Inside Asian Gaming

IAG FEB 2022年2月 亞博匯 30 COVER STORY current gaming law. Regarding this, the current gaming law regulates two things. First, the shareholder needs to hold a Macau permanent ID card, and second, the percentage of the shareholding needs to be 10%. “In the future, we want to increase the percentage to more than 10%.” As such, the new 15%holding appears unlikely to provide for any material change from an operational perspective. What will change once new licenses are awarded is the length of concessions, with the government confirming that the current 20-year concession length will be halved to just 10 years, with the possibility of the government extending that term by up to three years under exceptional circumstances. The merits of shortening the concession length remain somewhat contentious. In the government’s Gaming Law Public Consultation Final Report, it was revealed that 171 opinions were received on this matter during the public consultation period of which 72 or 42.1% agreed in reducing the new license to less than 20 years. Another 56 opinions, representing 32.8% of responses, suggested maintaining the 20-year term while 17 or 9.9% said the term should be greater than 20 years. 15.2% were undecided.