The majority of Macao residents believe the liberalization of gaming industry will bring a bright future to the region, though the move will probably incur more public order problems, a survey shows.
Responding to a street survey conducted recently by groups of local youth, 45 percent of 698 pedestrians said the policy of "developing Macao with gaming industry as dragon head and service industry as a major pillar" set by the Special Administrative Region (SAR) government is "rational" or "very rational."
More than 60 percent of the respondents expressed "optimism" or "strong optimism" about Macao's future, as against less than 10 percent who were "not optimistic."
And 42 percent of these people said opening-up the gambling sector will help ease unemployment strains in Macao.
However, about half of the respondents said to build more casinos will disrupt public order and fuel the bad ways of gambling among the young people, urging the government to take measures against more social problems, such as beefing up education.
Earlier this year, the SAR government issued three casino licenses to break monopoly over the market by casino tycoon Stanley Ho for decades.
( August 16, 2002)
