Macau Casino History

History of Gambling in Macau! Macau as we all know is gathering commendations and compliments because of its gambling industry from the different parts of the globe. Macau was also tagged as the only gambling venue that over power the ever famous and glamorous city of Las Vegas when it comes to gambling revenues and profits. Macau Casino History Gambling is the fastest growing activity on the internet and you can find gambling in all the parts of the globe. Macau is one amongst these places where gambling has been legal since the 1850s. Macau is more than just gambling and luxury casino-hotels. It is a destination with a unique mix of Chinese and Portuguese history. Here are 45 interesting facts about this small country to help you better enjoy your visit to Macau.

Of all the Affactive Group websites, the Grand Macao Casino may have had the worst reputation. Sites like AskGamblers blacklisted Grand Macao and the other Affactive websites years ago, but that is not the reason the casino is now closed. Instead, it was the criminal handiwork of the site's owners which brought things to such an abrupt end.

Long before that, Grand Macau casino garnered a 'massive amount of complaints' with stalling tactics to delay payments. These tactics read like a checklist of black hat casino traits: bogus security checks which took months to resolve, pressure on players with slow payments to start depositing more money, and offers of guaranteed payments for lesser amounts (if the problem would go away). In short, Grand Macao Casino was a disaster. This was the site which got all of the Affactive Media/NetAd Management sites blacklisted on one of the watchdog communities.

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Timeline of Grand Macao Casino

Grand Macao Casino Profile

Grand Macao Casino launched in 2008 as one of several NetAd Management casinos. Affactive Media was the affiliate program for the site. The online casino was one of several websites owned by NetAd Management, a company which claimed to be based and licensed in Curacao.

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An online gambling watchdog group called the authorities of that island nation and the officials said they had never heard of the group. In short, Grand Macao Casino was an unlicensed casino. It operated without any oversight or any constraint, using slick web design and aggressive advertising to draw new customers.

NetAd Management Network

One tactic the NetAd Management websites used was cross-marketing. Gamblers would complain that a sign-up at one site meant they were bombarded with ads for other websites. These players complained that a site like Grand Macao sold their information to other sites, but that wasn't the case. All the identity information was fed into the same database.

That is why NetAd had multiple sites, so they could victimize their customers several times. They were like a spider spinning a series of webs; if one strand of the web was taken down, others existed. From 2008 to 2010, Grand Macao Casino continued to operate with impunity.

Worst Casino Group Awards

In 2010, respected review site CasinoMeister announced Affactive Group, the affiliate network of NetAd Management, as their 'Worst Casino Group of the Year'. The announcement of the dubious award mentioned 'predatory terms and conditions' which included a stipulation which stated the special contest winners would be decided by 'player group.' This was an ill-defined term which allowed sites like Grand Macao to award winnings to anyone they chose — or no one at all. It was a pure scam website.

Even then, Grand Macao escaped a great deal of the bad press. The CasinoMeister awards announcement mentioned three of the Affactive Group's casinos by name: Slots Jungle, Mayflower Casino, and Casino Titan. While a player who wanted to do any amount of additional research could learn that Grand Macao was a part of the network, the site continued to sign up players and scam the world.

CasinoMeister gave the casino network the same award in 2011. This was not piling on, because Affactive Group sank to new lows. In a foreshadowing of the kind of malfeasance which would bring down NetAd Management, the gaming company was accused of launching a massive DDoS attack on the Rome Casino/TopGame Technology network. Affactive Group made the astounding countercharge that they only took action because TopGame was going to launch an attack on them.

The group won 'Meltdown of the Year' for the flame war which took place on the CasinoMeister forums. Representatives of both gaming groups began to air their dirty laundry on the forum. CasinoMeister described the public relations debacle in the following way: 'Jaws hit the floor as the posts were made between the accuser — Rome Casino, and the accuse (sic) — Affactive. The verbal fisticuffs that began to fly were unprecedented — it was a train wreck in slow motion.'

Saying that he shut down the thread because he was appalled that iGaming reps would engage in such a humiliating display, CasinoMeister said he would shut down the accounts of the various parties.

The NetAd/Affactive gaming group got a reprieve from CasinoMeister in 2012, but they were back in 2013 as the Worst Casino Group of the Year. This time around, CasinoMeister gave the award because so many players were coming to the forums to complain about the site's slow-paying methods. NetAd Management would halt payments at $500 a week, even for people who won the TopGame Technology progressive jackpots. A number of other infractions were discussed, including rollover requirements on cash deposits.

