The DICJ in Macau

What the DICJ is

The DICJ is the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, the Macau government bureau responsible for watching over the casino industry. Its name comes from Portuguese, one of Macau's two official languages: Direcção de Inspecção e Coordenação de Jogos. Almost everyone, including the casinos themselves, refers to it simply as the DICJ.

In practice, the DICJ is the public face of casino regulation in Macau. It is the bureau that publishes the rules on who may enter a casino, that runs the programs designed to help problem gamblers, and that a member of the public can call, email or visit with a question about how the casinos are run⁴. Its general inquiry line, fax and email address are published for anyone to use, and its office on Avenida da Praia Grande is where certain formal applications must be made in person¹.

If you are used to thinking of a regulator as a distant office that only deals with operators, the DICJ is a bit different. Several of its services are aimed directly at players and their families, most notably the self-exclusion program, which lets a person ask to be barred from Macau's casinos. That program, and the contact points around it, make up much of what an ordinary visitor or resident will ever deal with the DICJ about.

What the DICJ regulates

The DICJ's remit covers Macau's games of fortune or chance, the legal term for the casino gaming offered in the city's licensed casinos⁵. That means the table games, the slot floors and the gaming areas of the big resorts described on our casinos in Macau page all sit under the DICJ's supervision.

The bureau's public-facing materials show the range of what it touches:

• Casino entry. The DICJ publishes the rules on who may enter a casino in Macau, which you can read about in full on our page on casino entry rules in Macau⁴.
• Responsible gambling services. The bureau runs the Responsible Gambling Kiosk program, which provides responsible gambling information to both residents and visitors, electronic applications for self-exclusion and problem gambling family counseling, a gambling disorder assessment with a printable behavior report, interactive games, and a 24-hour helpline inside the kiosk that connects directly to gambling disorder prevention and treatment organizations⁶.
• Exclusion orders. The DICJ administers the system by which a person can be barred from all or some of Macau's casinos, whether at their own request or at the request of a family member³.

Beyond the casino floor, other forms of gambling in Macau have their own operators and inquiry points. Horse racing, for example, is run by the Macau Jockey Club, which has its own customer inquiry line on (853) 2882 0868⁷. You can read more about the wider picture on our page on gambling in Macau.

Licensing of casinos and junkets

Macau's casino industry is built on a small number of concessionaires and sub-concessionaires, the companies behind the resorts on our page about Macau's six casino operators. The DICJ sits above this structure as the bureau that inspects and coordinates gaming activity, and its director holds specific legal powers over who may enter the gaming areas those companies operate.

The clearest example in the law is the exclusion power. Under Law No. 10/2012, the DICJ director may prohibit a person from entering all of Macau's casinos, or only some of them, for a maximum period of two years. This can happen at the person's own request, or at the request of a spouse, an ascendant, a descendant or a second-degree collateral relative, provided the person confirms the relative's request⁸. In other words, the same bureau that supervises the operators also holds the personal authority to bar an individual from their premises.

The junket and VIP room side of the industry, which connects high-stakes play with the casinos, is described on our page about junkets and VIP rooms in Macau. The gaming activity in those rooms is part of the same games of fortune or chance that fall under the DICJ's supervision, and the casinos that host them are among the places where exclusion application forms can be picked up³.

How the DICJ handles complaints

The DICJ is the body to approach when something has gone wrong at a casino and you want the regulator involved. Its published contact details, including a general inquiry line and email address, are there for members of the public, not just for the industry¹.

The bureau's most fully documented complaint-adjacent process is the exclusion program, and it shows how the DICJ works with individuals in practice:

• How an application arrives. Forms are available from the DICJ itself, from the Social Welfare Bureau's Resilience Centre (志毅軒), and from any of Macau's casinos, or they can be downloaded from the DICJ website³.
• Verification. If the application is submitted to the DICJ through one of the casinos, the DICJ will contact the applicant to verify their personal details³. The applicant receives a receipt stating that the DICJ will make contact within two working days to verify the application details⁹.
• Assisted applications. Where a form is completed with help, a witness, who can be a staff member of an institution or of the DICJ, records their name, their Macau identity card or staff number, their entity and the date⁵.
• Decision and notice. Within five working days of submission, the DICJ notifies the applicant of the start and expiry dates of the approved exclusion period, and the applicant comes to the DICJ office in person to sign a notification letter about the enforced exclusion period⁹.

