Bitcoin Forum

The Covid is still here and we are still in a pandemic, I have a topic where Macau is struggling to keep their casinos open despite the spike in their country

Macau's Casino Operation Continues Despite The Latest Outbreak  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5403417.msg60408950#msg60408950)

What do you think if these countries or cities that totally depends on their casino for their revenue to keep the economy floating launch their own online casinos, there are already online casinos based in Macau or a country where land casinos are government-owned but it's privately funded what I mean is government-owned.

Will they get enough support, will they get a huge slice of the market that is ruled by companies, they have the funds and they have the reputation because they are government who are more established and will be more compliant

There would be another better reason than the revenue the government are receiving from the casinos that they were not closed down, even if it is the tax that the government rely on and did not close down casino for some period of time, it is not just one casino that were left opened, there are many casinos in Macau

Why would government own a casino, all casinos that I have known are all owned by a single person or through partnership, no government would think of having a casino when the private ones and non government owned ones are a good source of income for the governments.

The government should only look for ways that their citizens will not get addicted to gambling, gambling is only fun and entertaining to people that are not addicted.

This is actually their advantage, the government has a lot of resources and they can be trusted by the players I think it would help their economy with this however I am just curious will they going to tax the players as well when they win? If yes, I really think they would create hell of a money since the gambling casinos are already earning and at the same time taxing the people who are winning and at the same time taxing other gambling sites licensed by them. I am just unsure what will happened to other business (owned by businessmen).

They should resolve in creating new source of revenue other than crippling their citizens with revenues gotten from this casinos. Because this could lead to high gambling addiction and misplaced priority since they are government owned they will want to legalize gambling not for the sake of their citizens interest but for the sake of generating more revenues and making their citizens depend on betting for survival

There's a possibility that they will have the monopoly of casino online business in their jurisdiction, one example is Macau they have a lot of online casinos based in their jurisdiction, and of course, they will have the whole revenues instead of relying on taxes coming from online casinos which is just a fraction of the casino revenues, but I doubt if they are going to get the trust of the gambling community because we all know governments don't want anonymity and they want to taxes people winnings within their jurisdiction, its a complicated thing, and we have to see one scenario where a government is fully run online casinos.

I think there's no such country that totally depends on casinos for their revenue.

Casino taxes should not be the biggest, otherwise, people living in such countries who are fans of gambling will struggle.
It's only good if it caters tourists and the citizens will have their job in a casino.

Of course, the government has external networks, markets, the web and so on, they have the power to do that.

Casinos that are owned by the government or protected by the government, of course the casino has full responsibility for betting participants financially, means: the more people who make bets/visitors, the greater the income, both from the casino or the government.

Talking about the potential, if the government is involved in the casino, maybe I can say it depends, the ability or quality that the casino has as a whole, I mean like this.
The government only guarantees that casinos operating in their area are safe, on condition that they comply with the country's rules, From the casino side, of course it must have good potential, especially visitors, be it ability or quality as well as security, comfort as much as possible, the matter of potential depends on the casino, even though the casino is protected by the government, if more complaints or violations do not guarantee the casino is potential even though it is government owned.

Surely they'll be able to receive enough support or maybe even more than what they expect them to. I mean, being one of the main countries that support and provide casinos, they surely have a connection to huge organizations and other entities to provide enough support on their transition to an online casino.

It's actually an advantage for them to go online and provide their network with enough support and provide the needs of their clients and gamblers.

I doubt theywill do that since they are the one regulating and giving it a license. They are earning a lot passively by just taking tax on casinos without the risk of losing money and thinking about the employee payroll. This will cause too a lot of contreversy since Government is design to serve people using the tax that they get and not by doing business and destroy the life of there citizen.

Although government sometimes have there ownl lottery but they used the proceeds kn charity works while lottery is not addicting compared to casino.

That will still depends on how they will market it to the masses. The government can and will provide what they can for it to be known and people will even be more positive that it is legal since the government is promoting them. They can venture on other industry if gambling isn't flourishing, they shouldn't let alone focus on one thing.

This is good because they can control the taxes that will came in to the government treasury for this actions if their citizens will support their planned actions towards creating their own regulated casino.

But the problem is could they able to take the heavy damage it will give to their citizens?  Because we know how bad gambling is especially to those addicted ones and addiction might go rampant if they didn't execute well their actions unto this.

I doubt they will receive the same support as a privately owned casino has or gets. Then, the abuse of power is also possible which will make gamblers hesitate to go. Imagine going to a casino with eyes that will always watch you, will dig deep about how you got the amount of money to gamble, and use that as means to add more tax. Scary.
They will say if you have nothing to hide then you should not be afraid, we all have something to hide.  :D
No, I don't think it will be a success.

Surely it could be a good thing for the government if they launch also his casino online. They could gain a share of online gambling and earn a lot more comparing to today. It is absolutely a great idea. Anyway, they could

also act as other countries like Italy, where bookmaker needs to have an AAMS license in way to operate (online and offline), and for every bet they will pay a tax to government. This is the most succesfull way to work from

the government part  ;D

That's possible a private company thrives on the support of its customers, compared to a government that will try to sneak into their customer's gambling activity, and will implement laws that they created to check the individual's activity, private gambling company only Terms of service are those on protecting their casino and to some extend their players, while a government are on laws they created to monitor and tax people, so there will be a conflict here, but this is a good discussion to explore.

If a casino is government owned then there is no way that they are going to respect your privacy, which also means that you might have to understand the fact that all your winnings might be taxed and accounted for, it's essentially amazing for people who don't mind that but got people who might need a bit more privacy you certainly do need to look for other options as well.
If privacy is not your concern you will find many options out there and some of these games will have reasonable price as well, there are already a lot of government owned schemes for ' lottery ' and stuff, if I do remember there are things which makes you win ' residency ' as well or a ' citizenship ', these work fine doesn't it.

The first thing that came up to me after reading is how to generate more customers even if they know it's a government owned casino or gambling site.
It's interesting when you consider how less people do believe in their government now. What might happen is, it will raise questions from their countrymen on where the profits will go and other stuff. Worse case that I could see is corruption not just in profits but also in knowledge about every individual visiting their establishment.
But this type could work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-State_Lottery_Association#:~:text=The%20Multi%2DState%20Lottery%20Association,lottery%20games%2C%20most%20notably%20Powerball.

Anything government owned most times to an extent lacks proper management when compared to facilities managed by private individuals. For private individuals, they ensure that the customer experience is top notch so may go an extra mile to satisfy user experience while generating income. But if government owned, their primary objective will be to generate income and may not necessarily care much about user experience, customer reports may not be quickly attended to because there is no public face to save, hence government owned casinos may not be able to attract enough customers and this may result in reduced revenue or fluctuating revenue.

 To ensure that the amount they receive from these casinos are fixed, it is best to play the regulatory role and collect fixed sums as revenue, rather than dabbling in the business itself.

Not a good idea. Government-backed casinos, probably has a chance. But government-owned? It will just be plagued with corruption from officials that don't have anything better to do other than rape the public coffers. Also, probably not a lot of people will even bother playing in this casino. Lots of regulations and probably stricter KYC will be imposed on these platforms, and a lot of people will certainly don't see it as something that is positive for a crypto gambling platform that they want to be a part of even if it is owned by the government.

Government will not probably do that for some reasons like it will not generate as much as they invest in ROI as they get taxes from the private casinos already. Government is suppose to be a watch dog for the casinos in business and make rules for them and their customers. I understand that some countries legalize it but if government go into it, it means they are also going against Tos having known that it is not free of abuse therefore they would be encouraging addiction and bad habit if they are custodian of rules and regulations for gambling. The role of government in private businesses is that of control and not participation.

Governments only wants to take money from businesses, they don't create casinos since it only serves certain group of people. What governments invest are infrastructures that everyone will benefit.  I doubt they'd be creating online casinos.

If they are, its probably meant to sieze launderers and tax evaders which the law enforcers are part of it.

A very strange idea in my opinion. What kind of perspective do you see if it turns out to be successful? The government will own the business while continuing to deal with laws, regulation, etc.? Maybe in the end it will turn out that the government will be the richest and strongest in the market? In my opinion, this will be a huge threat to democracy.

That will surely help the government to earn more money in taxes and also provide security of deposit to users.
I would use it just to have my money safe from stupid scams. But I think it will be really centralized.

Given that gambling is thriving in their country then there's definitely potential as it's one way to boost their funds and it depends on how well they'd compete with the other casinos since gamblers would prefer a better gambling experience.

