Ho Ion Sang slams slot machine venues close to community

Legislator Ho Ion Sang filed an interpellation earlier this week saying that the law regarding the Supply System and Requirements on Gaming Machines, Equipment and Systems did not effectively steer slot machine venues away from the community.
“[Following the implementation of the law], five gaming machine venues near the community were moved or closed. However, after that, a new gaming machine venue was immediately opened in the Inner Habour area, which is even closer to residential areas [as] centres of the elderly, health centre and schools are very nearby”, the legislator wrote.
In 2012, the government enacted a law requiring that the establishment of gaming machine parlours only be allowed in hotels rated 5-star or above or buildings approved for non-residential use within 500 metres of a licensed hotel casino, or buildings for commercial and leisure purposes that are regarded as a tourist location but not in a high density residential area.
Claiming that the government had responded that the location of the new gaming machine venue in the Inner Habour did not break the law, as it met the requirements of locating in a single building without residential use and was within 500 metres of a hotel casino, Mr. Ho complained that the government did not adequately consider the geographic environment of Macau when drafting the law.
“[The government] did not properly consider [the situation] when they approved the operation of the gaming machine venue which led to a serious loophole in the law. [The law] did not drive gaming machine venues away from the community, it even let them enter the community with a flat saying ‘legally approved by the government’. Such is disobeying the principle of the law”, he claimed.
K.L.