The Long Goodbye, Macau Appoints Woman as Gambling Boss

Amid ongoing uncertainty over its direction of legislative travel, Macau, the world’s richest-by-far gaming jurisdiction, has appointed Ms. Ng Wai Han as its new gambling chief.

Han, formerly Civil Service Director in the Chinese Special Administrative Region, a former Portuguese colony, is the first woman to hold the key betting post.

Her appointment comes as a new anti-gambling wind, emanating from mainland China, blows across the territory.

Although Macau, home to a cluster of mega casinos and casino-resorts, generated the equivalent of some US$28 billion GGR last year (£21.19bn), compared to second-place Las Vegas with GGR of US$15.8 billion (£11.95bn) and third-placed Singapore’s US$6 billion (£4.54bn), it appears that China’s anti-gambling, nominally communist, government doesn’t know what to do with its “problem” child.

Over recent years, Macau has been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic–which saw the territory virtually quarantined for three-years–and tough crack-downs on big-money gambling junkets and greater controls on foreign currency exchange.

China’s maximum ruler Xi Jinping recently decreed that Macau is to diversify its betting-dominated economy with a so-called “1+4” strategy for future development: “1”, self-evidently, being gambling; while “4” embraces conventions, finance, health and technology.

Recalibration

And foreign casino operators–operating under 10-year concessions and mostly listed in nearby Hong Kong, among them Galaxy Entertainment Group, Melco Crown Entertainment, MGM China Holdings, Sands China, SJM Holdings and Wynn Macau–have now also been ordered to contribute the equivalent of US$16.2 billion (£12.24bn) to the economic recalibration.

Amid growing U.S.-China tensions over trade and the sovereignty of Taiwan, the uncertainty of Macau’s future direction is further underlined by the fact that Han has initially only been appointed as Head of Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Directorate (DICJ) for a year.

She succeeds Adriano Marques Ho, who became the entrepôt’s Director General of Customs last year in the Macau Government headed by new Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai.

A vastly-experienced bureaucrat and trained criminal lawyer, Han rose through the ranks of the Labour Affairs Bureau, before becoming Director of the Public Administration Bureau in 2023.

Challenge

She is a graduate of Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, southern China, named after the early 20th Century Chinese nationalist who is considered father of both the Chinese Communist Party and Kuo Min Tang (KMT), which retreated to Taiwan.

A year from now it will be interesting to see if Han is still in place.

Putative regional rivals with the heft to compete with their own casino-resorts, most notably Thailand and Japan, are gearing up to challenge Macau’s dominance.

Has Han been put in place to manage the enclave’s gaming decline or revive a stumbling giant that’s lost its way?

Watch this space!