I somewhat agree but even if the government doesn't own a casino there are still a lot of online casinos out there so their citizens can always find a way to gamble.

The government is missing out if they don't adopt online casinos.  The online casino had been taking a huge percentage of the land-based casino shares.  It will be a loss to the government if the infrastructure they build for casinos became vacant due to online casinos.   Besides, most of the world's entertainment is going to virtual space nowadays, so it won't harm if the government will adopt the technology.


I think it won't work that way.  For sure they will catch some launderers but that would be the launderers' fault for exposing themselves.

If the government will create their own online casino, it will just open another door for corruption. We all know that there are lots of corrupt politicians and they will only take advantage of this kind of opportunity. Online casinos could actually save a shrinking economy through their taxes but if the government will intervene, I guess it will be hard to trust it.

I think there is no country in the world that completely depends on casinos for their revenue. I mean, there are some countries who also have gambling industry, but it does not affect their economy that much. It's only good if it caters to tourists and the citizens will have their job in a casino. And If the government launches a casino online, surely it could be a good thing for them. They could gain a share of online gambling and earn more comparing to today. It is absolutely a great idea.

For me, it depends on the country that owns the casino, if its a country like mine or my own country, I wouldn't dare deposit my money on such casino or even play there, Not all government can be trusted, though they are supposed to be our saviors, but the truth remains that most government of different countries of the world have failed its citizens, like my country for example, government of my country has failed us mostly especially the youths , if government of my country launch an online casino today, we the citizens know its just an avenue for them to steal/loot more money from us, so I highly doubt anybody would play on such casino except those who don't know the kind of government they have.

Government is only after regulations and revenue generation, if the government decided to own casino houses that may produce some confidence in the players and reputation may be high, but then the management may be poor if stringing rules and regulations are not in place to guide the operation of the casino. Covid-19 has made online casinos the next best option and the government will also want to take advantage of that too but then the well-being of their citizens should also be considered, in other to avoid getting a population of gambling addicts a mechanism should be put in place to check the gambling behavior of the citizens since the casino will be legal across the country.

On a country that depends so much on the casinos income, the government should really think for a better solution but I don’t think creating their own online site is a good idea, its actually better to encourage those casinos to innovate so they can still make money. Private companies can do this so there’s no need for the government owned site, online casinos are growing most probably its already available on most of the countries where gambling is legal.

I would be surprised if there weren't any government owned casinos at all currently.  I think this would create a mixed bag.  One big leg up is that the Casinos would likely make many feel a lot more comfortable in the trust side of things.  Not only would it make people feel more safe, many would also likely feel safe in regards to gambling in a fully legal aspect, where there's no questions about whether you're gambling legally.  I see both Pros and Cons, for me personally, I wouldn't want to use them.

Macau being a small country with a limited population less tha a million finds it hard to generate revenue. This is the reason why it always depends on revenue out of the Casinos. The country have turned themselves popular for gambling and gained the appreciation as Las Vegas of Asia. Just because people are getting into the country to experience casinos, there is little revenue. If the same is developed online surely the country will loss revenue. Another thing, it is time to think of an alternate to generate revenue amidst the pandemic.

Ultimately, this is of course a good revenue model for the government. They prescribe everything that people should not get into trouble because of gambling, but in the meantime they are allowed to advertise gambling sites on all kinds of different channels. That is of course very contradictory. Ultimately, the government only thinks about converting money, whether it's gambling or computer science, it doesn't matter.

But you see, Macau is different as they get their revenue for the casino itself, 80% of it. So they are really depended on it that they are not willing to shut it down because of new cases of the virus.

As for the potential? why not? if the government can maximized the profits they are getting from the casinos and then used that money to other ways that can help their population, they would take that risk.

Those are just showing pretending that they do have concern into their citizens or just making themselves to look that they do really care but they don't actually minding about those stuffs yet they would be prioritizing revenue than on their citizens condition but we'll there are some government which do actually care honestly but only few in numbers.You could really commonly see those ads which I do say in my mind "meh"..  8)
Very contradicting but deep inside they are really just minding on how to make more money and since they are running off a casino business then it would really be that normal to have those kind of reminders or
warnings about addiction but in overall they dont really care because the more addicted gamblers then the more revenue that they could made which we know that it would really be that positive.

The work to regulate those casinos are way better than to have their own government owned online gambling, and its more profitable if the government slowly allow those casinos to back in operation especially now that it looks like there’s no pandemic anymore in most of the countries. People are slowly living with the virus, and later on Covid will be treated as an ordinary flu and that could be a good opportunity to those casinos to come back in operation. Government will do everything to collect taxes, but creating an online casino might not be the option for them.

I'm against it. The state should not be engaged in business. All public services are always worse than private ones and are always breeding grounds for corruption and theft of people's money. Do not forget that in theory what sounds like "the state will deal with it" in practice always turns into "an official deals with it."

I guess it's not so important who is running it, it's more about how they do it! In the end, the government is just one big company with a lot of employees... if you have the right people in the right places it's a win-win situation and the government/company will develop and make a profit over time! I believe we all know what's happening with governments/companies with incompetent people in leading places!?

Well, Macau, Las Vegas, and maybe a few other cities are unique! These cities decided to go their own way and they hit a jackpot! I think we can't compare these cities with the rest of the world!


It's like that in my country as well, public services are worse than private ones. But it's because I live in a fuckedup country with totally incompetent people in the leading places, and it's been like that for decades... so now we are where we are!

Honestly, I never found this in my country and probably will never  ;D
Btw, this decision may relate to the income of the country. We know that gambling may become one of the big income sources for certain countries, moroever if the casinos are legal there. Many people will play gambling very much, visit casinos after a long time no visit because of a pandemic. The opening for casinos will give a certain impact, especially to the economic or financial condition in the country. We know that Macau is one of the countries with big casino and gambling activities.

A city or state depending on casinos as main source of revenue are understandable but country doing that is totally wrong. Firstly such country won't be favorable to casino owners as there would be too much tax pressure on them which might cripple the casinos. Cities such as Las Vegas could rely totally on casinos as state revenue as they're many tourist attractions in the state to draw in visitors. Government owned businesses can't be compared to that of private sector as such it would be unprofitable for government to go into this sector.

There would be lots of politicing and that isn't conducive for businesses especially those that has alot to do with behavior (emotion) just as gambling is. Casinos should be left for the private business owner while the government rely on getting tax payment from them and utilized the tax money in investing in other sector that'll be productive to their citizens.

It will still depend on the likes of the citizens or their customers. There are gamblers that are okay with the adoption of new tech and styles of gambling. So from gambling physically, they're totally okay to gamble online and once they had fun and it's convenient, they'll continue to gamble online. But there are the gamblers that like to gamble only physically and they don't like to play online but once it's implemented, they'll be forced to try it out, and eventually, they'll get used to it whether they like it or not.

the more a government has government companies, the greater the government's expenditure on salaries and this is not a good thing, governments need to let private companies make companies and governments collect taxes, it makes no sense for any government to have a casino, what any government of common sense will make and simply let the private ones have casinos and the governments collect taxes, with that I want to add that this country could encourage companies to create online casinos and they collect taxes. if covid cases are increasing then government can tell land based casino owners in the country to create online casinos, that way physical casino owners keep customers and profits even when covid cases are high when they create online casino and the government collected tax

Just to inform you that in most countries, there's already a gambling-owned firm by the government. I'm referring to a lottery.

There's no need for a country to establish its own casinos as not all countries obviously don't have the same status as Macau. In Macau, it's no doubt that most of their revenue came from gambling as that's the well-performing industry there since then. They are not performing well in other types of industries. In other countries, there are lots of other performing industries that are now slowly recovering to the point that every revenue that will come from gambling is just considered a side revenue.

What the government must do is strictly regulate all gambling operators and take down those illegal ones. In that way, the tax from gambling will smoothly run and people will always play on those legit gambling operators only.

I doubt there are any country whose economy completely depends on the casinos/gambling. In fact, I think casino doesn't even affect much the economy of any country as a whole. Yeah, there may be "states" or "cities" that depends on casinos, but never a country as a whole.

I don't think it would matter to anyone if it is government owned or a privately owned casinos. People will play where they feel comfortable and has more provision and facilities.

If gambling belongs to the government, it doesn't mean that the government fully manages and the government only funds or allows and who works and manages the casinos not the government.
I think many governments own casinos or are involved because businesses and governments will be busy with their state affairs and have casinos only for state revenue because of taxes and tourism infrastructure created for out-of-state and international visitors.

