Macau – The Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau (DICJ) received 233 requests for exclusion of access to local casinos in the first six months of the year, 54 more than in the same period last year, it was announced today.
Of the total, 200 requests were self-exclusion demands (85.8 per cent), while the remaining 33 (14.2 per cent) were submitted by third parties, according to data published on the regulator’s website.
Last year, 376 applications for exclusion were registered by casinos vis-a-vis 351 in 2016, 355 in 2015, 280 in 2014 and 276 in 2013.
Under the law which entered into force in November 2012, the DICJ may bar entry to all casinos, or only some, to persons requesting or confirming a petition filed for this purpose by spouse, parent, child or relative to the second degree, for a maximum period of two years.
The law provides for administrative sanctions for those who violate the rules, the fines of which range from MOP1,000 (116 euros) to MOP10,000 (1,160 euros). A “supervisory duty” is also imposed upon gambling concessionaires, whose default is penalised by fines ranging from MOP10,000 (1,160 euros) to MOP500,000 (58,045 euros).
On Thursday, the Legislative Assembly generally passed a bill that bans all casinos employees from entering the gaming space.
“Among the individuals registered in recent years as affected by gambling addiction croupiers and gambling workers together made up the largest percentage,” said the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong, in justifying the need for new legislation.
