Explaining Macanese Longevity: The House Always Wins!

Oscar Hauptman - PhD MIT 1986. Visiting Lecturer, USJ MBA Program; Professor and Leader of the Centre for Innovation and Industry Studies, College of Business, University of Western Sydney

Visiting academics can be a painful breed, always inquiring about abstract and intellectual concepts and ideas. Being more practically oriented, since arriving in MSAR, less cryptically known as the Macau Special Autonomous Region, I have been trying to explain the longevity of Macau’s men and women. I can understand Andorra (#1) in the beautiful Pyrenean Mountains between Spain and France, or San Marino (#3) in the middle of Italy, or the formal, measured, and sour Swedes (at 17%, with the lowest proportion of smokers in the world) and Swiss, tied for 7th and 8th, with their excellent medical and social context, Japan (#6), with its seafood and soy diet. But what about Singapore (#4), Hong Kong (#5) and Macau (#2)?! These are the A-type, high-achievement driven, way over the neurotic threshold, ambitious, aggressive, and pushy, mostly Southern Chinese populated city states. All have moderate, or worse, quality of air due to general wealth that drives car purchases and traffic, but while Singapore is pretty, clean, and progressively modern, even if over-paternalized by well-wishing leaders, and Hong Kong is as freewheeling and democratically-spirited as it is prudent and feasible in Asia, consuming mostly seafood and Chinese herbs, what is Macau’s secret? In academic research jargon, what is the key discriminating variable for this phenomenal longevity of Macau’s population?

‘Macau is a total Disneyesque fairyland at night, with the Grand Lisboa dominating the light show’