I don't think casinos going online could help the current state of casinos in Macau, there'd already casinos that own that space or are dominant compared to other competitors. Not that it wouldn't bring positive though, just that the effects would be rather minimal.

As for government owned casino, well it isn't something impossible but I don't think it'd grow that much or potential. We already have a lot of casinos out there imo.

Casinos only share a part of the country's revenue from its taxes but it doesn't support the whole country. However, the money from huge gambling companies is too high and would impact the economy positively. Even physical casinos could save the economy, especially during times of crisis. Casinos are one of the biggest taxpayers.

As you know, governments always support businesses and organizations that belong to them. The state also has quite a lot of leverage over competitors who will eventually simply sell their businesses because they cannot compete with state institutions. It is difficult to do business when you constantly have some inspections, power outages and other problems that can be arranged by such a strong competitor.

Yep, same applied to some countries that taxed crypto gains, moreover their tax around 20-40% which is insane and would make the crypto enthusiast feel cheated. But you can't do anything since it's regulated by the government, more importantly you're already give your personal information to them, they will know the source from and who own it. If you do something suspicious like tax evasion, you might face a legal problem in the future.

I think governments encouraging online casinos is definitely good thing. As we all know (and even hate) they can tax the shit out of it and its very easy money - no gambler ever would care a lot. But I do not think it can be efficient. Private businesses always will take care of their property far better, and workers would be more efficient. I think minor government regulation is enough, governments should not own casinos.

And unlike a private entrepreneur, the state does not care about whether the business is unprofitable or not. Under such conditions, it may turn out that there will be several state players on the market on the verge of profitability and several private ones who will eventually be forced to leave the market, since zero (or negative) profitability does not suit anyone.

If the government has not been able to get income from other businesses and can only get it from the gambling business, I think they can still allow land-based casinos and online casinos to continue operating. This situation is an emergency that cannot be predicted what will happen in the future, so the government is forced to do it. I think it will be okay and run well, and the casino will be safe because the government directly controls it. But it's just an estimate and we don't know whether it will run smoothly or not, but the government should first communicate with all parties.

Good in terms on business side because they can get revenue out of it and this is somehow important since there are crisis happening and this is temporarily good option for them to get money from running healthy businesses.

But goverment need to take action towards addiction because if they didn't do anything about this most provably we can see more life will be destroyed because of this risky form of entertainment.

If these land-based casinos will shift to online casinos, they are not anymore the best ones. The online competition is far different from the competition among casino destinations in the world. The experience that they will offer online might just be the same with other online casinos. In fact, they are going to be the new players in this field. Even if they already have a vast casino experience, it is going to be another world for them if they go online. And I don't think their patrons would follow them there because many Macau casino players are probably there for the actual casino experience and physical ambiance.

They might be a new player in the field of online gaming services but they have experience in the gambling industry nevertheless.  Aside from that, if a land-based casino transitioned to or have a online casino counterpart then they already have patrons who are willing to spend their money on that site to play. 


I disagree.  These patrons had already proven the reputation of the casino, they might prefer the physical ambiance but there will be times when these players can't go to the land-based casino, so having an online site where they can access the casino is pretty convenient for them.  Besides you are assuming that the marketing team of that casino is incompetent, well I beg to differ.  They had the fund to hire professional marketers, so I don't think that promoting a casino to gather players will be an issue.

In Italy (Casino of Campione) this is not a concept so far from reality.
Some casinos are owned by the municipalities! It is a way to guarantee profits to the city and reduce taxes.
Of course for an entire Nation I believe it's something really different... but with the right "education and information" it can be a functional development mechanism.
I have some doubts:
is this the future?
It is correct continue to finance "live" casino and not "online" casino?
Would they be "promoted" at a public level?
Who would pay if they are no longer profitable business models?
What health / economic and social cost would such an action have?

Problems that could arise:

• High level competition
• Delay in payments to private investors could be cause of litigations
• Possibly dealing with gambling addiction
• Operational costs

^ Compare all of that effort to just collecting taxes monthly or yearly.

Besides, gamblers probably do not care if they are playing at a Government owned casino or at a privately owned but regulated casinos.

It's fine as long as the revenue really helps their country to keep flowing and they use it to help their people that suffer in pandemic, the only problem is there are some countries that doesn't care for their citizen. The one who benefits from their regulated casinos are the corrupt officials running the government.

There is a lottery here in our country that is owned by the government. Some of its revenue helps the people that needs financial assistance for their medical concerns.

I don't seem to see any thing wrong in government owning a business of it's own even if it's a casino. The government must have it's personal reasons as to why they decided to own and operate a casino of theirs even when there exist private owned casinos that do pay taxes still to them.

Maybe the taxes they receive from these private casinos ain't enough for them and they decided to get directly involved into the business.
It's just my own thoughts though!

Yes. In addition, the government likes to save money on security specialists. So the likelihood of your personal data ending up on the black market is greatly increased. I can also add that most likely the personal data of gamblers will be used by the state, which in my opinion is unacceptable. So I would never play in a state-owned casino and do not advise others to do so. 

I live in the same country, and maybe worse (Russia). Therefore, when I hear the word "state" I know that it will be crap, not only because I studied economics, but simply because I see these examples before my eyes all my life. Any action that increases the representation of the state in business or in anything else only worsens the situation.

It's actually a rather good idea, however it is fraught with difficulties. On the one hand it's bad because the government would become complicit in the misery that the extreme end of the gambling spectrum can bring people and if they regulate properly then there is no need for them to interfere in this side of the market. On the other hand it could offer more rounded protection to player (e.g. a proper self exclusion scheme) and potentially be a great money earner for the public pocket - if people are going to gamble then they might aswell top up the government coffers during the same time. However it would be extremely hard to police, considering how open the internet can be and it is likely to get mired in wasteful spending in the long run.

Wont really be that much different even if you do play on a non-owned state casino because everything which is regulated and asking out those common verification or kyc then those information would really be

always on the risk on leaking out or being sold into other places without you knowing thats why never ever make yourself that feel too safe for those information once you do sent out whether you are dealing

with a government related platform or even into those centralized platforms that you do know.You cant just give out 100% trust and confidence in them.

I don't know with other gamblers, but I really feel that there is a world of difference between a land-based casino and an online casino. Although I don't really stick 100% to either of them, whenever I am in a land-based casino, I cannot imagine the frequent gambler suddenly shifting to an online casino. The experience is far far different. More so to those rich gamblers who have the money to travel and really live the luxury offered in Macau resort casinos.

Even if that happens in some places, I don't think many governments will do it because it would be an unpopular measure.

In Spain, the casinos are not, but the lotteries were wholly owned by the state and about 10 years ago 30% of them were sold to obtain liquidity. So they are still owned (mostly) by the government.

So, as a potential, there is, and it would be a good way to make money for the states, and in some respects better for the player, but as I said before, it would be unpopular.

I can't imagine many people deciding to vote for a politician because he says he's going to create state runned casinos, and I can imagine people deciding not to vote for him because of it.

Most countries lotto games are being regulated by their government to make it legal because there's a lot of money fixed on it. Owned by a non-profit company or organization but primarily for the purpose of government benefit.
It's different when it comes to casinos as there are lot of games that they work on and most of it are short-time based game. It will receive a lot of questions from their neighborhood first as it could lead to addiction of their family and relatives and blames will be directly thrown to the government.

As you said they have the reputation and the funds, so yes they will surely get a huge slice of this market. In macau, gambling places are said to still be open but they can get fewer customers during the time of pandemic so their last resort would be to join the other companies that are already making their wealth in form of online gambling.

The goodness of this is that they can cater customers from other regions not unlike to a real life casino where the customers are only limited to that place. That is the reason why an online casino is much more profitable than a real life casino. Another reason that can support this is that people can gamble in longer hours, we already know why.

I also agree with your position, government-owned casinos are successful it's proven because they can monitor and regulate gamblers, but it's very different when you are tackling online casinos because you are dealing with gamblers of many nationalities, and an accusation against state-run online casinos will have an impact on the integrity of a country.
The environment and the rules are very much different, online casinos are suited to companies, not in the country.

The best example of this is the The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) in the Philippines.

Back in 2019, this gambling industry is responsible for bringing around $600 million worth of revenue in the country, which is also responsible for increasing at least 9% of the revenue of the whole country. This gambling company is owned by the government 100 percent and is also considered the largest contributor of revenue along with the other Bureaus in the country.

