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HONG KONG - Macau's chief executive has warned that gaming revenues in the casino haven may fall next year due to the global economic slowdown, the South China Morning Post reported Friday.
Edmund Ho told lawmakers the government believes income from sectors including gaming in Macau -- the only place in China where casino gambling is legal -- to slow in 2009.
"We can't be too optimistic about next year's economic development. A lot of unstable factors have emerged in the global markets," the Post quoted him as telling the Legislative Assembly.
"It will not be surprising if income from some sectors, such as the gaming industry, records negative growth next year, as it had grown at a high speed in the past," he said.
Macau has boomed in recent years, mainly on the back of Chinese visitors who have flooded into the city's gleaming casinos.
Gaming revenues in 2007 topped 10 billion dollars for the first time, well ahead of the Las Vegas Strip.But restrictions on visits by mainland Chinese and a moratorium on new casinos have begun to cool the spectacular growth.
On Thursday, Ho told the assembly that the government would strike a balance to ensure the construction industry was not hit too hard.
"We will not permit overheated development but we will not call a halt to investment either. Otherwise it will bring a large blow to the construction industry," he said. - AFP/vm
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