Even then, CasinoMeister did not tie Grand Macao Casino to the Affactive Group. The casinos listed in the online award announcement were Begado Casino, Casino Titan, Golden Cherry, Slots of Fortune, Jackpot Grand, Slots Jungle, and Winpalace Casino. Grand Macao continued to fly under the radar screen.

The same group won the CasinoMeister Worst award a fourth time in five years in 2014, though no one knew it was the same group. By this time, the Affactive Group's reputation was in the mud, so its owners launched a new group of sites. These were owned by Milore Ltd. and its affiliate program was named Revenue Jet. Despite the name change and other deceptions, the operators' bad actions were so consistently bad that they won the award.

This time around, the main complaints were from players who won on the site and wanted to withdraw any amount of money in the thousands of dollars. These players would be flagged for a random 'security check.' They were given a dog-and-pony show about a 60-day inspection. Due to their definition of the phrase 'business days,' the security checks tended to take over 4 months. Thus, anyone winning a decent amount of money would be waiting months for their winnings.

Grand Macao Casino might have been one of the more legitimate operations in the Affactive Group's network. Grand Macao either had a lot less customers, or else it did not rob players as much with bad terms and conditions. It seldom got mentioned, while the rest of the network seemed to conduct bad business. However, this would not save Grand Macao in the end.

Federal Take-down of NetAd Management and Affactive Group

All of this might have continued indefinitely had the people who operated NetAd Management, Affactive Group, Milore Ltd., and Revenue Jet not had much bigger ambitions. The anonymity of the Internet gives scam artists the ability to deceive with virtual impunity. That anonymity evaporates in certain rare instances, when the scammer steps over the line into pure criminality.

In the summer of 2014, the largest bank in the United States and the 6th-largest corporation in the world — J.P. Morgan-Chase — was the victim of a cyber-attack. Over the course of several weeks, security at the New York City firm realized their database had been compromised. The accounts of 76 million private citizens and 7 million small businesses has been compromised. Given the size of the corporation attacked, JP Morgan contacted U.S. federal law enforcement agencies and financial regulators.

The investigation was handled at the highest level. Experts believed the sophistication of the attack pointed to a state-level attack on the US financial system. Because the United States was leading a coalition of nations in imposing sanctions upon the Russian Federation for its invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, US intelligence analysts believed Russian state hackers had attacked the top US bank. Thus, America's top counter-espionage units were tasked with tracking down the source of the attack.

When investigators began to study the problem further, they decided it was much more likely to have been done by private individuals for the sake of commercial gain. They tracked the attack to Moscow and were able to trace it to a set of individuals — two Americans and two Israelis — who were in Russia at the time. The hackers probably chose the location as a safe haven beyond the reach of American authorities, but Vladimir Putin's security forces likely helped with the investigation to take heat off of themselves.

Hackers Revealed

The hackers proved to be Gery Shalon and Ziv Orenstein of Israel, alongside Anthony Murgio and Joshua Aaron of the United States. The U.S. Justice Department started to work with authorities in Israel to find and arrest these individuals. On July 23, 2015, Israeli police arrested Gery Shalon and Ziv Orenstein in Israel. Anthony Murgio was arrested by the FBI in Florida on the same day. The fourth indicted man, Joshua Aaron, appears to have been in Eastern Europe at the time and escaped arrested. The men were accused of the JP Morgan-Chase cyber-attack.

The U.S. State Department asked for Shalon and Orenstein to be extradited to stand trial, which the Israeli government did. Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for New York, held a press conference in which he described what happened. The cyber-attackers accessed the database of the banking institution to get access to potential investors in penny stocks. These men would buy penny stocks, pump up the value through advertising investment opportunities, and then dump their penny stocks onto the market at a huge profit.

Affactive Group Shuts Its Doors

The arrests were big news in American financial circles, but it seemed to have no impact on the gaming community — for 24 hours, at least. On July 24, 2015, representatives for Affactive Media began sending emails to affiliate marketers, telling them they were closing down operations. NetAd Management was ending operations. So was Milore Limited and Revenue Jet.

It turns out all these companies were owned by Gery Shalon and Ziv Orenstein. These hackers were the scam artists who had been stealing money from American gamblers since 2008 — and probably as early as 2004. The authorities seized domains and assets and the whole house of cards came toppling down.

Aftermath and Arrests

In November 2015, Shalon, Orenstein, and Murgio appeared in court to be formally charged. As of 2016, they continue to await trial on dozens of felony charges. If convicted, they are likely to spend decades in the American prison system.