I'm not sure the government will be successful in handling casinos well because it's a business with big and fast cash flows

the government manages people's money so if public money is used to manage casinos, the risk of losing will be large because not all citizens will agree with that

a government that only receives taxes from gambling is a good system for maintaining government-run finances

That's a tricky question, usually I would say that politicians are bad entrepreneurs and should let professionals run the casinos. But we are in difficult times at the moment with covid pandemic and the slow down of economic growth. We need to look at it in more detail and see what advantages state run casinos offer and what disadvantages. First of all will state run casinos pay the same taxes as all the other casinos, or are there any tax benefits? It would be unfair for the old casinos because the government casinos can return more money to the gamblers. But if the casinos are just the same as the existing casinos will they bring anything new to the table? If not than I am not sure if there will be a lot of new gamblers come. Maybe instead of running their own casinos the government could financial support for the existing casinos in form of a silent partner. Like that the casinos don't go bankrupt and professionals keep running them.

Ideally, it would be better this way because governments are not really like those greedy profited-oriented companies. The government could use a very low house-edge and whatever revenue generated would also be used for the people.

But it sounds a little ironic that the entity primarily mandated to look after the welfare and well-being of its own people is also the one that's putting them at risk. It's the government that is expected to be at the forefront of the battle against gambling addiction and yet it is also the one operating online casinos. That doesn't sound right to me. Also, it's not a government's business to operate casinos.

That's much better because the government itself owns that 100% entirety of the casinos all over the country and its mandate was to be controlled and report to the Office of the President. That said $600 Million or ₱30 Billion was the revenue of the 1st trimester and not the whole year so imagine how would a country benefit for that whole year, unfortunately, I think that funds was already exhausted because Covid-19 wrecked havoc in the following year.

I accidentally read one of the newspapers and saw a title on the first page where Sri Langka showed the casino boss to serve as the investment minister. So I thought about the title of this topic where the government casinos  is there potential?

So do you think this is suitable for me to reveal in this topic.

So what should Sri Lanka do when the economic crisis really passes the 90% mark and do you believe where government-owned casinos will have great potential if the country is in a severe crisis. On the one hand, it is true that government owned casinos allow players to trust them and whether the appointment of a minister from his past history of being a casino boss is the right choice.

Any government can try their hands on handling their own casinos.
It is indeed correct that they have the reputation already as people will trust more because it is their government.
But the government needs to have proper guidance or advise to these gamblers as they may ruin their lives because of gambling.
But for sure, they can generate good income from gambling business, that may further help their government projects.
The choice of who will handle the business depends on the capability of the person, and the government itself should know the qualities of such person.

That is also happening in my country here where, not really casinos but big establishments are put in the name of a big businessmen but in reality, those are really owned by the head of our country. While the rest of the stores have been ordered to close temporarily while there is pandemic, but these big stores are left open. The government will always take advantage and manipulate the market, simply because they have the power and the huge funds. Even if the intention is very selfish, i guess no one is brave enough to complain about it.

Definitely, since the title does not limit the discussion to Macau only, I think it was just an example.  So sharing that news here help to enrich the discussion.


You could have share the link of the article here so that we can have reference to dig in additional information about the news.


I believe Sri Lanka is in a dire situation or the Casino Boss had supported the current leader of Sri Lanka of its candidacy and now the Sri Lankan leader is appointing him because he is indebted to the Casino boss.  Whether it is the right choice or not, only the performance of the newly appointed Investment minister will answer it.

Not that totally exhausted because lots of gambling firms under the regulation of PAGCOR were also hyped during the pandemic and one of the popular ones is the e-sabong. Because of the hyped on these games, the government was able to sustain the revenues coming from gambling.

As per the report, E-sabong gives the government Php 642 million a month. Imagine, it's a billion figures in just a year, and take note, physical casinos are not even operating and this revenue is just for e-sabong alone. What's more, if it includes other gambling?

That gives way for the government to continue providing funding for hospitals and medicine-related stuff aside from the usual spending on infrastructure for example. That's how well the gambling industry here in PH that's why taking down illegal ones are a priority.

Regardless of the profession, what if that Casino boss knows fully how to handle the position as an investment minister.

I think we should disregard being the Casino boss here as to what if this guy has the skills.

However, Sri Lanka is now on the verge of being a failing country. They need to unite to be as one as even how knowledgeable those officials, it needs wide support from the whole people of that country.

Macau is China and everything and everyone in China is owned by the government, that is the nature of their command economy.   They have strayed surprisingly far into capitalist ideas, freedom even but ultimately its barrel of a gun stuff imo I would consider the operations to be already operated indirectly by government.

Sri Lanka like everywhere needs the ability to provide for itself when tested, they have imported too much it sounds like.  Gambling there would be related to tourism, that sector has not been reliable in recent years.  The greater problems they have are more directly food production, I read they now allow all government employees to stay 1 working day in the fields to produce food instead of handle paperwork etc.   

It will get a much better support.  If it is under the control of the government of that country. Gamblers from other countries, including the people of that country, will be interested in investing there and will gain confidence. The government will also get a lot of revenue from there. It will boost the economy of that country.

I even see the potential for huge losses that will be experienced by the country if the government manages gambling. the government does not have a solid foundation or experience in managing the gambling business, when there is fraud then they will automatically be confused to solve it. until now gambling is managed by the private sector while the government only receives taxes from gambling every month and it makes a balance in this business.

In my opinion, Govt do tax them and regulate them to keep the casinos in check. I don't think a govt. specifically needs to start casinos. Instead, they could simply certify casinos while taking part of the profits that the casino is govt. recognized. Save themselves the trouble of admin and maintenance of the casinos, which is a tedious task. 

I think you are right, it is not recommended at all to have a government owned casino, for me it will not give them a good image, they only knew how to apply taxes on casinos but in terms of other things I really don't know if they have a good plan for that. It will not also good for a government to have another competitors in this field.

Macau is one of the largest gambling centers in Asia, regarding this thread the pros and cons will always color this discussion, apart from that members have expressed their respective opinions. 
I'm not an expert but I think that policy is the prerogative of the government and regarding this I will add another matter concerning Macau,
Let me add that at this time Macau issued 4 new regulations for every visitor /tourist to be able to enter the casino or go around the casino. 
These four conditions must be met
1. Show ID CARD
2. Use a mask
3. Check body temperature
4. Doctor's letter (must have a local doctor's certificate free of covid.

maybe this addition can be a reference for those who want to visit

Maybe so but if gambling is legal in their country, the government might try to run the casino under their control. In addition, by running a casino under the supervision of the government, people will feel safe and calm playing gambling there because the casino will not have bad intentions towards its members. But it will all come back to the government itself. But it's possible, there are some government people who will try to set up their casino because they want to get a source of income that they can get after they retire.

Just imagine the following scenario:

The government of country Z has 30 casinos throughout the country, all 30 casinos are owned by the government, in each casino there are 20 employees, that means that the government has to pay salaries to 600 employees, the government will have to give reforms to 600 employees when those employees retire. And also when every high-ranking official of the political party that governs the country wants to play without spending money and put it in the government account he can do it whenever he wants, who will stop him?

Now if the 30 casinos are in the hands of the people and not the government, it will be 600 fewer people that the government will have to spend on salaries and pensions and there will be no corruption from some high-ranking official of the political party that governs the country to play for free

That's the government's expenditure but consider the huge profit if the casinos they operated are raking huge revenues they get all the profit, not just taxes so if one casino is making $1 million dollars a night that's 30 million for all the casinos and even if the expenditure is 30% he still get huge revenue, and this is only the casinos not to mention the industry that relies on casinos, if the government has control on those industries then the government can rely on all their needs to the casino industry.

No country government will be in support of gambling so saying that the government will manage gambling I think it's a wrong idea in all form because government agitate for gambling that is why gambling is not officially legalized in some certain City and people who play it play it in a hidden way so government can never manage gambling because it is prohibited.

As we know that , there are many countries that already getting a good revenue from casinos. But this was another step , In my looks I think they will definitely getting a good support and As a result of owning the government, people's trust in them will increase and domestic and foreign investors will be attracted to invest there. So yes , I think obviously they will get a big slice of market.

As far as I know, currently there are 3 countries in the world that fully legalize gambling in their country without city limits, namely Hong Kong, Spain and Italy cmiiw. but on average the gambling business there is managed by the private sector (because maybe the government in that country is aware that it is not easy to manage it). Gambling is not an easy business, even the government may not be able to manage it if given the opportunity.

