MACAO, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- The six licensed casino operators in Macao Monday voiced their support for local government's intention to further regulate the development of local gaming industry, with the aim to prevent its over-expansion.

    The operators agreed that the overall size of the gaming market “cannot be expanded forever without any restriction", and, based on existing foundation, "we'll explore ways and means as to how we should expand the business", said Ambrose So Shu Fai, chief executive officer of SJM Holding Ltd, which is one of the operators.

    So and executive representatives from the other five operators, including Las Vegas Sands Corp., Wynn Resorts Ltd., Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd., Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., and MGM Grand Paradise Ltd., attended a meeting today with officials from the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government, discussing issues concerning the industry.

    He explained that the development of casino industry has not only affected other industries in Macao, but twisted local labor market. It is reasonable and logical for the government and the licensed operators to think about the overall size of the market.

    Being tired of "destructive competition", Macao's six licensed gaming operators has signed an agreement to establish an industry association in July this year.

    However, "we have not reached any consensus yet", and the government welcomed us to put forward proposals concerning the matter, So said.

    With the alleged aim to check the spiraling growth of the gaming industry, the SAR's outgoing Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah last year announced the government's decision to freeze the development of local gaming industry indefinitely, maintaining the current size of six licensed operators and barring these operators from applying for more lands with the purpose for further development.

    The government also started reviewing its gaming policy and explore new direction for the industry's development, but the impact of financial crisis, which considerably affected local gaming market, interrupted the reviewing process, according to TamPak Yuen, the SAR government's secretary for economy and finance, who also attended Monday's meeting.

    He said that Macao's social and natural resources are very limited, and the over-expansion of the gaming industry will cause an adverse effect on the diversification of local economy, which is the long term goal of the SAR government.

    Since the two things were conflicting, the SAR government must regulate the development of Macao's gaming sector, over which the six gaming operators have reached a "very strong" consensus, Tam also said.

    As for when the regulation will take place, Tam noted that the government still needs time to finish the reviewing process and the exact policy concerning the regulation may not come out within the term of the incumbent administration. The term of current CE Ho Hau Wah and his administration ends in December this year.

    Casinos in Macao reaped some 10.8 billion patacas (1.37 billion U.S. dollars) in September this year, surging by 52 percent over the same period of last year, according to the Macao Post Daily, which quoted unnamed official sources. SJM, which owns 20 of Macao's 33 local casinos, was still the industry leader with a market share of 30 percent in September.

    Macao's gaming revenues for the past two months and the first ten days of this month registered "relatively ideal" results, as significant year-on-year increases were recorded respectively in these months, said Tam.

    He predicted that the SAR, the only place in China where gambling is legal, will see a year-on-year increase of over ten percent in gaming revenues for the third quarter this year, and local economy, which highly rely on the gaming sector, will have single-digit growth for the whole of 2009.

    Aside from overall policy, the SAR government has moved to tighten its control over the SAR's VIP gaming market by bringing in a maximum ceiling over junket commission rates.

    Unlike Las Vegas, a large part of Macao's gaming revenues come from the VIP or high-roller gambling, and local casinos rely on the junket operators, who work as agents that bring the VIP gamblers to the gaming tables. In return, local casinos pay a percentage of bets placed by VIP gamblers to the junket operators as commissions.

    The commission rate rose to a high of 1.35 percent as competition heated up after the liberalization of Macao's gaming sector in 2002, compared with just 0.8 percent when the sector was still monopolized by local gaming magnate Stanley Ho, who owns SJM.

    Urged by the SAR government, Macao's six licensed gaming operators have generally agreed that the maximum commission rate should stood at 1.25 percent, which was also accepted by the SAR government.

    Tam said that the SAR government has closely overseen the implementation of the commission rate cap among the licensed operators, and will continue to collect opinions from various parties of the industry.

    In addition, the SAR government was also drafting new laws and rules concerning the age limit of persons entering local casinos and the location of slot machine halls.

    Under the government-proposed bill, which will be submitted to local legislature in coming months, the age limit for persons entering local casinos will be increased to 21, which also applies to casino staff. Meanwhile, gaming operators will not be allowed to set up new slot machine halls in local neighborhood and current ones located in such areas will need to move to other places in near future.