The Macau government has been urged to play a more active role in regulating the gaming industry to ensure healthy social development.
There have also been calls for greater transparency in the government's gaming policies amid controversy surrounding the underregulated subcontracting of casino licences.
A seminar - 'Gaming Development and Social Responsibilities' - organised by the Macau Social Development Research Association (AEDSM) and the Macau Gaming Research Association was held on Saturday.
Chan Peng-keong, secretary-general of the AEDSM, urged officials to develop a 'scientific and socially responsible' mechanism for regulating the gaming sector.
'The [special administrative region] government has the absolute right to guide the city's gaming development and it must actively assume the right,' Mr Chan said. 'In dealing with applications to open new casinos or increase gaming tables ... the government must follow a set of transparent and practical rules.'
Only three casino licences were granted when Macau broke its gaming monopoly in 2002, but three sub-concessions have since been made in a grey area of gaming regulation, effectively doubling the number of operators.
