main organizer, we just announced what we were going to do, so this is the first time all the stakeholders, including the six casino operators and three NGO representatives, will showcase what they would like to do in the coming year. Because this is my first time looking at the whole plans of the different stakeholders, I was able to make some comparisons and saw that previously all stakeholders just focused on their internal training, internal promotion, whereas this time many initiatives focus on customers, employees, family as well as community. And the so-called RG initiative is quite creative and more diversified. Previously it was just a very passive promotion to deliver the message of what responsible gambling should be. This year we can see some interactive games and some competitions as well. It is more creative, more fun. OG: What are the main initiatives targeting tourists? DF: Tourists are always a main target and the major organizer (Macau Government) actually put in a lot of resources. At the border gate we have had a very big billboard for three months in each of the last three years targeting tourists. We also use the government's resources to put our ads on digital displays. Besides this, the DICJ has sponsored some local NGOs to conduct RG seminars in China. They have already sponsored five seminars on the mainland with one to Macau invests heavily in responsible gambling promotions 澳門在推廣負責任博彩方面做出大量投入 FEATURES