Macau’s Legislative Assembly votes new Illegal Gambling bill into law

Macau’s new “Illegal Gambling Law” was finally voted on in the Macau Legislative Assembly on Wednesday and passed with almost no opposition. The law will come into effect the day after it is officially announced.

This is the latest of a number of new gaming-related laws to have been passed over the past two years, including the general gaming law, the law on junkets and the law on the legal regime of gaming credit.

After being initially voted on in December last year, the Illegal Gambling law passed through eight meetings of the Second Standing Committee before it was finally tabled for a final vote in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

There was little opposition to the bill during the vote, with only a few members voicing their opinions. One of them, Ron Lam U Tou, questioned one of the clauses – “Illegal lotteries” under Article 8 of the bill – which restricts the sale of Mark Six lotteries and imposes a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment for their illegal sale.

Lam stated that the sale of Mark Six Lottery tickets does not have a significant impact on society, and that buying lottery tickets has been a habit in Macau for many years.

“There are many officials who would laugh and say that some of the things they do are ‘harder to win than the Mark Six Lottery’, which show that Mark Six has been a traditional habit for many people in Macau,” he said.

“The new law is now more stringent and I don’t think it is appropriate to raise the penalty for selling Mark Six lottery tickets to two years imprisonment.”

In response, Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon pointed out that the sale of lottery tickets is an act of lucky betting and should be regulated.

“The resale of Mark Six lottery tickets by some small merchants in Macau is now regulated by law. This is now an offence.

“This behaviour needs to be regulated because the sale of lottery tickets requires a licence from the SAR government and it affects young people.

“Unlike casinos, lotteries offer great convenience and the public can use legal channels to buy Mark Six lottery tickets.”

The Illegal Gambling Law also adds a number of new criminal law provisions, including a strict ban on what is commonly known as “betting under the table”, with offenders liable to a maximum of eight years imprisonment.

The government’s stance is that past instances of “betting under the table” – almost certainly a reference to the recent Suncity Group and Tak Chun Group trials – have seriously undermined the development of the gaming industry and there is a need to improve the relevant legal regime to explicitly prohibit such behaviour.

In addition, the law enhances the ability of criminal investigation officers to collect evidence against illegal gambling behaviour by adding new powers around “night-time evidence collection” and “undercover investigations”.

Recently added provisions to the bill include the criminalization of “money exchange gangs”. Anyone who operates an illegal currency exchange for the purpose of gambling will from now have committed an offence and be liable to a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.