Introduction

With a gaming history stretch back for more than 3 centuries, Macao was renowned as 'Monte Carlo of the Orient' and 'Las Vegas of the East'. Gaming is now the pillar industry of Macao. In 2009, the gaming tax generated is estimated to be more than 70 per cent of the Macao Special Administrative Region's total fiscal revenue. Recently, Macao's gross gaming revenue has even exceeded the Las Vegas Strip occasionally, which makes it becomes the largest gaming city in the world. The success of the gaming business in Macao is primarily due to the policy support by the governments of the People's Republic of China and Macao SAR, the robust investment by the entrepreneurs and the preference in gaming by the Chinese. This article will provide an overview on the development of the Macao gaming industry in chronological order.

Early Development of the Macao Gaming Industry

The Macao gaming industry can be traced back to the 16th century, when Macao first opened its harbor to the visitors. At that time, gaming was specifically popular among the construction workers emigrated from Mainland China, harbor coolies and domestic helpers. Since no gaming regulation was implemented, the gambling stalls were spread over streets and lanes and were operated by the bankers themselves.

After Hong Kong's sovereignty was ceded to the British in 1842, Macao's role as an important trading port was gradually replaced by Hong Kong. In an effort to fill its depleted coffers and diversify its leading economic activities, the Macao's Portuguese government legalized gaming for the first time in 1847. By 1850s, there were more than two hundred 'Fantan' stalls operating in Macao. Towards the late 19th century, gaming industry started booming, thus, making gaming tax as the main income for the government. Since then, Macao also began to be famous for its gaming industry and earned the appellation 'Monte Carlo of the Orient'.

In 1930, 'Hou Heng Company', headed by Fok Chi Ting, historically won the monopoly concession for operating all forms of approved casino games. Upon granted the monopoly concession, 'Hou Heng' started its casino business at the 'Central Hotel' located in the Avenida Almeida Ribeiro and the previous 'Victoria Cinema' (where the Tai Fung Bank is located now) respectively. 'Hou Heng' was considered as a pioneer in the gaming business as it had brought about improvement and innovation to the sprawling gaming sector. For instance, it renovated and refurbished the casinos sumptuously, offered complimentary Chinese opera shows, free fruits, cigarettes and snacks to the patrons, and purchased ferry tickets on their behalf.

In 1932, greyhound racing was first introduced to Macao by Fan Che Pang and a group of overseas Chinese and Americans, who later formed the 'Macao Canine Club' and built a greyhound racing stadium, which is now the 'Yat Yuen Canidrome'. However, this newly introduced game was not truly popular at that time.

Horse racing activities appeared long before in 1842, but it was only until 1927 that there were organized races. At that time, races were organized in the newly built horse racing ground in Areia Preta by 'Club Internacional de Recreio e Corridas de Macau, Limitada' who owned the monopoly concession for horse racing at that time.

In 1937, Macao gaming industry had undergone a revolutionary uplift. In that year, the Macao's Portuguese government passed a Decree Law to integrate the operations of different games. The casino monopoly concession was granted to 'Tai Heng Company', headed by Fu Tak Iong and Kou Ho Neng. 'Tai Heng' converted the 'New Central Hotel' in Avenida Almeida Ribeiro into its flagship casino and introduced Baccarat (the most popular game at the present time) and many new western game types.

Later, the Sino-Japanese war exploded, causing Hong Kong to be adversely affected. Consequently, the horse and greyhoundracing activities, which merely depended on patrons from Hong Kong, were suspended in 1942.

In February 1961, the 119th Governor of Macao Jaime Silvério Marques designated Macao as a 'permanent gaming region' and officially positioned Macao as a low taxation region and regarded gaming and tourism as its major economic activities. Marques had also further defined the meaning of gaming as 'Any game with results that are unpredictably and randomly generated and win purely by one's luck is called games of fortune'.

Monopoly System in Gaming Industry

Before the monopoly concession of 'Tai Heng' expired on 31 December 1961, Governor Marques and the related department enacted Diploma Legislativo no. 1496 in July of the same year, decided to liberalize the operations of games of fortune for public bidding. There were two companies that joined the bidding – a new company jointly set up by Ip Hon, Terry Ip Tak Lei, Stanely Ho Hon San, and Henry Fok, and 'Tai Heng' that was already in operation in the market. Finally, the new company won the bidding, granted the monopoly concession to operate games of fortune as well as selling 'Pou lottery', 'Shan lottery' and 'Pacapio lottery'. In August of the same year, Cheung Kuan Pau's application for re-opening the greyhound racing was approved by the government. The concession granted was 8 years and the 'Yat Yuen Canine Club' was officially opened in August 1963.

