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by Sara Farr
Illustration by Rui rasquinho
Old enough to know better
T 20 JULY-AUGUST 2011
he 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
The government wants to follow Nevada and Singapore in raising the minimum age limit for entering casinos
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
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