acau, China, 20 Sept - Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam Pak Yuen said Monday that any gaming operators filing new applications for a casino licence would still be subjected to a cap on the city’s total number of gaming tables which is set to a maximum of three percent growth each year, The Macau Post Daily reports today.
 
Tam made the comment on the sidelines of a trade promotion event between provinces and regions under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). 
 
“Based on the direction of the government’s policies, the number of gaming tables in Macau will grow at a maximum rate of three percent annually in the decade after 2013, because the current agreements between the government and the [six] gaming operators will expire between 2020 and 2022,” Tam said.
 
The government set the cap on the number of gaming tables at 5,500 until 2013 after the number had increased four to five percent on average since 2007.
 
At the end of June, the number of gaming tables stood at 5,237. At the end of 2007, the number amounted to 4,375. There is no official cap on the number of slot machines, which stood at 15,098 at the end of June. At the end of 2007, there were 13,267 slot machines.
 
 “Any gaming operator that wishes to open a casino at any new resort must file a separate application to the government to obtain a licence to operate the casino,” Tam said, without going into further details as to whether Wynn Macau or Macau Studio City had applied for additional casino operating licences.(MacauNews/Gaming)

(Source:http://www.macaunews.com.mo/content/view/1467/13/lang,english/)