Management problem? I dont see that this is a main reason on why there are government who doesnt really tend to make out their own casinos but rather letting those private business owners would do the thing.
For sure there are some reasons about possible impressions towards the society and they are really just tending to avoid such issue that they are letting gambling for the benefit of the whole country?
thats if those taxes and revenues would really be applied on the right way and not to be corrupted then i dont see a problem but if it does happen the other way around then for sure
they would really be taking all the blame and they dont really like that but those are just my presumptions.We dont actually know on whats the reason on why they arent tending to
make their own on their respective vicinity if they are really aiming for supporting economic development.?

In a countries where gambling is very active this can be a good one but in our case, since we are a developing country or a third world country, owning a casino will take a lot of money and a huge responsibility which I think our government itself can’t handle it so its better to rely on private companies than to create on. I think this idea will only matter if you are in a good country.

Another thing, the government itself can be wrecked with the term gambling. It is not fair for a government to run gambling business. This is my personal view on any government owning the gambling services. The responsibility of the government is to fulfill the basic needs of the people. When it comes to gambling, it can ruin one's life as well as can enrich someone's life. So, government can't and should not get into such an act.

That is a sound argument but if you look at the calculation assuming that tax is around 20%, it means the government will be losing 80% of the generated income from the casino.  Corruption sprouts anywhere, so we aren't sure that the casino will be declaring the right income.  Thus other losses by the government.  Expenses on these 600 employees are just dust compared to the possible income of the government if they own the casino.  I don't think it is worth giving away the ownership of the casino just to avoid paying the salaries and benefits of these 600 employees.

I think you watch movies too much.

In that scenario, the total spending of the government is just a piece of candy for a country that has a healthy industry in gambling. And besides, there's a certain tier where employees will be qualified for retirement benefits. We are not talking about just 10 years of service and I doubt most employees there will remain working for casinos for most of their lifetime.

In the 2nd scenario, what do you mean by if casinos are in the hands of the people? Are there casinos that are run by it? Do you mean private? Then it's not that good for the government as they are just getting taxes here instead of the pure revenue.

What are you trying to point out on your given example? Can you elaborate?

Not totally losing the whole 80% as there are casinos that will operate even during the pandemic. Don't just look at the figures too as just by doing Math even 10% summed a good value. What's more for 20%, 30% and so on. We are referring to Macau here right where it mentioned on another thread that 80% of the country's revenue came from gambling.

Even if they will not reach the expected 80% of their revenue because of lockdown there, as long as gambling operations are continues, what matters here is, that the money is still flowing to them on their revenue. Soon, all operations will be back to normal and 80% will be achieved again.

I will not disagree what you say. Yes, it is true that casinos in developing countries or third world countries are very difficult to maintain officially.  In the countries where corruption is more, casinos are more for the worse than for the better .  Because there is black money directly.  For this reason, in many developing or Third World countries were casino, gambling is still banned. But if they start monitoring this site, I think they can get a good revenue from here too.

Yes, right! Sorry, I totally forgot about E-Sabong's existence in the midst of pandemic, that surely helped the government to sustain the economy and revenues despite almost all places that could produce revenues are closed at that moment. Php 642 Million a month? That's already 1.2 Billion pesos in just 2 months and I think E-Sabong has been around for 2 years+ if I'm not mistaken.

E-sabong is quite famous in Philippines but I didn't know that the revenues are reaching 642 million pesos a month! Just wow! E-sabong really helps the government in terms of income but there's a lot of issues and it's currently banned in Philippines right now. As far as I know they did try to re-operate by using cryptocurrency as mode of payment. I've heard that the operations are done underground according to my friend who is an agent in e-sabong before.  Imagine how much money did the operators got from the operation of e-sabong.

OP, If you ask me, then I'm bold enough to say that the government doesn't need to have its own casinos to make a profit. So far the government through tax laws has benefited a lot from gamblers and casino owners. The licenses they issue will yield far better profits than having to own their own casino.

As with any trading platform, the government just needs to regulate and license any platform to make a profit. So I believe that if the main goal is to make a profit, then the government doesn't need to own its own casino. I heard Singapore has a number of licensed land-based casinos, does the government have one of them? Apparently not.

Government have no business in business rather it's role is to make favorable policies and create a conducive environment for business to operate smoothly. In my country the government is not a good businessman. Most of government business has collapse due to corruption, tribalism and inefficiency. Hence, if government establishes online casinos it is bound to fail except they privatize them. If the insist to run them, these casinos would be marred by corruption and low services. I don't think I would encourage anyone to play games in any government online casino.        

You cant really be sure that they arent owning some business which is operating on a certain country yet we know that they are really good on masking out theirselves and pretending that they are just simply running or

letting off businesses which we cant be even sure off if they do own one of those businesses that running around.You cant really able to determine on having  that but if they do tend to make out some announcement or

letting the community know that they are making such operation then i dont see anything wrong with that as long the services is good and could really be beneficial in terms of economic aspect.
Doesnt really matter if a casino is been run by the government or run by a private individual because revenue would be always taxed, there might be difference in % but wont really be that much.

This happens not only in your country, but absolutely in any other, even the most civilized one. Such is human nature - if you dispose of something, then one way or another you will dispose of it in your favor and no things, even like the death penalty (look at the example of China), will change anything. The only chance to avoid corruption is to remove its possibility - that is, an official should not conduct business at all, this is the business of private individuals.

As long as they have the fund, and ruled by the companies they can stand for sure even they are facing pandemic period of time, and besides Macau is not the only country facing this circumstances.

Besides, there are some people who are jobless and don't have anything, so their small capital probably will be use for hoping to win in the gambling casinos, therefore, if these people are many Macau could possibly survive anyhow..

That is definitely true, a government shouldn't have a business where they need to put a certain person to officiate that same business because that's where the corruption usually starts especially if that includes generation of huge loads of money as that certain official will just make things in his/her favor. The only safe thing to do is just get the said revenues from these businesses and just let the private group to man this operations.

I don't like anything centralized and I wouldn't support a government casino. That's one point a libertarian could make.

The other is that we are all free to do what we want in business and that should include the government as long as it plays by the rules and doesn't take over other people's businesses or give itself a license and nobody else to eliminate the competition.

You should expect this to happen sooner or later because governments have too much power and they like to abuse it. After all they're just people.

You don't like anything centralized yet you will implement it once you have your family.  ;D  Anyway, it is your right whether to support or not your country's means of income.  As for me I don't mind the government controlling the gambling activity in my country.  If a Casino can fund several projects of government then I don't mind the government owning them (Casino).  Besides letting private companies monopolize a country's gaming industry will make the government earn less.  From 100% income if the government own the casino down to 15%-30% tax if a private company own them.  Let alone these private company also knows how to cheat the Government of its taxes.

Big money is going there and sure a lot of corruption really happens if it's related to the government. They can have it audited but they'll do some tricks for the records just for that money to go afloat and be owned by someone else. Not in a way that a gambler will win but it's like where they'll spend that for budgeting but the real thing won't exist or barely exist. I think most countries have a say on this and only a few will be in favor of it.

We cant eventually tell if its a government-owned casinos or not because informations something like this doesnt surfaced out even just by simply asking on whose owning this casino then for sure you wont really be getting any accurate answers thats why pointing it out on whose the owner is something that cant be known but i dont see something wrong if it owned by the government but as long its revenue or taxes is really
applied truly on where it should be applied then i dont think that there would be issues but the main question is, would they fully make use of government funds to build that casino or they would really
be making use of their personal and make some cooperative and sharing up revenues? this is where next questions needed to be answered.

The one positive to government owning gambling operations is it would help to subsidize fiscal budget and alleviate tax revenue requirements.   However theres much need for direct government involvement, even China allows 3rd parties to operate various establishments via a licensing arrangement.   Basically alot of modern business is operated like a Royal charter from a thousand years ago, people complain about capitalization but we dont essentially have that economy of business in operation most of the time. 

I don't really think a good government will gonna permit such a thing to happen even though they struggling with their economy because it brings more harm than cure when you look at how will it end up. Of course, from the start they can feel the good thing about it, money is easy and the bad side comes after when the players don't have any more money to play. Looks like this is the main reason why we don't see such government exist today they fear what might about to happen in the future.

When government gets into this act, automatically people loss their trust. This will happen over the gambling platform as well as over the process. Right now people believe the fair operation of the Casinos, later if someone close to the government wins a jackpot the same will turn to be controversy. So, governments have more other industries to concentrate and build the revenue than just focusing on the gambling industry.

There were more small countries same as Macau, and are good with their economic status. They have got different plans and not accumulated over one specific industry.

