Sio believes gambling concessionaires may change

Former lawmaker Dominic Sio believes that the gaming concessions will be reshuffled from 2020, according to a report by China Business Journal.

“Starting from 2020, the gambling concessions will reopen, [and] this means that [those who are] operating in Macau today, will not necessarily still be operating in 2020,” said Sio, who is also a deputy of the 13th National People’s Congress.

“This is shuffling, re-applying and re-licensing. During the process of re-licensing, the non-gambling aspects of the gambling industry should also become aspects that the SAR government should place importance on,” explained Sio.

With the development of both the tourism and gaming industries, Sio also thinks that economic and trade cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries should be enhanced.

“Macau currently has approximately MOP1,000 billion in capital, with an abundance of capital looking for an exit. Banks are looking for companies to loan, but no companies are asking banks for loans,” he continued.

Sio believes that both the mainland and Macau can benefit if Macau’s capital were to be made available to mainland companies.