The new casino monopoly concessionaire was registered as Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macao (S.T.D.M) in 1962. Its first casino, the 'Casino Estoril', was opened in the same year, whilst the flagship Lisboa Hotel and the Casino Lisboa only started its full operation in 1970. Since then, STDM has dominated the gaming market for over 40 years. From STDM's opening in 1962, more than 10 game types were authorized to be played in its casinos. Some of popular games included Fantan, Baccarat, Boule, Cussec, Black Jack, slot machines etc.

In 1980, Ip Hon formed 'Macau Trotting Club' in an attempt to introduce harness racing in Macau, but it was not a popular sporting event. Amount of bets decreased so much that in 1988, all the races had to be stopped. In the same year, a Taiwan company bought the business, refurnished the racecourse into a flat one and organized its first race in September of 1989. However, due to various detrimental reasons, the business was so adversely affected that only after a year, it already entered into financial crisis. Finally, the business was taken over by STDM at 1 billion. Races were then restored in February of 1991.

Pachinko was later being introduced by STDM in 1998. In the same year, the Macau SLOT Co. Ltd. granted approval by the government to accept football betting, just in time to accept betting for the World Cup. On the other hand, STDM had also taken over the Macau Jockey Club in 1990, shaping itself into the largest gaming operator of Macao.

Gaming Liberalization after the Handover

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Before Macao was returned to China's sovereignty in 1999, there were numerous discussions and studies under different perspectives on the practicality of liberalizing the gaming industry. In fact, the Portuguese Macao Government had made considerations and preparations on over ruling the monopoly system in the gaming industry. For instance, back in 1986, the Legislative Assembly had enacted Law no. 10/86/M, stipulating 'the number of concessions granted to be limited to three at a maximum'.

On 21 December 1999, the following day of the official set-up of Macao Special Administrative Region, the new Chief Executive, Mr. Edmund Ho Hau Wah, announced his plan in inviting an international consultant company that was very experienced in the gaming business to conduct studies on the perspective of the Macao's gaming industry. In July 2000, the 'Macao Gaming Committee' was formed. The main function of the Committee was to conduct studies on the development, legal issues, administrative regulations and policies related to gaming. In August 2000, the Committee decided to hire Arthur Andersen Worldwide to study on the development of the gaming industry and provide professional opinions to the Government during that kick off meeting.

In August 2001, the Legislative Assembly of Macao passed the Law no. 16/2001 'Legal Framework for the Operations of Casino Games of Fortune', which stipulated the operation requirement, eligibility of major shareholders and management of the casinos and gaming tax that should be submitted. Upon the expiry of the concession of STDM on 31 December 2001, the Macao SAR decided to grant out 3 gaming concessions, in an effort to inject new dynamics to the gaming industry and to lie a strong foundation for further future development in gaming, reinforcing the policy direction set by the Macao SAR: 'tourism, gaming, conventions and exhibitions as the 'head', and the service industry as the 'body', driving the overall development of other industries.'

On 26 October 2001, the Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah, signed the Administrative Regulation no. 26/2001 'Stipulating the Open Bidding for the Operation of Casino Games of Fortune and the Eligibility and Financial Capability of the Companies that participated in the Tendering Process', in supplementary to Law no. 16/2001. In 30 October of the same year, the eight-member 'Casino Concessions Committee' was set up under the Executive's Order. It was responsible for coordinating work in respect to the tendering process and making recommendations to the Chief Executive once the concessions were granted.

Macau Casino Owner Dies

In compliance with the Administrative Regulation 26/2001, the Committee officially started the tendering process on 2 November, and ended the tendering on 7 December 2001. There were a total of 21 bidding proposals received during the period with bidders holding capital in Macao, Hong Kong, US, Malaysia, Australia, United Kingdom and Taiwan etc. Among all, 3 companies that had insufficient documents were disqualified from entering into the final stage of the bidding process. On 31 December 2001, since the Macao SAR could not grant out the concession as scheduled, the concession contract of STDM was extended for 3 more months.

Grand Macao Casino launched in 2008 as one of several NetAd Management casinos. Affactive Media was the affiliate program for the site. The online casino was one of several websites owned by NetAd Management, a company which claimed to be based and licensed in Curacao.

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An online gambling watchdog group called the authorities of that island nation and the officials said they had never heard of the group. In short, Grand Macao Casino was an unlicensed casino. It operated without any oversight or any constraint, using slick web design and aggressive advertising to draw new customers.