Maybe, as long as the government knows it can benefit they will always take advantage of the opportunity. Then it can really help gamblers especially during this time of pandemic as well, that even if the players are only at home they can still gamble through online casinos.
And that's the advantages of being a government owned for the casinos. It is an another assets of course just simple as that.

Perhaps, the majority of the country all over the places now had their owned casinos online so far.
And even there are other casino online, I guess some of them are also regulated where under by the by the
government as well.

Owning a casino is very profitable especially if it's the government because they control the regulations, but the real question is, does it really benefit the people? If it's an obvious yes, then why not all country have their government owned casino?

If the government really wants to build casinos in its name, they need to put officials who are completely free of corruption so that unwanted problems don't arise. In addition, the regulations that exist on these officers must be strict to avoid acts of corruption because that is the place where a lot of money will flow. I am sure that the government will be able to select officers free from corruption and other problems. If many members play in that place, the government can also monitor anyone who uses big money there and can request verification for their account.

Yes, as you said and if the state takes over gambling, with the argument that it is managed by a state institution, it is undeniable that the actor behind it is an official who controls it for personal or group interests. 
but I agree if in my country to make a certain area a gambling arena intended for the purpose of sponsoring sports funds this has happened in my country before the gambling law became illegal.

wrong mate , because gamblers will still gamble no matter who runs the site , either private casinos or government owned and runs casino> those gambler will still find money and time to gamble so why not the government get that advantage?

addiction in gambling is exploring over the world , and as long as government is allowing gambling in their region ? addiction will continues , if you dont wanna deal with addiction then tell those countries to totally banned gambling so in that way maybe gamblers will be lessen.

We can't deny the fact that there are personalities who really pushing things to be more legal,

People behind who will benefit a lot hiding from some good deed that might be foreseen by the government, but
as long as the right process will be done, the benefits still consider being manageable by the government bodies who will
Facilitate the said gambling business. It's up to the judgement of high authority to accept or to legalize the actions.

Well, that's another thing that will be questioned. It's going to be a hard part of selecting for the specific positions and letting them do their job in the process.
There are countries where they are partaking in the gambling industry and they are handling it well because it's one of the big source of taxation in their  country.

Therefore, the selection of members or officials who handle or manage the gambling site will be very selective because it involves big money that will be used by many gamblers, including income from casinos. To protect the income from casinos, the government will try hard to place clean officers so that the gambling venues can minimize the corruption that usually occurs in government. Besides that, gamblers will feel safe playing in the casino managed by government officials and that place will be a favorite place for gamblers.

In fact, it is very important who manages the casino and I think that most gamblers will avoid state-owned casinos and go either to competitors or to the black market altogether (thanks to the Internet and cryptocurrencies make this easy). When you play in a state-owned casino, you most likely need to be immediately ready for KYC, paying taxes on every win and monitoring your financial transactions - what kind of person needs this?

You are thinking too much!  Only tax evaders will not play at a Casino for tax reasons.  KYC is already implemented by Online fiat Casino and even crypto casino is slowly implementing it.  The only financial transaction the government can track while playing in the casino is the amount bet and amount won by the account.

The requirement for KYC is almost enforced for all casino sites for the purpose of verifying all user details to prevent any unwanted things, but government-owned casinos can allow the data of every transaction to be synced with the taxing agency so gamblers have to pay taxes on any winnings subject to withholding taxes, reports gambling losses, and others. I think gamblers are very uncomfortable for casinos involved in taxation.

People don't trust the government anymore. Isn't that why bitcoin was created in the first place? With everything going on in the world they'd prefer to visit a casino not owned by the government. I think the role of the government here should simply be that of regulating the gambling industry. Just like the Netherlands, Australia and the UK are already doing.

It will.
And it lies down to how they'll choose them. It's hard to think about it if you're just a citizen of a country and you have a bias against the current government and administration.
That's why if I'm in a country that's about to do this. I'll just let them do it but it should be on the right process and protocol of what's said in the law.

They will be able to choose well because the selection process will be strict to ensure everything goes the way they want. We as citizens may also be able to register to help them but still have to undergo a predetermined procedure. The government will also follow the processes and protocols they have created and will not try to violate them, especially if they have officers who are clean from corruption.

I can't even imagine using a government owned casinos to get things done because the government can suddenly freeze your fund and you will have nothing to do about it. The government are not to be trusted because anything can happen anytime. Private owned casino is much better looking at reputation and other criteria. It is very hard to see a government owned casino because if gamblers noticed that, they can decided to limit their use of such site because of sanctions and other possible events.

This incident will not happen if you come to them clean and didn't do anything which can violate their rule or do fraudulent activities like doing money laundering on their platform. For sure you will not get any problem if you are simple civilian who came with clean hands and just enjoy what they can offer. The only thing we can look forward with government handled casino is we can assure fairness and safety since this is more regulated than other casinos.

Good point, if the government's own casino suspected your account doing something suspicious

if they freeze your account, the next thing you will see is a case against you, while with private own casinos when they freeze your
account, there's a chance that you can contest your case.

There's a pro and con always with two side stories in terms of playing with government own gambling platforms..

I dont think it will be a good idea for a country to totally depend on casino for their revenue, but I think it will be better if they have another source which they can use to get their revenue, atleast I believe if they make revenue from that it's going to help the citizens because it will reduce the tax which people in the country will be paying. I believe they are definitely going to be making money from casino.

And that will never happen, I guess.

So far any state government that has legalized gambling has benefited quite a lot from this industry mainly because of the taxes. Every casino operating in a state jurisdiction will be strictly regulated by the government and they are required to pay taxes every year. Because taxes are one source of income that will help state revenue, the gambling industry is one industry that pays quite a lot of taxes every year. But if the government had its own casino then the state revenue would probably be better but it seems unfair to the people so I'm sure there will be a lot of cons versus pros.

We can but on this part, I'll just let them do their own thing and they won't allow anyone from thincitizens to intervene on that decision.
This is an appointment to one that the higher official knows who can do the job better and we will just be observers. And at the same time, a government owned online casino will possibly be hard to be bankrupt because it's supported by the government. And that's why many gamblers would come and go there because of that assurance.

Assurance is great option to take and eventhough we will not become anonymous but still if we think deeply we can assure safety here. What disadvantage we can possibly get is the taxation of our winnings if we win big but I think this is fine as long as we will not get head ache upon winning our winning chip to them.

If citizens cannot follow the process of selecting officials or officers who will join the government-owned casino, they can only support government programs. What is important, citizens can also feel the tangible results of the government's work for the welfare of its people.

With the government's support, the casino will probably not go bankrupt because, in terms of income, it will be greater than the others. And that's why the government wants to take advantage of the popularity of casinos.

Sometimes it's all they have to offer, due to the limited territory size, so they have to attract money from outside through foreigners and tourists to keep their local economy running. Gambling is the main activity, but the whole touristic sector is benefited from this tradition, employing majority of local citizens at hotels, restaurants, casinos and so on... Without physical gambling I believe the economy would be severely harmed, because many people would lose their jobs, since virtual casinos demand less workers and offer less services compared to the land based casinos which offer meals, drinks, snacks and live shows.

I cannot imagine a government that instead of becoming a model to the citizens, they instead continue to persuade them to play into gambling just because the government will benefit from its revenues. If this is true for Macau, then the citizens are really in danger to mismanage their finances because they fall into gambling addiction. I've seen a lot of local casinos here but i think they are not government owned, as the owners are those big time citizens who have strong connections with some of the government officials.

Most governments don't allow that to happen since the citizens are just plain and the government is the one to do its task.
As a supported business by the government, the high revenue is on them and they should make it easy for the customers to trust them because they're from the govt.

I think that the best formula is the one that applies in my country, the casinos were prohibited for more than 20 years, then a few years ago the casinos gave the green light again so that they can operate again since the country despite a very strong situation economic level there are entities that do not know what to spend their money on, the government understood that and gave them permission to reopen them, but what the government charges each casino is a very good sum, without going too far, with how corrupt it can be, it would be according to my speculation between 40-50% of the net income of the casinos, and regularly they can be used for money laundering and if you go to the capital of the country at a certain time, you can run into deputies of the national assembly playing.

I don't think it's because of the government on why bitcoin is created but it's because of the banks and fiat. Because banks can restrict and hold your money while btc doesn't have any restrictions but there are still people that continue trusting them despite of that problems, I think it's because those people didn't know about bitcoin yet. There are some that heard of it but they are skeptical about it.

