Casino Lisboa opens mahjong room with 20 tables
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- Created on Monday, 06 August 2012 10:12
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 November 2012 18:00
- Written by Staff
MACAU - A new mahjong centre opened last week at Casino Lisboa. The New Golden Mahjong Centre currently features 20 tables.
“The casinos have now only just recognised mahjong’s potential and are starting to capitalise on it,” Ben Lee, a Macau-based gaming consultant with IGamiX Management and Consulting, told gaming portal GamblingCompliance.
In the second quarter of 2012, mahjong gaming revenue reached MOP57 million (US$7.1 million), up by a staggering 256.3 percent year-on-year, figures released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau show.
According to GamblingCompliance, Alex Lee Shiu Ming, who has ties to the junket business in Macau, heads the New Golden Mahjong Centre.
The chances of that happening are slim to none. At least slimmer than say, forcing non-alcoholic venues...
When DMJL was approached by Spielbank Hannover in 2011 about providing know-how and material for a Mah-Jongg tournament with money prizes the board discussed, if a cooperation seemed possible and worthwhile - the publicly available board minutes from March 2011 reflected on this (originally in German - inofficially translated [and commented] here): Apart from earnings for the association a cooperation promises a possible contact to the responsible regulatory authority [to gain higher legal certainty about DMJL's self-organised non-gambling tournaments] and obviously the development of contact to a potential sponsor, namely the Spielbank herself. The board decided unanimously that a cooperation was desirable.
To draw a line between the paid-for support of legal gambling and DMJL's very own activities, the board also decided (also unanimously), that DMJL would only act as a service provider for the said tournament, but would not want to benefit from publicity in the course of gambling activities, so that it would not be (even mistakenly) seen as an organiser of such. More over the board stressed the importance of an adequate distinction (in rules, exposition of differing procedures etc.) between events of gambling and mind sport.
There was not a minute of discussion within the board, before Uwe Pelzer terminated the cooperation with the Spielbank/RP5 - no information about his findings, no questions, no suggestions, he just acted on his own. So, Frauke, the board was neither unable nor unwilling to find an answer to the question, if this said (and before unanimously supported) cooperation should've been terminated - it was simply not asked.