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Old enough to know better
The government wants to follow Nevada and Singapore in raising the minimum age limit for entering casinos
The government has introduced a bill in the Legislative Assembly that will impose new restrictions on people entering casinos. The headline item from the proposal is to increase the minimum age from 18 to 21, as in Nevada and Singapore. The age limit would apply not just to patrons but to casino employees, too.
The bill also proposes to give the government power to restrict any individual’s access to a casino, if the individual themselves or a relative requests it.
In presenting the bill last month, Executive Council spokesperson Leong Heng Teng said it would help curb social problems caused by gambling, particularly among youths.
The director of the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gambling at the University of Macau, assistant professor Davis Fong Ka Chio, welcomes the legislation. “We’ve been suggesting this bill be introduced for many years now,” he said.
The idea was first brought up during then-chief executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah’s 2009 Policy Address, where he suggested the legal age for gambling be raised from 18 to 21. Three years on and the government has finally drafted a proposed bill.
Curiously enough, it was Mr Ho who, in 2001, put forward a bill that lowered the minimum age for locals to access gaming tables to 18 years from 21.
Research by Mr Fong’s institute between 2003 and last year indicates that 2.8 percent of the city’s population are pathological gamblers and 3 percent are “problem” gamblers. He argues that at the age of 18 not everyone is mature enough to cope with gambling.
But there are also some doubters. Legislator José Pereira Coutinho says the bill is something the government “had to do to show face” and that it would not solve the problem of gambling addiction.
The bill proposes heavy fines for offenders. Underage gamblers will have to pay between MOP1,000 (US$125) and MOP10,000 if caught, while gaming operators face a fine ranging from MOP10,000 to MOP500,000. And if an underage gambler were to win in a casino, the winnings would be forfeited to the government.
Catch me if you can
Enforcing a new age limit could prove difficult. Even with the present age limit of 18, checks at casinos are almost unheard of. That is why cases of minors joining the punters make headlines.
“Whether it’s capped at 18 years or 21, there will still be youngsters who want to try their luck and, sadly, manage to,” says another assistant professor at the University of Macau, gaming expert Desmond Lam Chee Shiong.
“Heavy fines and sentences, coupled with good staff training, not just security personnel but all employees on the floor, and regular monitoring by the government agency to catch underage gamblers, will enhance the enforcement on this bill,” he says.
Mr Lam says gaming operators are likely to tighten their screening in order to avoid bad press. But busy periods such as Golden Week, when crowds of visitors from the mainland pour into the casinos, will make screening more difficult, he adds.
However, Mr Fong says the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau will set guidelines on screening. “It won’t be a 100 percent check. It’ll be randomly selected or based on suspicion.”
Mr Fong says Macau should follow Las Vegas, where the dealer is responsible for checking a player’s identity. “They have more time to observe the player, and if they have any suspicions, they can ask to see the ID or call security and have them checked,” he argues.
Gaming operators assure they are willing to comply with the legislation once it is enacted. But the bill does not include details of how age checks on patrons are to be conducted.
MGM Macau said that more training for security personnel “will be developed in accordance with the new bill, particularly on the topic of random guest sampling and identification.”
Wynn Macau is sanguine. It said that because it is at the high end of the market, the casino “attracts fewer players in the 18 to 21 age group”.
No play, no work
There seems little concern that the new legislation will reduce business.
“I think demand is unlikely to be greatly affected by this bill,” says Mr Lam. “On the demand side, most of the current gamblers, hardcore, mass and VIP, should be above this age limit.”
Galaxy Entertainment Group vice-chairman Francis Lui says: “From our customers, those within the 18 to 21 years range are only a few. This measure will not affect our flow of customers a lot.”
Wynn Macau said it “supports the government’s efforts to regulate gaming operators in Macau and does not foresee any significant impact on its business as a result of increasing the age limit of casinos from 18 to 21 years.”
But Mr Pereira Coutinho suggests that in the future some gaming operators may not be able to operate at full capacity because of a lack of employees, as many prospective workers will have to wait until they are 21 to work in a casino if the legislation is passed.
“With the opening of more gaming resorts and hotels, the shortage of manpower will be one of the biggest challenges we will have to deal with in the near future,” Mr Coutinho says.
MGM Macau said in a written statement: “The new bill will lead to fewer available talents for casino employers.” It suggested that the age limit for employees be phased in, to give gaming operators time to adjust to the constriction of the labour supply.
“After the law is implemented there might be some issues in recruiting people,” Mr Fong says. “But most casinos have already prepared for this. Casinos now prefer to hire older dealers over younger ones. They prefer to hire people like housewives because they are more responsible and more loyal, whereas youths easily change their jobs for MOP2,000 more a month.”
Several times, both community leaders and government officials have shown concern over the number of youngsters who drop out from university or don’t apply at all, to go and work in the casino industry, where they can earn high salaries with low qualifications. At the end of last year, the average salary for a croupier was MOP13,610, more than 50 per cent above the median wage in Macau.
Whatever the final outcomeof this sensitive subject, Mr Pereira Coutinho says it is a joke for the government to think that young men and women cannot take on the responsibility of working in a casino at the age of 18 – but they
can choose to get married and start a family at that age.