On the other hand, there are government owned casinos and there are people that will play on them for the same reason above and also because they think it's more trusted than those who are random casinos which doesn't have any government accreditation.

If they can pick the right personnel to take over the chance of getting decent taxes and incomes from this plan

is really achievable, but if they will just place people who have hidden agendas to corrupt the system and to have power to
put their own money making system.

there's nothing to expect, but an abuse for the citizens of the country. Then again, everything will be good if the person
who will facilitate the business is pro-people / for the benefits of many, and nothing else.

Suppose the government wants to try to gain more trust from the public. In that case, they can invite the public to participate in the selection process so that anything from the gambling business can be displayed transparently to the public because there are people involved in the casino monitoring process. With the support from the community, government, and other institutions that oversee the casino from the government, the business can run smoothly. It will have an impact on the income that the government will obtain.

I am not very clear about what the governments are like in other countries, or if in Europe I clearly think that the governments are much more transparent and ethical than in South America and may have enough ethics for it, but at least where I live, the things are not like that, first of all the government wants to manage everything and have its slice of money in each business that is generated, if it is not under their tutelage, then it simply does not happen, and if it happens secretly from the government they run with the risk of being imprisoned, therefore everything that is given in the name of a government, be it a casino or something similar, at least I would stay well away.

Good to hear that transparency still works from where you are, as from my location corrupt officials still exist,

we do have different opinions as per our experiences and out thinking about how the government will handle and operate
their own online gambling site.

If it's pro-people in terms of good sources of taxes and profits and it can be used properly for the government project
then it will be a good project for the government.

Well, that is right and I think it needs a public audit so that the taxes will use properly not on the corrupt official's wallet.
We also have a gambling casino that is owned by our government --very common is that lottery followed by the PAGCOR ^{[Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation]} which is 100% owned by our government.
We know that the gambling industry exists because of the tax that they will get, which will help a lot the government I remember before when the economy was down because of the pandemic, they force to open the gambling industry so that there is a revenue source that has been collapsed.

Impressive to see that some other government around the world uses the same tactics as the government where I am located from several years now and from where bad or good it be I don't want to get moving again,I have created my legacy here so I am OK.The fact that the government takes a slice of every business is the same as where I live.In fact they were so massively involved in making gambling prohibited offline or online favoring clearly the brother of the Prime minister as only his website can be accessed online without VPN,all other websites that have the word "bet" in their domain are totally closed.Same with offline casinos,only the two big ones Regency and Grand are open,every body else was shut down.The two big ones are owned by deputy parliamentarians,they have big shares in them that is why they are open.

Good luck on this one. Governments hate external audits, much more when it is conducted by people that came from the public. It just exposes their schemes and their underground transactions which will foil their corruption plans and some other schemes to make money off of public coffers. That's why I'm wary of government-owned businesses right now because the profits, as we know it, will surely go directly to the corrupt officials public and will not be given back to the public where it rightfully belongs.


Philippine Charity and Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) owns and runs the lottery; PAGCOR only oversees the regulations imposed on any gambling activities within the Philippines. Both are 100% government-owned too.

Corruption is the same all over the world. Somewhere it is allowed to grow and somewhere not. Any decision to have the state control something increases the possibility of corruption, so what is discussed in this thread has a simple answer: the government should not own any business. If this happens in a democratic country, then the abuses will be small (but they will definitely be), and if in a non-democratic country, then everything will end up with either the dictator directly or his relatives owning the business.

Yes, in part those who adhere to doing everything the government says and conditions, well, there is no problem and it can be opened to all people, of course I think that what they give to the government in monetary terms is quite a lot, but it is What must be done to stay active and offer the service, but given that the casinos have been out of the country for almost 20 years, anyone who wants to make a deal with the government is still very profitable. Of course, the few casinos that exist bring in a lot of money, I believe that a monopolization of the business will be generated for those who decide to take the risk.

Macau is well-known to house many casinos and they are mostly physical houses where people play, this is one of their big revenue purses to fund the country and the ones they launched online arent bitcoin base casino, looking at how the government are anti-bitcoin, they wouldn't want to add bitcoin except the ones that aren't funded by the government.
I wouldn't advise anyone to even trust the government for once if they allow bitcoin to be used in their casino, but if they embrace it as legal tender, then why not, I will be happy to play with them. I will like to see a country like El Salvador do something like this but should be Bitcoin to allow more of its adoption.

The truth and the saddest part of it all is that the companies where the government is owned have gone bankrupt, that's because the government members use the services of the government company free. for example:

government airline = they always go bankrupt because government members travel for free

telecommunications companies = go bankrupt because government officials talk about free, they don't pay anything

That way, the poorer you get, but if it were under private management, companies would be more profitable and would pay taxes


with some casino could you make a deal with some government and that be profitable? I don't understand how this would be good for the casino? because the casino would have to keep paying taxes and respecting the laws, they wouldn't have any extra privileges with a government deal.


I agree, if any casino owner trusts the governments then maybe this casino owner is a former member of the government or someone very important in the country's politics, in a scenario like this the casino owner can benefit from this partnership because many times in all this crime is involved

this situation no doubt will happen if their politicians are corrupt. they will act according to their personal interest. they will stop others to operate the same business as it will be looked at as competitors. corruption has the same face all over the world, so no matter where you are, you will see the same scenario if politicians are allowed to handle gambling business.

Casinos managed by governments!, it doesn't matter, the government always makes a profit.

Governments can be bad at managing state resources but they are very good at collecting taxes, so if the casino is in loss they continue to charge the same, tax rates on casinos are really high, but there is so much money coming in that even despite the high taxes everyone wins.

That these funds are mismanaged is something else, of course there are countries that privatize and consequently there will be bad experiences, but it is something punctual and not general.

Very close and that's reality, both in democratic and non-democratic country, corruptions are present. The control of the government over

to any business related ownership will always have stain of possible act of corruptions, even in some portion of it can really help to raise good amount

of money for the government, but we can't deny the fact that abuse from people behind will always remain.

Yes, either way the government will have the benefit as the casinos will always make some profit at the end of the day but that is not the concern on why the government shouldn't own any casino or establishments connected in gambling. Why? It is because of the corruption, there is a very high chance that the department official that will be put in-charge will out corrupt that is connected in any way that could benefit himself/herself. Except of course if you will put a priest in that position which I think not possible in any way.

This could happen but it will depend on the country in question, in countries where gambling is allowed most governments have their own lotteries and despite this fact there are also private companies which are allowed to operate their own lotteries as well, so in the case a government was willing to create their own casino then this does not automatically mean that any casino owned by a private party will be made illegal or they will face unfair competition, it could happen but it is not a sure thing.

It's a bit of a confusing question really. In most normal societies launching an online casino is nothing special or unique, you see hundreds of them being advertised here, so why would it be some sort of exceptional idea for the Macau casinos to launch them? I'd be highly surprised if they aren't already operating online. China is a weird country, where they pretend to have private companies but in reality it all ties back to the authoritarian rule of  the CCP. They used to be quite hands off, but we can see under Xi Jinping they are developing much stricter controls again and removing the illusion that companies have relatively free commerce, without interference from the corruption of a political dictatorship. Sadly I fear the revenues from such casinos will not necessarily be spent on making the life of the average Chinese citizen better, maybe just kept concentrated in the hands of a few.

They definitely have a lot to them as the government but the patronage would depend on several factors. The one that would be of the most importance if if the country actually supports bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. That would be some indication that they aren't setting it up just to trap those that uses cryptocurrencies within the nation and this would also be determined by the level of verification.
Privacy happens to be something that is treasured in the cryptospace and should the level of KYC make people raise an eyebrow, you could see a withdrawal in patronage to avoid more control by the government.

Well, that's for real and we can see those authorities taking advantage of their power while they're sitting on the government. If there's a threat to the business, they would try to eliminate it by doing sanctions or rules that will surely remove the competitor.
Whether it's the government or the private sector, that's how the corrupt officials think. They're not like the real government that should be there just to govern things and sees that everything is running smoothly.

we know that every corners of the world does have different ways on how they do govern their vicinity whether they are honest or corrupted ones thats why we cant really that tell on how it would be ending up.
government owned casinos will surely be raising up some questions but as long the revenue or taxes will be put up on the right use but if not then it would be that having an issue.
Doesnt matter if its government owned or not then it wont really be an issue .Potential would always vary on the demand of the community itself.

Their rates will suck against the private casinos but they will probably be safer as well. That's usually how it works with the government owned anything. It is a price you pay for extra safety.

