*6.3. Practical Implications*

With regard to the sustainable development of the gambling industry, continuous expansion of the scale of the gambling industry cannot result in sustainable high efficiency. The gambling industry experienced more production costs in 2016 and its scale in 2016 was larger than its scale in 2013 or 2014, while its efficiency in 2016 was lower than its efficiency in 2013 or 2014, which means that there was a waste of resources. Thus, government officials and casino operators should pay more attention to the improvement of the gambling industry's efficiency. For instance, the number of gambling tables in Macao was 5700–5800 in 2013 and 2014 and 6287 in 2016 but the efficiency in 2016 was not as high as in 2013 and 2014. There was a waste of resources. The casino operators should put more efforts to increase their efficiency and not just look for enlarging their market shares. For example, the casino operators could combine gambling with other cultural and entertainment industries to increase the overall efficiency.

In terms of policy about the gambling industry's sustainable development, from 2016 to 2017, the Macao SAR government first proposed a specific indicator that the growth rate of total number of gambling tables in the ten years after 2013 should be no more than 3% and that the addition of new gambling tables should be strictly regulated to adjust the gambling's industry scale. However, this study has found that this policy failed to achieve the goal of regulating Macao's gambling industry scale to make the industry appropriately diversified. This study reveals a new understanding that there must be a significant transition of the gambling industry economy to the non-gambling industry economy to achieve a moderately diversified economy. The local government should consider imposing certain requirements facilitating economic diversification when issuing casino licenses in the coming years.

According to the results of this study, under Scenario 2, for the gambling industry to move smoothly to non-gambling industries, the Macao government should slash the added value of the gambling industry and increase the added value from non-gambling industries. In addition to developing industries related to gambling and tourism for diversifying tourists' consumption options [53], it is necessary to develop a platform for innovation and technology development. However, given Macao has a land area of just 30.8 km2, with much of the land being occupied by gambling operators [54], where and how to develop the platform for diversifying its economic structure will be a challenge for the Macao government.
