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Working
in casinos, good or bad? Yu Qiuyu, a famous Chinese prose writer, said that there is no need to worry about the Macau teenagers who are working in casinos. Yu indicated that the gambling industry is a perpetual game for human beings, and it is also a kind of culture, Macau people need to develop the background and history behind gambling. It is something like many people who want to be soldiers if there is a war. It is a trend; we need not to be over anxious. The release of three gambling licenses has marked the new plan of the Macau Government's economic development in which the tourism and gaming industries are the leading sector, and the service industry the mainstay of the economy so as to sustain a coordinated development of all other industries in Macau. Following this new direction, the Macau Tourism and Casino Centre (CCC), jointly managed by the Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI) and Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), set up a course entitled, "Introduction to Casino Games and Dealer Training", in support of the government's social and economic development strategies. The building of more casinos provides a lot of positions for people. The educational requirement for casino jobs is not high. People who have a senior high school level can get a job in casinos. Recently, as more job vacancies became available, a lot of people who only have a junior high school level can also be hired. This situation attracts many teenagers to work in the gaming industry because of the low entry requirement on education and relatively high salaries. Meanwhile, some students reflect that it is not easy to find a job which pays above MOP10, 000 a month even for university graduates. So they think that for that type of money, it is good for secondary school graduates to work in the casino. Because of the high salary, working in casinos becomes a popular job in Macau, people like to work in casinos and they are even proud of themselves. Andrew Lo, a dealer in a casino, thinks that he has the ability to support his parents with the current job. "I earn money, I'm proud of myself," he said. A cashier in a casino for almost 10 years, Raymond Sum, also said, "The gambling industry is booming, I'm proud of myself; I've earned much more money than others." High salary is one of the attractive elements for people to work in casinos; however, people do not recognize the negative aspects of working there. The working environment and management system frustrated many employees. Kenny Chan and Jimmy Lau, both are dealers in a casino, said that many people are smoking in the casino. "I don't like this environment, it is smoky all the time," said Lau. Beside that, Erica Kwok, a dealer inspector in the Sands casino, said that the most difficult thing is the shift system that working hours are frequently changed, "It's tiring if I need to work on a night shift," Kwok said. "The job makes me tired, when I go back home, I just fall asleep, I have no time to do my own things, I want to change my job," Kwok said. She also thinks that there is no future working in the casino, she wants to change her job and start her own business. In addition, the job opportunity in the gambling industry causes hundreds of high school students to have discontinued schooling and go to work. Wong Yui Kei, a mathematics teacher of the Keang Peng School, said that he worries about the future of students who do not go to university. The principal of Colégio Católico Estrela do Mar, Choi Zi Yu, thinks that teenagers in Macau have a limited understanding of the gambling industry. They only see the benefits, but they are shortsighted about their future. Mr. But Tze Yung, department head of the adult division in the Sao Joao de Brito, Escola agreed. He said that as the Macau government's economic policy is to expand the gambling industry, he expected that more students will discontinue their schooling and work in casinos. He said that if a student chooses to discontinue schooling and work in casinos, the chance for his/her promotion will be restricted by his/her educational background. One of the solutions is to persuade them to seek further education. But it will be very hard for them since they need to deal with their job and study at the same time. As new casinos are set up by foreign investors, the bosses of these new casinos are often foreigners who speak mostly English rather than Chinese. Thus it is difficult for the less educated staff to communicate with their superiors since their English is limited. A lack of English ability is also a problem in dealing with customers. "The most difficult thing is language, because the casino is an international business which attracts people from many countries, such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and Australia etc. They all have their own accents. It's difficult to communicate with them," said Curise Tai in the Galaxy Waldo casino. As the result, low education becomes a serious problem for the labor force, one of the social workers, Patrick Ho, thinks that if the education requirement for casino workers is continuously being lowered; it would create an army of lowly educated workers. Once they become unemployed, it would make it more difficult to train them again for the labor market, so young people should not just focus on the high salary of the gambling industry. Ho
suggests that the government should negotiate with casino companies
to increase the education requirement for working in casinos. Schools
should improve their education to guide students in a good value
system; teenagers should be farseeing about their future. |
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