Macau’s Legislative Assembly is expected to give a final reading in April to a previously-announced bill amending rules on casino-issued credit for gambling, said on Tuesday Chan Chak Mo (pictured, right), head of a standing committee of the Macau Legislative Assembly tasked with scrutinising the measure.

His remarks followed a closed-doors committee meeting. Mr Chan said he had no information as yet on when the city’s government might opt to pass into law the measure, titled “Legal regime of credit concession for gambling in casinos”.

Mr Chan’s committee had discussed on Tuesday the latest government draft of the bill.

According to Mr Chan, It has few changes from the previous draft, which was circulated amongst legislators in December.

He explained, referring to the update: “In this text, there are just some minor additional clauses that detail the casino concessionaires’ responsibilities for issuing gambling credit.”

According to Mr Chan, they outline Macau casino concessionaires should establish a “standard operating procedure” when issuing gambling credit, which should include details about the staff handling the task, and what those staff are authorised to do.

The fresh clauses are in Article 8 – “the general duties of the credit grantor” – which state that the gambling credit issuer should establish an “appropriate risk control system” for their business, as well as to maintain a “clear” record of such credit and for there to be a duty of confidentiality by the issuer toward the creditor, according to Mr Chan.

The updated draft keeps in place the government proposal that casino concessionaires should be the only entities permitted to issue credit to gaming patrons in the Macau market, according to Mr Chan. His fellow legislators on the commitee have also accepted this proposal, he noted in comments to local media after the meeting.

The city’s licensed junkets, known officially as gaming promoters, will not themselves be allowed to issue credit to any gamblers, assuming the bill becomes law.

Mr Chan said that under the bill, a Macau junket would only be able to request a partnering casino concessionaire to extend gaming credit to that junket’s players. Such an arrangement would also require a notarised contract – approved by the city’s Secretary for Economy and Finance – Mr Chan noted in his Tuesday comments.

U Io Hung, a veteran Macau junket boss, noted on Tuesday to GGRAsia that – in his view – the current gaming credit law, under which junkets are also a recognised gaming credit grantor, had been a “viable” regulatory framework.

“The new proposal could potentially give rise to a new problem, by driving the gaming credit business underground,” Mr U remarked to GGRAsia.

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