NetAd Management Network

One tactic the NetAd Management websites used was cross-marketing. Gamblers would complain that a sign-up at one site meant they were bombarded with ads for other websites. These players complained that a site like Grand Macao sold their information to other sites, but that wasn't the case. All the identity information was fed into the same database.

That is why NetAd had multiple sites, so they could victimize their customers several times. They were like a spider spinning a series of webs; if one strand of the web was taken down, others existed. From 2008 to 2010, Grand Macao Casino continued to operate with impunity.

Worst Casino Group Awards

In 2010, respected review site CasinoMeister announced Affactive Group, the affiliate network of NetAd Management, as their 'Worst Casino Group of the Year'. The announcement of the dubious award mentioned 'predatory terms and conditions' which included a stipulation which stated the special contest winners would be decided by 'player group.' This was an ill-defined term which allowed sites like Grand Macao to award winnings to anyone they chose — or no one at all. It was a pure scam website.

Even then, Grand Macao escaped a great deal of the bad press. The CasinoMeister awards announcement mentioned three of the Affactive Group's casinos by name: Slots Jungle, Mayflower Casino, and Casino Titan. While a player who wanted to do any amount of additional research could learn that Grand Macao was a part of the network, the site continued to sign up players and scam the world.

CasinoMeister gave the casino network the same award in 2011. This was not piling on, because Affactive Group sank to new lows. In a foreshadowing of the kind of malfeasance which would bring down NetAd Management, the gaming company was accused of launching a massive DDoS attack on the Rome Casino/TopGame Technology network. Affactive Group made the astounding countercharge that they only took action because TopGame was going to launch an attack on them.

The group won 'Meltdown of the Year' for the flame war which took place on the CasinoMeister forums. Representatives of both gaming groups began to air their dirty laundry on the forum. CasinoMeister described the public relations debacle in the following way: 'Jaws hit the floor as the posts were made between the accuser — Rome Casino, and the accuse (sic) — Affactive. The verbal fisticuffs that began to fly were unprecedented — it was a train wreck in slow motion.'

Saying that he shut down the thread because he was appalled that iGaming reps would engage in such a humiliating display, CasinoMeister said he would shut down the accounts of the various parties.

The NetAd/Affactive gaming group got a reprieve from CasinoMeister in 2012, but they were back in 2013 as the Worst Casino Group of the Year. This time around, CasinoMeister gave the award because so many players were coming to the forums to complain about the site's slow-paying methods. NetAd Management would halt payments at $500 a week, even for people who won the TopGame Technology progressive jackpots. A number of other infractions were discussed, including rollover requirements on cash deposits.

Even then, CasinoMeister did not tie Grand Macao Casino to the Affactive Group. The casinos listed in the online award announcement were Begado Casino, Casino Titan, Golden Cherry, Slots of Fortune, Jackpot Grand, Slots Jungle, and Winpalace Casino. Grand Macao continued to fly under the radar screen.

The same group won the CasinoMeister Worst award a fourth time in five years in 2014, though no one knew it was the same group. By this time, the Affactive Group's reputation was in the mud, so its owners launched a new group of sites. These were owned by Milore Ltd. and its affiliate program was named Revenue Jet. Despite the name change and other deceptions, the operators' bad actions were so consistently bad that they won the award.

This time around, the main complaints were from players who won on the site and wanted to withdraw any amount of money in the thousands of dollars. These players would be flagged for a random 'security check.' They were given a dog-and-pony show about a 60-day inspection. Due to their definition of the phrase 'business days,' the security checks tended to take over 4 months. Thus, anyone winning a decent amount of money would be waiting months for their winnings.

Grand Macao Casino might have been one of the more legitimate operations in the Affactive Group's network. Grand Macao either had a lot less customers, or else it did not rob players as much with bad terms and conditions. It seldom got mentioned, while the rest of the network seemed to conduct bad business. However, this would not save Grand Macao in the end.

Federal Take-down of NetAd Management and Affactive Group

All of this might have continued indefinitely had the people who operated NetAd Management, Affactive Group, Milore Ltd., and Revenue Jet not had much bigger ambitions. The anonymity of the Internet gives scam artists the ability to deceive with virtual impunity. That anonymity evaporates in certain rare instances, when the scammer steps over the line into pure criminality.

