Casino entry age rises from 18 to 21 in Macao

MACAO - A newly-promulgated law, which raises the minimum age to enter and work in a casino from 18 to 21 years, came into effect on Thursday in Macao Special Administrative Region.

According to the law, anyone under the age of 21 found in a casino would be fined between 1,000 and 10,000 patacas ($125 and $1, 253) for breaking the law, while the respective casino company would be fined between 10,000 and 500,000 patacas ( $1,253 and $62,650) for not complying with its supervisory duties.

However, existing casino employees under the age of 21 will not be affected by the ban.

The new rules were passed by the Legislative Assembly of Macao in August and scheduled to take effect on November 1. The government said that the goal of the law was to ensure that local youths would not be influenced by the adverse effects of gambling until they are "mentally mature".

Macao is a city famous for tourism and gaming industry. The local gaming industry's gross revenue reached 251.01 billion patacas ($31.45 billion) from January to October 2012, increased by 13.5 percent year-on-year.