Hong Kong is finally making a serious move towards stiffening its efforts to combat anti-competitive practices, as government and business acknowledge that the dominance of big players in certain sectors might undermine our city's overall competitiveness.
Until now, the prevailing argument has been that there is no need for a general competition law because the practice of free trade subjects local industries to the fiercest international competition. However, the non-tradeable sector of our economy abounds with cartels whose anti-competitive practices have led to higher costs for both consumers and businesses.
Ironically, this has not stopped one of our more colourful business identities, Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun, suggesting that he and his new American competitors should form a casino chamber of commerce to rein in an outbreak of fierce competition in Macau's casino market.
As we report today, a week after Mr Ho coupled this suggestion with a warning that unbridled competition was hitting his VIP gaming room operators hard, it was business as usual yesterday at one of his most glitzy high-roller outlets.
Twenty-four hours earlier the executive who runs it was found brutally murdered in Zhuhai alongside the body of her husband, also a VIP gaming executive. There are unconfirmed reports that she was on a trip to collect a huge debt.
Whatever the motive, this is the first such killing in 10 years and it is to be hoped that it does not signal in any way a return to the pre-handover mayhem which the present administration has done much to curb.
Mr Ho can be disarmingly charming, but it would take more than that to disguise his suggestion. It is a proposal that would likely snatch away from gamblers - including high rollers and the Hongkongers who enjoy a small flutter - the benefits of competition they were denied for so long under Mr Ho's previous dominance of the Macau gambling scene. Old monopoly habits die hard, so much so that Mr Ho has said that a casino industry chamber could 'regulate' the stakeholders - a concept that is normally anathema to business.