MACAU, CHINA - MACAU'S citizens have largely welcomed a government decision to rein in the breakneck growth of its casinos, but analysts said it will be some time before the aggressive expansion of the gaming sector is slowed.

Since the former Portuguese enclave liberalised its gaming sector in 2002, a blitz of new Las Vegas-style casinos have made Macau the world's top gambling hub by revenue and transformed the economic and social fabric of the once sleepy Portuguese colony.

But the casino glut has also festered deep public discontent, with citizens hailing the government's decision this week to halt grants of land for new casinos in the tiny enclave, and to freeze the number of gaming tables and licenses.

'This society has no balance any more and the casinos are getting more and more powerful. It just isn't sustainable,' said Daniel Fong, an 18-year-old student at the University of Macau.

'Most youngsters don't agree with this single pillar model of development,' he added as several of his classmates nodded.

Others spoke of a shift from the initial euphoria of the gold rush to concerns of growing social ills including organised crime, money laundering, corruption and a yawning wealth gap exacerbated by food and property price inflation.

'The casinos have brought more customers,' said 53-year old Chan Sang, a teller at the Cheong Chon Koc Chinese Pharmacy near Largo do Senado, the enclave's historic Portuguese centre lined with neo-classical buildings and cobblestone murals.

'But my salary hasn't gone up. I really just scrape by every month,' he said in his shop stacked with ginseng and shark's fin.

Macau's two dozen or so casinos run by six operators including Las Vegas gaming giants such as Wynn Resorts, MGM and the Las Vegas Sands which built the Venetian Macau - now contribute up to 57 per cent of the city's GDP - which has more than tripled since 1999 when Macau reverted to Chinese rule.

The curbs, by shutting out aspiring rivals will help current operators, whose share prices have soared. But analysts said the fierce competition and casino glut fuelled by wafter-thin margins eaten away by powerful junket operators would likely continue.

'In the next two to three years, there are new projects coming on line and new investment, so in the short term there won't be any significant impact,' said Davis Fong, the director Macau University's Institute for the study of Commercial Gaming.

Nor, Mr Fong said, would Macau likely find a more sustainable growth model like Las Vegas anytime soon, by beefing up other sectors like exhibitions, retail, hotels and big-name shows.

Flood of Chinese
Meanwhile, in the territory's gaming halls, a flood of Chinese who make up around 70 per cent of the enclave's gamblers, were keeping the dice and Macau's lifeblood rolling.

'When you get to Macau, money no longer seems like money, there are just too many rich people here,' said newly minted Beijing millionaire Chang Languo, who said he'd frittered away two million yuan (S$337,500) in a 7-day spree.

Yet for some, such gaming fruits weren't being redistributed enough by a government seen to be in bed with casino barons.

'What the government needs to do is solve long term livelihood problems like education, health and the elderly,' said Ng Wai Chung a 39-year old driver. -- REUTERS