Is it the protection of the Goddess A-Ma? The reclaimed NAPE area in Macau feels quite safe under her demure gaze, a replica of the generic Sea Goddess Mazu who is said to have been the patron saint of all Southern Chinese and East Asians since the 10th century AD. Some locals claim that A-Ma even kept away the SARS epidemic of 2003. I am sure it is not the surrounding high-rises that make quick and efficient use of the little land there is. The usually empty streets hide Macau’s population density, which is Guinness Book of Records material at almost 20,000 per square kilometer. Anyway, being more into physics, technology and sociology than myths and mysticism, the A-Ma explanation does not work for me.
Putting things a bit in context, the climate in Macau is normal South China Sea, with the summer at around 27-33C, and typhoons passing dangerously close by. As a visiting lecturer at USJ, I got my first Patacas – local currency that means “wallet” in Tagalog, which sell for about 13 US cents each. Actually most people assume that transactions in Macau are done with Hong Kong (or Honkie in local parlance of those that care to communicate in English) Dollars, so Patacas as local currency are a surprise. Actually, this is a moot point as most shops accept Hong Kong Dollars at a bit higher rate than Patacas, and the casinos accept ONLY Hong Kong Dollars at the tables. No answers here.
What about the impact of information technologies? It is well-deployed around here, magnetic bus-cards, internet, cellphone, and the many stores stocked with 4G iPhones and the even newer iPads. The bus-cards can be used as debit cards at the Circle K-stores, and the video cameras everywhere are making good use of the many foreign workers as security guards. I have been feeling very secure knowing that my every gesture and expression is recorded on the “floor” of the casinos. Interestingly, probably as a testimonial to the entrepreneurial acumen of tourists and locals, every Honkie Dollar bill was checked for authenticity by the croupiers and cashiers with hand-held devices. On the other hand, to make local residents safe and happy in their relaxed attitude towards their jobs, new technology introductions at the tables, such as automatic roulette and card games, is carefully controlled through legislation and regulations. I actually concur as I always doubted the veracity of Bill Gates’s contention that computers create jobs.
Who needs unions! There is the well-established dealers’ jobs monopoly for locals, allowing them to demand easy life at work, or quit at will and look for a better niche. It also allows the female dealers in the Grand Lisboa to offer their services without any visible attempts at attractiveness or stylishness, unadorned hair unbrushed and face unmade, corporate uniform ill-fitting and wrinkled. They live up to their uncouth image, often haranguing customers for minor infractions of protocol, never relaxed, humorous or smiling. Their permanent scowl is so very typical of the small shops in Singapore, where the best Hainanese Chicken-Rice is being served; the implicit message is crystal clear: “You, the lucky customer, are here for my service, not my attitude!” So it does not seem that Macanese longevity is about a happy-go-lucky attitude either.
Macau is a total Disneyesque fairyland at night, with the Grand Lisboa dominating the light show. Action runs to 5AM for the committed, and I expect any attempts to start a local Gamblers Anonymous to be treated according to the letter of the law dealing with secret criminal societies and international terrorists. I would, if my livelihood was dependent on gaming! Same goes for Alcoholics Anonymous or any limits on smoking. Smoking is not only for the smoking areas in the restaurants, it is OK to smoke anywhere on the “floor,” hotel lobbies, anywhere in the public areas in the office buildings, AND in the hotel elevators. Freedom to smoke anywhere is a symbol of real freedom, a retreat away from family and work responsibilities, weekend playground for overworked but up and coming Mainlanders – freedom to gamble, freedom to die too! I guess, second hand smoking actually should be taking care of any genetic predispositions of Macau’s men and women for longevity. I must look elsewhere…
What about reduced stress and simplicity of Macau’s life? Actually, the presumed freedom for the visitors and locals is nicely boxed and channeled for gambling, touring and shopping. Decisions on every organizational level are solidly anchored in well-defined SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), no ambiguity is allowed, no negotiation before going to the next organizational level. This makes life really simple, albeit somewhat unpleasant and impersonal. In most cases, negotiation is futile, like any type of communication in non-Chinese dialects, such as English.  Amazingly, the local service staff, except in really international hotels, such as Sands, expect you to speak it or, at the least, to internalize your sense of inferiority for not speaking and understanding it – they accomplish this by scowling at you and speaking what I assume is Cantonese, fast, loud, and clear, not a care in the world, even if it is totally obvious that Cantonese is not part of your linguistic repertoire. Ergo, it took me several days of preparation and an hour of search to try to find an English speaking barber to make myself more socially presentable. I thought I had it under control after reaching San Malo “business district,” and asking about Filipino-owned barber shops, but quickly realized that everybody there was one type of tourist or another, and mostly Mainlanders with no English. Some European looking folks were tourists too, and did not know Macau, although they admitted to having fun. And the family with children with whom I tried to speak Russian, my mother tongue, for some reason held tightly to their wallets and cameras and slipped away... Much later I realized that I was wearing presents from my dear Kazakh friends – a T-shirt with the map of Kazakhstan in all its glory, and the cap spelling out “Almaty” on my head. Not surprisingly, I ended in a Chinese shop, where the owner did the honors, interrupting his lunch. His female staff watched him in admiration as he welcomed me with “hello” and continued with intermittent “OKs.” He was all smiles as I paid 170 Patacas. On the way back, as again there was nobody to ask where and what, I ended joyriding public buses around Macau to visit MGM Grand, Sands, Rio, Fisherman’s Wharf, ending in the Grand Lisboa, and crossing in the underpass to Wynn, before I was, as initially intended, in NAPE again. My lack of understanding extended to the gaming “floors,” where I found very few roulette tables, some Black Jack, Baccarat, and Caribbean Stud tables, but the rest was all Chinese to me...
Towards the end of my visit, I think I finally got it! It is all about sense of power and being in control. It is clear even to a superficial observer that, all in all, nothing is getting through to them local people. They are usually “cool,” low key, a bit aloof, totally unstressed, and overwhelmingly cynical. This should  be expected as the local population have been witnessing from early childhood how millions of visitors (twenty three million as of 2009!), are indulging their senses and following their personal whims, while leaving billions of renminbi, dollars and euros on the table, so to speak. The mood on the streets emanates permanent, chronic disappointment, as statistically every and each one of the visitors is a net loser, forever, without redemption. Of course the visitors do not want to accept this, as hope brings them to Macau again and again! But the house always wins, and fortunately for the long-living Macau people, even if they do not own SJM’s (Sociedade de Jogos de Macau) or Sands’ shares, they still feel that they ARE the House!

©MDTimes/University of Saint Joseph