While all the talk around Macau’s gaming industry currently centers around the impending license retendering process and the potential for a seventh concessionaire, I have two far more modest dreams for the local industry.

The first is liberalization of sports betting, much like the entire land-based industry was liberalized in 2001. At present there is just one small sports betting operator in Macau, Macau SLOT, and betting is restricted to only two sports in football and basketball.

Yet sports betting presents a unique opportunity to diversify the city’s gaming offerings, including attracting a whole new segment of mass market-oriented customer who enjoys the personal and emotional investment that betting sports can bring.

Secondly, I would like to see poker tables made exempt from Macau’s gaming table cap. As a poker player myself, it saddens me to see the local poker industry dying simply because operators see no value in using up their cap for low-yield poker tables when high-yield baccarat provides a more attractive option.

Poker, being played against other players rather than the house, is a very different beast to other table games and should be treated as such.

One can only dream.

Ben Blaschke
Managing Editor