The recently launched “Macau Gaming Law – Annotated with Comments” is a new, four-volume publication that covers all local gaming regulations with explanations and comments by legal expert António Lobo Vilela.
The book series is the first comprehensive publication on the Macau Gaming Law. The series aims to provide insights and facilitate access to a significant amount of uncompiled information for a wide range of readers, especially those with a professional or academic interest in obtaining detailed knowledge of the local gaming industry’s regulations.
Speaking to the Times, the author explained that the books result from his own professional need to compile this information for easy research and access. The work spans around 20 years of collection, classification, and annotations.
“This publication has a comparative advantage which comes from the fact of being the first comprehensive book series on the topic of the Macau gaming,” Vilela said, adding that this is one of its most attractive features, since “there is nothing [before this publication] written on this topic.”
Without wanting to be overly specific about who might benefit from this work, Vilela noted that the books are in English specifically because they are mostly aimed at people who are not based in Macau and who are accustomed to different jurisdictions and regulations.
Such readers may “have difficulties and doubts when analyzing the Macau system that is based in concessions and not on licensing.” He went on to explain, “For instance, this system, in the mind of a person that is not used to the Romano-Germanic legal system, is very confusing and if you cannot explain the system, they will never understand why the law provisions have certain aspects, such as the duration, for example.”
The author also said that the publication explained as to why gaming concessions have a timeline, noting, “this a very particular and special aspect of Macau law that does not exist in other jurisdictions in which the gaming industry is regulated by licenses.”
He added that there were many other unique examples within the Macau system.
According to the author, the books can be a reference for various professionals and academics to explore the field. They also aim to explain the Macau gaming world to potential external investors.
In addition to having held several other jobs related to the gaming industry, Vilela was a senior legal adviser to the commission that organized the first public tender to grant casino gaming concessions in Macau (2001-2002), and senior legal adviser to the Macau Gaming Commission, the governmental consultative body of the gaming industry between 2003 and 2009. He was also a member of the think-tank in charge of drafting the current legal and regulatory framework for the gaming industry, and both the gaming concession and sub-concession contracts. As a result, he has deep knowledge and professional experience in the field.
One of the most influential people in the process of creating the local gaming laws, Jorge Costa Oliveira, Former Commissioner for Legal Affairs, Macau Gaming Commission, and Senior Draftsman of Macau’s legal and regulatory framework on casino gaming, noted in the preface of Volume I, “This publication is a massive repository of everything that has been produced on gaming that may be relevant for the interpretation and the understanding of the norms and precepts that are contained in this legal regulatory framework.”
He added, “This publication will be a major step towards a better knowledge and understanding of Macau Gaming Law by these foreign professionals.” He additionally noted that it is unlikely that a more complete work will become available in the market for a long period, during which this will be a work of reference.
In another preface, Anthony Cabot, one of the most highlighted figures of American gaming laws, with over 37 years of gaming law practice, wrote, “This book […] is not only an essential guide to the law of gaming and gambling in Macau but provides the historical background needed to provide full context for each provision of the gaming laws.”
Cabot is a former chair of the gaming law practice and executive committee member at Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP law firm.
The books, published by PC Consulting Limited, will be available via a print-on-demand system, in which interested parties can place their order through a special website created for macaugaminglaw.com, or through amazon.com.
As Vilela also remarked to the Times, the book covers include illustrations by local artist António Conceição Júnior, based on the works of other artists and with an intimate relationship to the gaming scene.
Vilela also noted that the idea of publishing these volumes came as a way to encourage more people from the community to take part in the project and give personal and local artistic input.
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