Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming August 2014 6 A h Mei got a relatively late start working as a dealer in Macau. She took up the job three years ago at the age of 43 for a simple reason—money. “What other job in Macau can offer somebody like me MOP17,000 [US$2,125] a month?” says the Guangdong native, who never finished high school and now works at Pharaoh’s Palace, a satellite casino operating under the license of SJM Holdings. Arriving in Macau from the mainland in the late 1980s, she had held a variety of menial jobs, cleaning, waitressing and working at a garment factory, to supplement her four-member family’s income. “My husband didn’t like the idea [of me working as a dealer] at the beginning, worrying I would develop a gambling habit,” she says. “But we needed money at the time because my elder son was about to start university.” It’s becoming increasingly common for Macau’s six casino operators to target middle-aged locals like Ah Mei as the city’s labor crunch worsens. The unemployment rate stood at 1.7% in the Macau’s casino boom is outstripping its labor supply. Looking ahead to the next wave of megaresort openings, many are calling on government to relax its ban on non-resident dealers. But that’s a big non- starter, socially and politically. More creative solutions will be needed. And some of them are already taking shape Labor Pains Feature Cotai 2.0