Macau’s Casino Ban Off-Duty Workers From The Casinos

One of the biggest gambling markets in the world is located in Macau, China. Macau is the only place in China where gambling is legal. Despite the fact that only Macau is the authorized gambling market, still, the huge part of the revenue of China is accumulated in Macau.

There are many citizens who visit casinos regularly. The gambling sector is extremely developed in the city and aims at further evolvement. This is also the place that offers costumers the best services and a wide range of games to try. Casinos offer costumers table games as well as slots, that have a great popularity. Considering the amount of possible entertainment and the great variety of games as well as the casino, it is no surprise that many people are attracted to casinos.

Off-Duty Is Still a Duty

Due to the huge number of visitors and some of them being the casino employers themselves, Macau’s authorities decided to implement several new legislations, that would be efficient in terms of banning casino workers from entering the casinos.

A ban on Macau’s gaming worker entering a casino, even during the off-duty hours takes the action from the 27th of December 2019. From now on, the workers employed in the gambling industry will be banned from visiting casinos even while they are off work.

The information regarding the new law was confirmed by the city’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, which is also known as DICJ. They have published a statement regarding the ban on the 26th of December. The ban which has already taken the power will cover a total of 54.000 people in Macau. This is the total number of casino workers, employed either by one of the city’s casino operators or by one of the locally-licensed junket firms.

The number of citizens that are expected to be affected by the new law includes staff that is not directly involved with gambling operations. Those will be the people working in the public relations, employed as cashiers, cage staff, food and beverage outlet workers and even cleaners. Also, those connected to surveillance operations. The exact job positions concerned – as defined respectively by each of the six Macau casino operators – are listed on the DICJ website.

DICJ Explains The Concept Of The New Rules

Despite that there will be the new law implemented covering the ban of over a million people in Macau, there is no intention of provisions for the establishment of a database listing details and private and personal information of the individuals that will be included regarding the law.

There have also been some concerns regarding the facial recognition system that was introduced to the casino operators. The concern rose regarding the usage of the facial recognition system for the identification of the off-duty workers visiting the casino floors. As Macau’s gaming regulator confirmed to GGRAsia, there is no intention of using the system to issue any certain guidelines requesting the city’s casino operators. As it was said there is no intention of doing it even if assisting in the efficient enforcement of the ban.

The training was conducted within the inspectors. The DICJ has conducted it. The main aim of the training was to train the casino floor inspectors in correspondence to the new law. They will be in charge of controlling the efficient implementation of the rules in the city’s casinos. They will be also checking if the new law is working properly or not and if particular casinos are doing fair enough.

As it has also been told, the regulators that are in charge of the new implementation of the new rules, have had several consultation sessions with the city’s casino operators. The sessions were an important part of better acknowledging the whole topic. They have well explained the terms of the off-duty ban. This was conducted in order to help operators train their own employees on compliance with the new rules, which would further assist in the efficient implementation of it.