The Director of Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, Paulo Martins Chan, says Japan can learn a lot from the SAR’s efforts in promoting responsible gambling over the past 10 years.
Speaking with Inside Asian Gaming at the Responsible Gambling Symposium, held at JW Marriott and hosted by the University of Macau’s Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming, on Tuesday, Chan praised the government’s efforts in promoting the responsible gambling message and said Japan should follow suit as it launches its own IR industry in the coming years.
“I think education is most important,” he told IAG. “We have done a lot of promotions [in Macau] over the past 10 years. We have had to educate the community about the correct attitudes when it comes to gambling.
“I think this is a very important factor in any gaming jurisdiction and it really needs to be done well. We can see over the past 10 years everyone has put in a big effort and this is an area where everyone has to keep working hard.”
The Responsible Gambling Symposium, celebrating 10 years of responsible gambling initiatives in Macau, was attended by around 200 people including representatives of the city’s six concessionaires and key government figures.
Special guest speakers included Chairman of Singapore’s National Council on Problem Gambling Kian Hoon Tan, Professor Mark Griffiths from the School of Social Sciences at the Nottingham Trent University and University of Macau Rector Yonghua Song, who noted that awareness of problem gambling had increased from just 16.2% in 2009 to 63.7% in 2017. At the same time, the prevalence of problem gambling has fallen from 6% to 2.5%.
The event was co-organized by the University of Macau, Social Welfare Bureau of the Macau Government and the DICJ.
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