MACAU BUSINESS By Tony Lai By Paolo A. Azevedo
Beefing up
Exclusive Macau Business/ Macau News Agency
Jeju will be as big as Singapore in terms of Gross Gaming Revenue, predicts Lawrence Teo. The Chief Operations Officer and Vice President of Dream Tower, the tallest Integrated Resort under construction on the Korean destination island, explains to Macau Business why Lotte Tour decided to enter the casino business and create a landmark. All bets are on making the casino resort the crown of the tourism jewel the company has been dominating for four decades
Jeju – the new Singapore
Restructuring at Macau gaming watchdog tackles years-long shortage of inspectors, analysts observe
A new bylaw about the organisational structure and personnel scale of the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) could help resolve the shortage of inspectors that has plagued the watchdog for years, as well as consolidate the authorities’ grip over the gaming industry, analysts told Macau News Agency (MNA). The bylaw on the Organisation and Operations of the DICJ – which came into effect on June 22 – will see the maximum cap of personnel at the bureau increase from 192 to 459, including a double in the number of inspectors from 159 to 324. DICJ inspectors, according to local laws, are stationed at 41 casinos in the territory to monitor the operations around the clock, and immediately report to the relevant government departments if they have found any suspicious or criminal activities. The rejig, updating the organisational structure of the
watchdog dated 2003 and its personnel scale dated 2010, will also increase the number of deputy directors at the bureau from one to two, the tally of department
M 18 OCTOBER 2017 16 JULY 2021
chiefs from four to six, and the total of division chiefs from four to 13. “There has been a lack of inspectors at DICJ for years
to maintain the basic supervision of casinos,” Wang Changbin, director of the Centre for Gaming and Tourism Studies at the Macau Polytechnic Institute (MPI), tells MNA. “With over 40 casinos in the city and some 100 inspectors that have to work in shifts like six hours a shift, there could only be one inspector at a casino and sometimes there might not even be any inspector,” the scholar says. “So this expansion in the number of inspectors could help the authorities better oversee the gaming segment.” Paulo Martins Chan, serving as the DICJ director
acau Business – From Lotte World, a major recreational complex [with the world’s largest indoor theme park, in Seoul] to an integrated resort with casino in Jeju. A different beast. A
natural evolution? Lawrence Teo – Business is the same. But building
“The changes at DICJ now, in my perspective, do not only help the administration better supervise the gaming industry but also tackle the high unemployment rate of residents by creating new openings”
José Pereira Coutinho, president of the Macau Civil Servants Association
a landmark. M. B. – The group [Lotte] has created other landmarks in different types of business. Why would this be different? L. T. – Yes, Lotte Group has already created
between late 2015 and mid-2020, had acknowledged the shortage of inspectors before and once pinpointed the amendment to organisational structure of the watchdog would be ready by end-2017 and early-2018. The changes, however, are only ready now at the helm of his successor Adriano Marques Ho. “The demand of inspectors was fervent a few years ago amid the peak of the gaming industry,” legislator José Pereira Coutinho tells MNA. “With the declines in the gaming revenue and activities, the demand now, of course, might not be as huge as the past.” Following a 79.3 per cent plunge in the gaming
downtown Seoul and Lotte Super Tower. We’re trying
to do the Dream Tower in Jeju. Lotte here is being just a family company; we’re a different company [Lotte Tour]. It’s not going to be [just] the tallest and the largest building in Jeju, that’s just the hardware. We say that a landmark should be the most visited destination, where tourists will go to eat, shop and maybe [visit] our observation deck. A must-visit point destination. Because of the hardware, and also the software.
revenue last year over travel restrictions and low travel demand caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, government figures show the gaming revenue recovered to MOP42.49 billion (US$5.31 billion) in the first five months of 2021. This represents a 28.7-per cent hike from the same period of 2020, but still translates to just one-third of the pre-pandemic volume. “So the changes at DICJ now, in my perspective, do not
M. B. – What are the main goals that you definitely
want to achieve with this Integrated Resort (IR)? L. T. – Number one EBIDTA on IR in Korea. There’s
only help the administration better supervise the gaming industry but also tackle the high unemployment rate of residents by creating new openings,” says Coutinho, who is also president of the Macau Civil Servants Association. Latest official data show the unemployment rate in Macau stood at 3 per cent in the February-April period, while the jobless rate of residents was even higher at 4.1 per cent amid the pandemic.
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