In the summer of 2014, the largest bank in the United States and the 6th-largest corporation in the world — J.P. Morgan-Chase — was the victim of a cyber-attack. Over the course of several weeks, security at the New York City firm realized their database had been compromised. The accounts of 76 million private citizens and 7 million small businesses has been compromised. Given the size of the corporation attacked, JP Morgan contacted U.S. federal law enforcement agencies and financial regulators.

The investigation was handled at the highest level. Experts believed the sophistication of the attack pointed to a state-level attack on the US financial system. Because the United States was leading a coalition of nations in imposing sanctions upon the Russian Federation for its invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, US intelligence analysts believed Russian state hackers had attacked the top US bank. Thus, America's top counter-espionage units were tasked with tracking down the source of the attack.

When investigators began to study the problem further, they decided it was much more likely to have been done by private individuals for the sake of commercial gain. They tracked the attack to Moscow and were able to trace it to a set of individuals — two Americans and two Israelis — who were in Russia at the time. The hackers probably chose the location as a safe haven beyond the reach of American authorities, but Vladimir Putin's security forces likely helped with the investigation to take heat off of themselves.

Hackers Revealed

The hackers proved to be Gery Shalon and Ziv Orenstein of Israel, alongside Anthony Murgio and Joshua Aaron of the United States. The U.S. Justice Department started to work with authorities in Israel to find and arrest these individuals. On July 23, 2015, Israeli police arrested Gery Shalon and Ziv Orenstein in Israel. Anthony Murgio was arrested by the FBI in Florida on the same day. The fourth indicted man, Joshua Aaron, appears to have been in Eastern Europe at the time and escaped arrested. The men were accused of the JP Morgan-Chase cyber-attack.

The U.S. State Department asked for Shalon and Orenstein to be extradited to stand trial, which the Israeli government did. Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for New York, held a press conference in which he described what happened. The cyber-attackers accessed the database of the banking institution to get access to potential investors in penny stocks. These men would buy penny stocks, pump up the value through advertising investment opportunities, and then dump their penny stocks onto the market at a huge profit.

Affactive Group Shuts Its Doors

The arrests were big news in American financial circles, but it seemed to have no impact on the gaming community — for 24 hours, at least. On July 24, 2015, representatives for Affactive Media began sending emails to affiliate marketers, telling them they were closing down operations. NetAd Management was ending operations. So was Milore Limited and Revenue Jet.

It turns out all these companies were owned by Gery Shalon and Ziv Orenstein. These hackers were the scam artists who had been stealing money from American gamblers since 2008 — and probably as early as 2004. The authorities seized domains and assets and the whole house of cards came toppling down.

Aftermath and Arrests

In November 2015, Shalon, Orenstein, and Murgio appeared in court to be formally charged. As of 2016, they continue to await trial on dozens of felony charges. If convicted, they are likely to spend decades in the American prison system.

Introduction

With a gaming history stretch back for more than 3 centuries, Macao was renowned as 'Monte Carlo of the Orient' and 'Las Vegas of the East'. Gaming is now the pillar industry of Macao. In 2009, the gaming tax generated is estimated to be more than 70 per cent of the Macao Special Administrative Region's total fiscal revenue. Recently, Macao's gross gaming revenue has even exceeded the Las Vegas Strip occasionally, which makes it becomes the largest gaming city in the world. The success of the gaming business in Macao is primarily due to the policy support by the governments of the People's Republic of China and Macao SAR, the robust investment by the entrepreneurs and the preference in gaming by the Chinese. This article will provide an overview on the development of the Macao gaming industry in chronological order.

Early Development of the Macao Gaming Industry

The Macao gaming industry can be traced back to the 16th century, when Macao first opened its harbor to the visitors. At that time, gaming was specifically popular among the construction workers emigrated from Mainland China, harbor coolies and domestic helpers. Since no gaming regulation was implemented, the gambling stalls were spread over streets and lanes and were operated by the bankers themselves.

After Hong Kong's sovereignty was ceded to the British in 1842, Macao's role as an important trading port was gradually replaced by Hong Kong. In an effort to fill its depleted coffers and diversify its leading economic activities, the Macao's Portuguese government legalized gaming for the first time in 1847. By 1850s, there were more than two hundred 'Fantan' stalls operating in Macao. Towards the late 19th century, gaming industry started booming, thus, making gaming tax as the main income for the government. Since then, Macao also began to be famous for its gaming industry and earned the appellation 'Monte Carlo of the Orient'.

