The vice president of the Macau Economic Association, Jack Chang Chak Io, believes that the best years of the gaming industry are behind it and that growth will be more balanced in the future. “The era of big economic growth for the casino industry is over”, Jack Chang said in an interview with bilingual newspaper Plataforma. “The restructuring of the Mainland economy and more focus on sustainable growth and less on Gross Domestic Product growth is going to influence the future of the gaming operators”, he claimed. For Jack Chang, however, the gaming industry will also feel the consequences of growing local competition that has been developing in places like Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines, and that may start up in future in other regions such as Japan and Taiwan. According to the vice president of the Macau Economic Association, another factor that is likely to have an impact on the gaming industry is that the younger generation may tend to be less interested in gaming than their predecessors. Concerning local competition, Mr. Chang said he did not believe that the Central government would authorise more gaming areas in the country in addition to Macau due to the social and political risks it would bring the Mainland. “People are not only focused on the bright side of the gaming industry. They also tend to see the negative impact of it and in relation to this industry there are many social problems such as criminal activities and corruption”, he stressed in the interview. Mr. Chang said that following the liberalisation era, the gaming industry will now be more controlled and regulated. He also said he believed that the chances of the Macau Government issuing another gaming licence are “very little”.
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