No decent country will do the same thing directly but then they don't really have to. Since the governments tax private businesses, it means they own a portion of every company out there.

I don't think Macau is a decent country so I think they are free to do it.  8)

That's how money works, pushing people to greediness and not allowing anyone to compete,

Corruptions is the number one problem, the money that will flow around the business will be influenced by someone who has higher authorities, from that scheme those behind it will also add to the problem, as even in the lower positions corruptions will continue to flow
inside the system.

Yes, unfortunately that is the reality we are facing right now because money of the money talks and even before in the last 2 centuries, they are already facing corruption as the elected/selected officials will always take advantage of the power they had for their own benefit and I think there's no country in this God's green earth that is not experiencing any corruption in their government. Well, correct me if I'm wrong about that.

I'm sure a government like this just wants to get rid of competitors from the private sector, because they are very greedy even though they have earned a large income from taxes, but still make government-owned casinos, if so they have the authority and power, to terminate private casino licenses that they think not up to standard.

This is very real, even those in the lowest positions of government will try to make corrupt money from gambling. public trust in the government is already very low, if they manage the gambling business then it will further worsen their image in front of the public.

There are two factors that must be carefully considered so that we can conclude on one strong basis that government gambling cannot be trusted in the options it may be corrupt or be a money laundering they carry out. But I think if they do well and are transparent on the accountability report then I think we can trust gambling which is managed by the government. but if their report is not transparent then you can say that they just want to kill the people with the gambling they manage. but I don't like it if the government takes part in managing gambling where this can be a big mess in the future and can damage the younger generation.

If your goal is to make a profit whenever you play gambling and you are also a big gambler then it is a must to gamble on secured gambling places were regulated by a government as they can give you a protection from thieves and they will also do anything to give your money back in case they don't caught the thieves or the thieves spend the money already but I think that there is less or no private casinos at all that can offer those kinds of benefits but despite of that, many people and big gamblers are still playing on them.

I think that they are only praying and hoping that no bad things can happen to them the moment they step inside those gambling places.

How could managing a Casino worsen a government's image to the public?  I don't think it happens here in my country since they are able to manage a government-owned casino very well.  Aside from that, they also give licenses to private Casino as long as it has all the requirements and documents needed to operate.

There are a bunch of things but number one that people thinks about it would be corruption, We can't deny that. There are also illegal things that could be involved such as money laundering and it could come to the point that there could be drug deals happening on those casino. There are many things that are happening inside those public/private casino that has ties with government officials. These acts will be imprinted on public minds especially if that casino has an history of it. It could vary depending on your country since not every country citizen has the same level of trust in their government.

Government-owned projects are always riddled with corruption and other irregularities that it has become common knowledge around the world that these guys are just there not to protect the public coffers but to create sub-standard projectes with the money and take some for their own pockets. A lot of countries are like this sadly, so even if a country proposes or pushes to create a casino, people will just oppose it because they know what will happen next. We are so aware of what's happening behind the curtain that we don't fully trust governments on projects like this.

It is already common knowledge that corrupt officials are doing such illegal things.  So I don't think that having a Government Casino can make it worst. Besides, citizens won't see any kind of illegal transaction happening inside the casino (they really keep all deals secret) so all these negative connotations are just rumors and speculations unless proven with evidence.

For me, the casino business is a multi billion dollars business, and it's not a bad idea government owning a casino in a country both physical or online, as it will serve as an alternative way of generating revenue, because in my country, my state government owns a standard world class hotel, of which revenue is being generated each month for the government. So in regards to how will they get more customers, the answer is very simple, because the same way others got customers, so will they, and we also have the forum for signature campaign adverts, Google ads and e.t.c

You are right about that, but it cannot be denied that it still helps the government, just like the country we belong to has an online casino that is legal and even the lottery. The Government of a country will not allow them to do something like that knowing that they will not gain anything if it does not add to the economy they have.

But if we look at it from another angle, it seems that the government wants to compete with the private sectors that own online gambling, that's what I see that they want to happen. However, this is just my own speculations about this matter.

good point, i agree with what you said, every country has a different level of trust by its citizens.
Likewise if there is a government that owns a casino, I think it depends on the country itself, usually the level of trust will be lost due to unstable political conditions in the country, such as corruption, money laundering and other causes, regardless of the country based on religion as the  part of their law.

I believe, a clean government can manage state-owned casinos well, and of course it is possible for private companies who are interested to open casinos independently with the requirements that apply in the country. both will have different advantages and benefits for the perpetrators and the citizens themselves.

Well, that would be good if you're certainly sure that a corruption is not happening in your country despite the government having their own casino because most of the times, that is not the case because there is indeed a high chance that a certain public servant who is selected to have that kind of power will be of course take advantage of the power to benefit himself or herself. I'm not saying that every country is experiencing this but mostly, that is the case.

What happens is that in this part of the countries that are from South America, the government often gives the permits for very large businesses so that they can operate, however those casinos that are physical have to adhere to many taxes to give them to the State. And if that's not the case, they simply don't give you the license, but if they come to an agreement with the government, the casinos would be giving a "collaboration" to the government, which in fact is much lower than normal and so on. those in charge of the government win, and the casino would operate normally, this is something that few know, but that many want, and those who do not have that negotiating capacity simply cannot do anything.


It is so difficult to think that any ruler of a country is not corrupt, and is not involved in the best businesses that are most lucrative, in fact for me the governments that are most corrupt are those that do not raise any suspicion, those that are always The avant-garde knows that they are involved in everything, especially now that there is so much risk and fear that there may be a possible recession, this has put many on alert to protect themselves, obviously politicians are the first to know sete type of information and share it among them to be able to shield themselves, I think that this is very difficult for it to end one day, the business models of the casions are very profitable for a government to leave it.

When we talk about corruption, many state officials have been arrested for corruption. If that state official has a gambling business, whether legal or illegal, it will surely attract more other state officials, from the highest to the lowest level of their circle. According to them, it is fast money they can get. Apart from gambling problems, you may have heard police officers asking business owners for money under the pretext of security money to protect their business from other police operations. It may also be the case in the gambling business, where casino businesses are legally run but still pay a certain amount of security money to corrupt officers.

So if the government illegally runs the casino, they will try to hide what they are doing from the public and will not say anything. On the other hand, if they legally manage a gambling business, they will ensure that the business runs smoothly and possibly bribe other officers to protect it.

Unfortunately, that is really the sad reality in the world we live in because there is only few public officials who were really honest during their term especially if they were exposed to this kind of industries that will make them instant reach if they want but they chose not to. But mostly, as you said, there are more corrupt officials than the good ones and many officials have already been proven guilty and been jailed for it.

Honestly, it's much better for a country not to run any gambling business that their own government officials will man it because that will just result to an unwanted situations. It's still much better to just reap the fruits year from the revenues generated by these private gambling businesses.

Therefore, the share of the state should be reduced to a minimum wherever possible. We can't have private courts or police (although some functions like security can be performed by private firms) but I don't see any reason why we should involve the state in running the casino business. A lot of individuals and organizations are ready to do this, compete with each other and provide the best service - why break this working system? After all, in the end we will get the worst product with a corrupt official. It's just not wise.

Always have that effect when government take the ownership, corruptions is not a question but a reality that will take place,

I see your point and that is right, there are many private business owners who can cater this business allow them to own and compete

with each other will guarantee a good amount of taxes. Just be keen in collecting all the taxes from those businesses instead of having one.

It would really be that no sense if government would really be creating one.Just to have that main question on who would be the one to make use of revenue of the casino owned by the government?
Where they do get those capital or funding from? Also to taxes? It would really be just no sense on creating one thats why government wouldnt really be that mindful on running one.
Certain individuals or business owners are the ones will really be having consideration on running online casinos or physical ones as long they are paying correct or exact taxes
then it wont really be creating problems in regarding on that matter.

this is caused by several elements/mafia rulers who have scope in government. corruption is bound to happen and the mafia in the government do this because they can do whatever they want for example money laundering or corruption. Government-owned casinos are the thing that triggers big problems that occur in the sphere of government. In conclusion, it is better for the government not to operate casinos in their country, it is better for them to take care of the welfare of the people than to focus on gambling which will have a bad impact on the country. Let the private parties operate the casinos because they focus more on what they manage than the casinos that are run by the government.

That's right and it's a total waste of resources because putting a government official to oversee the gambling business of the government will mean that they will have to pay the salary of that official monthly even though that specific official is already earning much more he could earn annually in just a mere month. Just let the private businessmen do this kind of business because the revenues generated by these industries will be much more enough to help the economy.