The government and the Macau Horse Racing Co. Ltd., which operates the Macau Jockey Club, have reached an agreement to extend the current contract for its horse-betting business until 2017 although the contact has yet to be signed, Business Daily has learned from sources. The new contract will be published next week in Macau’s Official Gazette, with the signature only pending the schedule of the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong Vai Tac. Yesterday, Lionel Leong was in Beijing attending the Central Government’s official ceremony celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese War and the World Anti-Fascist War Victory Commemoration Day. The new contract is similar to the previous one and involves a payment of MOP15 million per year from the Macau Horse Racing Co. to the government for the exclusive right to run the horseracing betting business in the territory. This amount has remained stable since 2005. At the time, the company managed to guarantee a decrease of 50 per cent of the concession fee as the contract signed in 1999 defined that Macau Horse Racing Co. would have paid MOP30 million per year. Business Daily contacted Macau Horse Racing about the renewal of the contract but the company had not replied by the time the story went to press. Macau Horse Racing Co. Ltd. has held the monopoly for horseracing betting since 1978 and the last contract, renewed by the Government about 10 years ago, expired on Monday August 31. The losses of Macau Jockey Club have been increasing; last year, the company lost MOP51.25 million compared to a loss of MOP41.4 million in 2013, according to information published in Macau’s Official Gazette. The Club has failed to make an annual profit since 2005. The city’s gross revenue from horseracing betting has declined 52.6 per cent year-on-year to MOP100 million during the first half of this year from MOP190 million in the first six months of last year. In 2014, revenue from horseracing betting had already declined 16.2 per cent year-on-year to MOP306 million from MOP365 million in 2013. Revenue from horseracing betting amounted to less than 0.1 per cent of Macau’s overall gross gaming revenue of MOP352.71 billion.
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