The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Leong Vai Tac, speaks to reporters.
The Government has authorised integrated resort Wynn Palace to operate a total of 150 new-to-market live-dealer gaming tables – all mass market – and 1,145 electronic gaming machines, said today the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Leong Vai Tac. A first batch of 100 gaming tables – out of the total 150 new-to-market tables – would be made available to the resort on time for the opening, scheduled for this year. The remaining 50 new-to-market gaming tables would become available in two separate phases: 25 tables on 1 January 2017; and the remaining 25 tables on 1 January 2018, said Mr Leong. Mr Leong stated that – when assessing applications for gaming tables – the Government would strictly follow the principle of allowing a compound annual growth rate in new-to-market tables of no more than 3 percent for a 10-year period from 1 January 2013. The Secretary added that the Government had received an application for new-to-market gaming tables for integrated resort Parisian Macao. He stated that the application was being reviewed. The Government would take into consideration the following criteria while reviewing applications for new-to-market gaming tables: whether a new project would contribute to the transformation of Macao into a world centre of tourism and leisure; what each resort had to offer in terms of non-gaming offerings; and the degree of each project’s integration in business terms with local small- and medium-sized enterprises.