In 1930, 'Hou Heng Company', headed by Fok Chi Ting, historically won the monopoly concession for operating all forms of approved casino games. Upon granted the monopoly concession, 'Hou Heng' started its casino business at the 'Central Hotel' located in the Avenida Almeida Ribeiro and the previous 'Victoria Cinema' (where the Tai Fung Bank is located now) respectively. 'Hou Heng' was considered as a pioneer in the gaming business as it had brought about improvement and innovation to the sprawling gaming sector. For instance, it renovated and refurbished the casinos sumptuously, offered complimentary Chinese opera shows, free fruits, cigarettes and snacks to the patrons, and purchased ferry tickets on their behalf.

In 1932, greyhound racing was first introduced to Macao by Fan Che Pang and a group of overseas Chinese and Americans, who later formed the 'Macao Canine Club' and built a greyhound racing stadium, which is now the 'Yat Yuen Canidrome'. However, this newly introduced game was not truly popular at that time.

Horse racing activities appeared long before in 1842, but it was only until 1927 that there were organized races. At that time, races were organized in the newly built horse racing ground in Areia Preta by 'Club Internacional de Recreio e Corridas de Macau, Limitada' who owned the monopoly concession for horse racing at that time.

In 1937, Macao gaming industry had undergone a revolutionary uplift. In that year, the Macao's Portuguese government passed a Decree Law to integrate the operations of different games. The casino monopoly concession was granted to 'Tai Heng Company', headed by Fu Tak Iong and Kou Ho Neng. 'Tai Heng' converted the 'New Central Hotel' in Avenida Almeida Ribeiro into its flagship casino and introduced Baccarat (the most popular game at the present time) and many new western game types.

Later, the Sino-Japanese war exploded, causing Hong Kong to be adversely affected. Consequently, the horse and greyhoundracing activities, which merely depended on patrons from Hong Kong, were suspended in 1942.

In February 1961, the 119th Governor of Macao Jaime Silvério Marques designated Macao as a 'permanent gaming region' and officially positioned Macao as a low taxation region and regarded gaming and tourism as its major economic activities. Marques had also further defined the meaning of gaming as 'Any game with results that are unpredictably and randomly generated and win purely by one's luck is called games of fortune'.

Monopoly System in Gaming Industry

Before the monopoly concession of 'Tai Heng' expired on 31 December 1961, Governor Marques and the related department enacted Diploma Legislativo no. 1496 in July of the same year, decided to liberalize the operations of games of fortune for public bidding. There were two companies that joined the bidding – a new company jointly set up by Ip Hon, Terry Ip Tak Lei, Stanely Ho Hon San, and Henry Fok, and 'Tai Heng' that was already in operation in the market. Finally, the new company won the bidding, granted the monopoly concession to operate games of fortune as well as selling 'Pou lottery', 'Shan lottery' and 'Pacapio lottery'. In August of the same year, Cheung Kuan Pau's application for re-opening the greyhound racing was approved by the government. The concession granted was 8 years and the 'Yat Yuen Canine Club' was officially opened in August 1963.

The new casino monopoly concessionaire was registered as Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macao (S.T.D.M) in 1962. Its first casino, the 'Casino Estoril', was opened in the same year, whilst the flagship Lisboa Hotel and the Casino Lisboa only started its full operation in 1970. Since then, STDM has dominated the gaming market for over 40 years. From STDM's opening in 1962, more than 10 game types were authorized to be played in its casinos. Some of popular games included Fantan, Baccarat, Boule, Cussec, Black Jack, slot machines etc.

In 1980, Ip Hon formed 'Macau Trotting Club' in an attempt to introduce harness racing in Macau, but it was not a popular sporting event. Amount of bets decreased so much that in 1988, all the races had to be stopped. In the same year, a Taiwan company bought the business, refurnished the racecourse into a flat one and organized its first race in September of 1989. However, due to various detrimental reasons, the business was so adversely affected that only after a year, it already entered into financial crisis. Finally, the business was taken over by STDM at 1 billion. Races were then restored in February of 1991.

Pachinko was later being introduced by STDM in 1998. In the same year, the Macau SLOT Co. Ltd. granted approval by the government to accept football betting, just in time to accept betting for the World Cup. On the other hand, STDM had also taken over the Macau Jockey Club in 1990, shaping itself into the largest gaming operator of Macao.

Gaming Liberalization after the Handover

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Before Macao was returned to China's sovereignty in 1999, there were numerous discussions and studies under different perspectives on the practicality of liberalizing the gaming industry. In fact, the Portuguese Macao Government had made considerations and preparations on over ruling the monopoly system in the gaming industry. For instance, back in 1986, the Legislative Assembly had enacted Law no. 10/86/M, stipulating 'the number of concessions granted to be limited to three at a maximum'.

