Macau has been celebrating with an reported increase in gambling revenue of 42% last year. You can find the full story on Macau gambling revenue in the Wall Street Journal. But while that’s the big story, there are always smaller stories out there that should be noted.
While Macau shows every sign of being fully in support of gambling for tourists, they are also working to restrict gambling by residents. According to the Macau Government this is to protect residents but there is also a sense of a need to keep the big casinos attractive to high paying tourists.
But now the Macau government has announced that it will be restricting slot casinos in residential areas. Slot machine parlors also known as Mocha clubs or slot machine lounges are easier to operate than a full scale casino and have been popular in areas of Macua where locals live and tourists don’t venture. But new regulations now state that a slot parlor must be located within 500 meters of a casino. Of course this means that a slot parlor would be place to compete with a full scale casino. And would keep them out of the residential areas. There is a provision to allow the slot parlors in an existing commercial building, but even with that option, two of the slot machine parlors located in the residential area of Macau will have to shut down.
The changes are not expected to have any significant impact on Macau gambling revenue, which is largely dependent on tourism.