For disputes about a game, a payout or a slot machine, the starting point is the casino floor staff and the operator's own management. If the matter cannot be resolved there, the DICJ is the regulator that supervises the operator, and its inquiry line and email address are the channel for raising it¹. Keep any receipts, tickets or records from the session, since a regulator can only work with what you can show it.

Player helpline and inquiry contacts

The DICJ publishes several contact points, and it helps to know which one fits your situation.

The main inquiry line is (853) 2856 9262, which appears on the DICJ's own pages and in the responsible gambling materials of the casino operators, so it is the number most people in Macau will recognize⁴. Use it for general questions about the casinos, the rules, or how to reach the right department.

For anything to do with exclusion, there is a dedicated line: (853) 8397 3286, with its own fax and email address, listed specifically for inquiries regarding exclusion applications².

If your concern is problem gambling rather than a regulatory question, the Responsible Gambling Kiosk program offers a 24-hour helpline inside the kiosk that connects you immediately with gambling disorder prevention and treatment organizations, along with information, counseling applications and a self-assessment⁶. You can read more about the support available on our page on gambling help in Macau.

Contact details: phone, fax and email

Here are the DICJ's published contact details at a glance.

The DICJ office is at 12th Floor A, China Plaza, 762-804 Avenida da Praia Grande, Macau. This is where exclusion applications must be submitted in person, with the original identity documents of both parties and one recent photo of the person to be excluded³.

A few practical notes:

• The (853) prefix is Macau's country code. If you are calling from Hong Kong, the mainland or elsewhere, dial it as an international number.
• The exclusion line, fax and email are staffed for that program specifically, so general casino questions sent there will simply be redirected to the main inquiry address.
• If your question is about horse racing rather than casino gaming, the Macau Jockey Club's own customer inquiry line is (853) 2882 0868⁷.

When to contact the DICJ

There are a few clear situations in which contacting the DICJ makes sense:

• You want to be barred from the casinos. The self-exclusion program lets you apply to be excluded from all or some of Macau's casinos. Once approved, you cannot enter or remain in the covered casinos during the exclusion period, and violating the bar constitutes the crime of disobedience¹¹. The full process is described on our page on self-exclusion from Macau casinos.
• You want a family member barred. A spouse, ascendant, descendant or second-degree collateral relative can put forward the request, provided you confirm it, and the DICJ director can then impose the bar for up to two years⁸.
• You have a problem with a casino that the operator has not resolved. The general inquiry line and email address are the channel to the regulator¹.
• You have a question about casino entry or the rules of play. The DICJ publishes this information and takes inquiries on it⁴.

Timing expectations are worth knowing. If you submit an exclusion application through a casino, you get a receipt and the DICJ contacts you within two working days to verify the details⁹. Within five working days of submission, the DICJ notifies you of the approved exclusion period's start and expiry dates, and you sign the notification letter in person at the office⁹. Nothing is instant, so plan around those windows rather than expecting a same-day outcome.

One point on privacy: when you apply, the DICJ reads your identity document to obtain your ID number, name, sex and date of birth, stores these in its administrative system and sends them to all or some of the casinos in Macau, but solely for the purpose of running the self-exclusion program¹¹. The application also asks whether you accept counseling from a problem gambling prevention institution and consent to the DICJ passing your personal data to it for that counseling only; agreeing is optional, and you can tick agree or disagree⁵.

How the DICJ fits into Macau's gaming framework

Macau's gaming framework has three layers, and the DICJ sits in the middle of them. At the top is the law, most visibly Law No. 10/2012, which gives the DICJ director the personal power to bar individuals from casinos for up to two years at their own or a confirmed relative's request⁸. In the middle is the DICJ itself, which inspects and coordinates gaming activity, administers the exclusion system and takes public inquiries. At the bottom are the operators, the six companies running the resorts, and the other licensed bodies such as the Macau Jockey Club, each of which handles its own customer service and passes formal matters up to the bureau.

For a player, this means the first stop for anything is usually the operator: the casino's own staff for a game or payout question, the Jockey Club's line for racing. The DICJ is the next stop when you need the regulator itself, whether that is to apply for exclusion, to raise an unresolved complaint, or to ask how the rules work. Its contact details are published plainly, its office is a short walk from the casino district on the Praia Grande side of the peninsula, and its exclusion program is the one service it runs that is designed entirely around the individual rather than the industry¹.

To see how the pieces fit together in practice, read our pages on gambling in Macau, casino entry rules in Macau and self-exclusion from Macau casinos.