Macau’s casino industry has continued to decline in 2015 and the top six casinos in Macau have reportedly lost around 40% of their gaming revenue during the first half of 2015. The decline in Macau’s casinos is expected to continue into 2016 and as a result casinos are forced to adopt strict policies that would reduce their overhead costs.

A number of casinos have already taken steps to curtail their hiring plans and have also laid off a number of staff. The Forefront of Macau Gaming (FMG) which is a local gaming labour union is monitoring the layoffs and has recently stated that Jimei International Entertainment Group Ltd, a junket operator had already sacked twenty VIP gaming employees and has plans to terminate another group of employees before the end of August.

FMG stated that a couple of casinos workers who were sacked contacted them and asked them to intervene as they would like their jobs back. There are rumours that Jimei International Entertainment Group Ltd terminated a set of employees due to poor performance but there are concerns over the validity of such a claim, as a number of these workers have just returned from a business trip.

In a statement, Ieong Man Teng, the president of FMG said “The laid-off workers can be divided into two groups – those reasonably dismissed and those unreasonably dismissed. For workers who were fired by the operator without a proper reason, they have actually been compensated by their boss based on the labour law. We now need to see how we can complain to the Labour Affairs Bureau or if there is anything else we can do.”

FMG are aware that another batch of employees will be sacked before the end of August but are not certain which department will be targeted and how many people will be sacked.

Kwok Chi Chung who is an independent non-executive director in Jimei stated that due to the declining casino market in Macau, junket operators had no other option but to cut costs by reducing the number of employees. Kwok stated that it was tough for organizations to terminate their staff but considering the fact that profits were slim, casino establishments really had no other option. Kwok was unable to confirm if Jimei was going to fire anymore people in August and said there was no official decision made yet.