Lawyers have raised questions on the recent guidelines to recognize illegal gambling advertisement in Macau.

According to instructions issued by Macao Economic Service (MES), advertisement showing gaming symbols such as casino tables or chips, or promoting gaming by using ambiguous, covert or implicit forms including promoting online gaming through regular websites or using innocuous or apparently unrelated activities to promote gaming, such as lucky draws or rewards point schemes, are illegal.

“It appears that these instructions are illegal and against the gaming contracts and Law 13/2009 [The Macau Legal Framework of Internal Sources of Law]. There is not mention of the instructions in Law 13/2009. In order to bring such changes it would have to be executed through a new law or an administrative regulation,” said lawyer Pedro Cortés of Senior Partner at Rato, Ling, Lei & Cortés firm.

In the article published by the lawfirm titled Instructions on Recognising Illegal Ads for Games of Fortune and Chance, it argued that the current instructions contradicts the Advertisement Act implemented in 2002, which requires gambling operators to “carry out advertising campaigns and market promotion of its enterprises, especially its casinos, within and outside Macao Special Administrative Region.”