Except for the existing casino projects, the government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) will neither grant any new gaming concession or sub-concession nor approve any land for the building of new casinos in the near future, said the SAR's Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah on Tuesday.

In light of China's central government's requirement and expectation for Macao to diversify its gaming-centered economy, the SAR government decided to tighten its gaming market regulation policy and maintain the current "three plus three" scale of the industry for the near future, Ho said, when attending a question and answer session of the SAR's Legislative Assembly.

For the time being, the SAR government only granted three concessions to SJM, a gaming company controlled by local gaming mogul Stanley Ho, Hong Kong based Galaxy Casino S.A. and Las Vegas gaming company, Wynn Resorts, while three others, including two Las Vegas companies and one Australian one, were authorized to run casinos in the SAR under sub-concessions.

By far, there were a total of 29 casinos in Macao, with 21 casinos located in the Macao Peninsula and 7 casinos in the Taipa Island, according to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau of the SAR government (DICJ). Under relevant government regulations, local casinos were required to pay 35 percent of their gross revenues as direct tax to the government.

In addition to discouraging the expansion of local gaming industry, Ho also promised that none of the reclaimed lands approved in the future by the central government will be used for casino projects, and the government will require all of the slot machine halls to be moved out of the city's residential districts.

Source:http://www.casinonews.org/