Banning croupiers from gambling is important, regulator says

Paulo Martins Chan

Paulo Martins Chan, director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), said yesterday that banning croupiers from gambling is appropriate for the gaming industry.
Chan made the comment during yesterday’s Responsible Gambling Promotions Kick Off Ceremony at the University of Macau (UM).
“Some statistics clarify that [the likelihood of] dealers being addicted to gambling is relatively high, and so this is a very important measure to be implemented,” said Chan. After seeing customers winning money, dealers easily develop the idea that winning is easy, or consider themselves to have a certain leverage.”
The director said, in order to ban dealers from entering casinos, other measures should be implemented to enforce the policies.
However, the details have yet to be discussed at this stage, according to Chan.
“We will know what to do at the right time,” he said, adding that his department needs to “collect ideas from the public and have a wide discussion about the issue.”
Regarding the penalties that will be applied for dealers found entering casinos, Chan claims that no decision has been made so far and reaffirmed that the DICJ is still in consultation with the public, especially within communities of dealers.
Earlier this year, DICJ organized three meetings with gaming sector employees to reflect upon the aforementioned issues. Chan said that the opinions will be compiled into a consultation format and then forwarded to the Legislative Assembly. However, no schedules have been made about when the consultation version will be complete.
The director also said the gaming inspection department and the gaming employees have reached a preliminary agreement on the topic.
“How to handle, how to enforce, or what kind of law enforcement there will be, are still under discussion,” said Chan.
Fong Ka Chio, Director of the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming of UM, also told the media that Macau “has many years of experience already regarding barring certain groups from entering casinos.”
Chio believes that the casinos’ strong surveillance systems pose no obstacle in the city’s implementation of the policies once they are established.  Julie Zhu