Tag: Asia

Macau gaming labour group activist Cloee Chao Sao Fong will lead an election ticket for the upcoming Legislative Assembly Election. Her ticket features several other casino workers respectively seeking a directly-elected legislator seat.

The election will be on September 12, according to the city’s Electoral Affairs Commission. Typically, a candidate topping a ticket has the best chance of winning a seat, if the ticket can itself garner a sufficient portion of the votes available. She stood unsuccessfully in the 2017 election.

Ms Chao, known to the public for heading the New Macau Gaming Staff Rights Association, submitted on Monday to the Electoral Affairs Commission the candidate list for her ticket, and its electoral platform. Eight candidates – including her – will run on a ticket to “advocate casino workers’ rights and benefits”, she remarked to local media at the time her group handed over its list to the authorities.

“We hope that we could win at least one [directly-elected] seat in the assembly,” Ms Chao said.

Ms Chao told local media that her election ticket would stand on a platform of: defending local workers’ employment prospects; advocating better benefits for casino shift workers; and pushing for a trade union law in the city. The platform is similar to what a ticket with her as a candidate offered at the 2017 election.

Ms Chao has been prominent in recent years in lobbying the city’s government on labour disputes occurring between casino employees and the city’s casino operators.

Singapore Police has arrested 36 people as part of an islandwide operation against illegal gambling and unlicensed moneylending.

They are suspected of providing unlawful remote gambling services, operating and gaming in a common gaming house and operating an unlicensed moneylending syndicate, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said.

Officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, Police Intelligence Department, and Special Operations Command participated in simultaneous raids at multiple locations islandwide on Tuesday, SPF said.

These locations included Potong Pasir, Serangoon, Toa Payoh, Tampines, Bishan, Hougang, Pasir Ris, Punggol, Woodlands, Telok Blangah, Tanjong Pagar and Bukit Batok.

Cash amounting to more than S$770,000, gambling-related documents and electronic devices, including computers, mobile phones and pre-paid cards were seized, police said.

The police also froze the suspects’ bank accounts.

“The police will continue to take tough enforcement action and clamp down on criminal activities, including remote gambling and loansharking,” police said.

“Those found engaging in illicit activities will be dealt with sternly in accordance with the law.”

SJM Holdings has changed the name of its subsidiary Sociedade de Jogos de Macau as SJM Resorts to better reflect its position in the market.

“The new name better reflects our prominent position in the tourism and leisure business and our dedication to the development and operation of integrated resorts in Macau, further underscoring our continued support to Macau’s role as a world centre of tourism and leisure,” Chair Daisy Ho said.

As per the recent announcement by PMO India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking about the global toy market and video games, has stated that India needs to contribute more by designing and producing in the country.

“Most of the online or digital games available in the market today are not Indian in concept,” said PM Modi. According to PM Modi, these games aren’t Indian in concept, and many of these games” either promote violence or cause mental stress.”

Link – https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/1407950319296729094

In regards to the announcement, please find below thoughts from the Esports Federation of India, we request you to add this in your story if you are planning any around it.

1. Mr Lokesh Suji, Director, Esports Federation of India& Vice President of the Asian Esports Federation (AESF):

“I am glad that our honourable Prime Minister highlighted the potential that the digital/virtual gaming (video gaming industry, this should not be confused with Fantasy, Teen Patti, Rummy, poker, betting, gambling or real money apps) industry has in India. While encouraging, he also indicated developing more video gaming concepts that blend with the Indian essence & ethos, which I believe would be a unique way to promote Indian esports video game titles and presents us with a massive opportunity to build such esports titles which can compete with the International esports titles, if done correctly, we should have Indian esports titles played across the globe. We already have some very good homegrown esports titles like World Cricket Championship, HitWicket.

Esports is already democratized and it’s time we have an esports game title in that list of games, what better time when the Prime Minister of our country fully supports the cause. This sentiment of our Hon’ble Prime Minster can be furthered by recognizing “esports as a sport” by the Sports Ministry (at the earliest) just like the rest of the world.

We want our esports athletes to be competing at Asian Games, Olympics etc. on esports game titles made in India.“

NagaCorp, a casino operator in Cambodia, has axed 600 employees, citing Covid-induced restrictions imposed on casinos in the country. The workers have been receiving lay-off notices since last week.

The company made a profit of $102.3m in 2020, its financial results reveal. The fact that profit-making company is going for a staff reduction has raised eyebrows.

Ben Lee, managing partner of iGamix, asked:

“They have just announced the dividend payout. For a company that’s making so much money, why would they need to let go of their staff?”

The company announced the layoffs in April and immediately laid off 1329 workers at the Phnom Penh casino.

The second round of job cuts has raised doubts about company’s real motive, with some employees hinting about an attempt to weaken the staff union.

Chhun Sokha, Vice President of the NagaWorld Union, commented that about 500 of the laid-off workers were members of her union and the move is discriminatory.

She minced no words in her criticism of the company:

“We are happy for the generosity of the company that is providing the Government with subsidies to help the Cambodian people during the Covid-19 crisis. This gesture is just a fake, a hoax picture because the actions that the company has taken regarding the employees – mostly women, including, pregnant women and women who have given birth – also got the company’s layoff notification.”

In a move that will boost the resistance against Yokohama IR project, Yukio Fujiki, chairman of the Yokohama Harbor Resort Association, formed an organisation called Yokohama Future Concept Conference.

The main objective of the organisation is to supporting a candidate who takes an anti-casino stance in the mayoral election in Yokohoma. The election is scheduled to be held on 22 August.

In the inaugural conference, Fujiki lashed out against Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for supporting the IR project in the city and declared that the city did not require to depend on casinos.

Evoking popular sentiments, Fujiki thundered in the conference: “Yamashita Wharf is a ‘diamond’ of the earth. It is a place that will tell the fortune of what Yokohama and Japan will do for the future.”

The IR project still has strong support from organisations such as Yokohama Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

It must be noted that four big gambling companies are reportedly vying to get entry into the Yokohama’s proposed IR scene: Genting Singapore, Melco Resorts, Sega Sammy Holdings and Shotoku.