On 21 December 1999, the following day of the official set-up of Macao Special Administrative Region, the new Chief Executive, Mr. Edmund Ho Hau Wah, announced his plan in inviting an international consultant company that was very experienced in the gaming business to conduct studies on the perspective of the Macao's gaming industry. In July 2000, the 'Macao Gaming Committee' was formed. The main function of the Committee was to conduct studies on the development, legal issues, administrative regulations and policies related to gaming. In August 2000, the Committee decided to hire Arthur Andersen Worldwide to study on the development of the gaming industry and provide professional opinions to the Government during that kick off meeting.

In August 2001, the Legislative Assembly of Macao passed the Law no. 16/2001 'Legal Framework for the Operations of Casino Games of Fortune', which stipulated the operation requirement, eligibility of major shareholders and management of the casinos and gaming tax that should be submitted. Upon the expiry of the concession of STDM on 31 December 2001, the Macao SAR decided to grant out 3 gaming concessions, in an effort to inject new dynamics to the gaming industry and to lie a strong foundation for further future development in gaming, reinforcing the policy direction set by the Macao SAR: 'tourism, gaming, conventions and exhibitions as the 'head', and the service industry as the 'body', driving the overall development of other industries.'

On 26 October 2001, the Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah, signed the Administrative Regulation no. 26/2001 'Stipulating the Open Bidding for the Operation of Casino Games of Fortune and the Eligibility and Financial Capability of the Companies that participated in the Tendering Process', in supplementary to Law no. 16/2001. In 30 October of the same year, the eight-member 'Casino Concessions Committee' was set up under the Executive's Order. It was responsible for coordinating work in respect to the tendering process and making recommendations to the Chief Executive once the concessions were granted.

Macau Casino Owner Dies

In compliance with the Administrative Regulation 26/2001, the Committee officially started the tendering process on 2 November, and ended the tendering on 7 December 2001. There were a total of 21 bidding proposals received during the period with bidders holding capital in Macao, Hong Kong, US, Malaysia, Australia, United Kingdom and Taiwan etc. Among all, 3 companies that had insufficient documents were disqualified from entering into the final stage of the bidding process. On 31 December 2001, since the Macao SAR could not grant out the concession as scheduled, the concession contract of STDM was extended for 3 more months.

On 8 February 2002, the Macao SAR announced the results of the bidding, and concession was granted to Sociedade de Jogos de Macau ('SJM'), a subsidiary of STDM, Galaxy Casino, S.A. ('Galaxy'), and Wynn Resorts (Macao) S.A. ('Wynn'). The concession contracts for the operation of casino games of fortune were signed on 28 March, 24 and 26 June respectively. In December of the same year, the Macao SAR had made an alteration on the Galaxy's Concession Contract, which is, to allow Galaxy to have a sub-concession relationship with the Venetians Macao S.A. ('Venetian'). Following the issuance of the first sub-concession, the SJM and the Wynn had also subsequently signed a sub-concession with the MGM Grand Paradise, S.A. ('MGM') and the Melco PBL Jogos (Macau), S.A. ('Melco PBL') on 20 April, 2005 and 8 September, 2006 respectively. When the winners granted the concession were announced, besides SJM, the remaining concessionaires and sub-concessionaire all required time to construct their casinos and other related facilities. As such, they did not start operating right upon being granted the concessions.

Macau Casino History

In May 2004, the first casino of Venetian, Casino Sands, was opened. It was the first ever gaming investment project developed by an American company in Asia. In the same year, the Galaxy's first project, Casino Waldo, also commenced operations. For the Wynn, its first casino hotel had the stone-laying ceremony in June 2004 and celebrated its grand opening in September 2006. The Melco PBL got control of the Mocha slot lounges in September 2006 and its first casino, Casino Crown (with name changed to Casino Altira now), opened in May 2007. In December of the same year, MGM's first casino also entered into operation.

As of the year end of 2019, there were a total of 41 casinos in Macao, with 25 casinos located in the Macao Peninsula and 16 casinos in the Taipa Island. Among the total number of casinos, the SJM has 22 casinos; Galaxy has 6 casinos; the Venetian has 5 casinos; Melco Crown (formerly known as 'Melco PBL') has 4 casinos; Wynn has 2 casinos and; MGM has 2 casinos. In addition, Macao (Yut Yuen) Canidrome Co. Ltd officially ended the dog racing operations on July 20, 2018.

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Macau Casino History Facts