Gaming, Governance and Public Policy is composed of 13 chapters. The introduction, written by Ian Scott, outlines the relations between social stability and economic growth in general and in Macau in particular. It discusses four scenarios of the regime characteristics (p. 4), although none of the authors utilizes this framework for their later analyses. Part one comprises of two chapters, one by Penny Wan and Francisco Pinheiro which discusses the development of the gaming industry and its impacts on land use; the other, by Newman Lam, assesses the impacts of gaming liberalization on public opinion and political culture (chapter three). Wan and Pinheiro have identified an interesting trend: that the rapid development of the gaming industry contributed to unbalanced power relations, leading to the Ao Man Lung corruption scandal. They also stress that there is “no town planning ordinance stipulating planning procedures, establishing who has the power to view and consider development proposals,” nor is there any “independent body to oversee the way in which rights to land use are granted” (p. 30). Newman Lam writes that political culture in Macau has been changing since the liberalization of the gaming industry, and that the Macau people have become “more demanding, more participative and less willing to accept that the government is always right” (p. 54).

Part two is concerned with the governance of Macau and includes four chapters. Chapter four, by Eilo Yu, focuses on executive–legislative relations and their implications for public policy. Yu claims that the “political pendulum is swinging from executive domination toward a great role for the legislature in the governance of Macao” (p. 74). Chapter five, by Annie Lee, examines the challenges and threats to traditional associations. She asserts that the rate of their present decline points to the need for a reinvention of their role and government intervention to halt their increasing loss of status in the polity and society. Chapter six, by Brian Brewer, is related to civil service reform and the question of building administrative capacity. He concludes that the establishment of a strong civil service “will depend upon the extent to which the Macau government can improve administrative structures and processes that can function independently of short-term political considerations and develop greater public trust in government through such integrity agencies as the Commissioner of Audit and the Commission Against Corruption” (p. 106). In chapter seven, Jeannette Taylor uses the civil service as a case study of how productivity might be improved through efficiency wages. She contends that using wages is an ineffective tool for improving performance levels in the civil service. Rather, non-monetary incentives, such as individual and team awards, may be used.

The five chapters of part three are devoted to public policy. Grace Lee's chapter eight discusses labour policy and examines the mismatch between demand and supply. She notes that the gaming industry has short-term needs which may represent a strong demand for labour, thus necessitating the import of labour. However, the import of labour has caused unrest among the structurally unemployed. In chapter nine, Alex Choi and Eva Hung use the case of croupiers to explore the development of labour regulations in the liberalized casino economy. They argue that the ban on imported croupiers has been implemented to contain the social instability generated by the import of migrant labour into other economic sectors. Joan Leung's chapter uses education as an example to explore the role of the state in education reform and governance. She demonstrates that state intervention in the provision of funding, the regulation of school administration and the monitoring of education quality was obvious. James Lee's chapter 11 examines the neoliberal agenda of Macau's housing policy. He maintains that the contestation of spaces has led to an intensification of spatial scarcity and the creation of wealth for a few through the processes of displacement and redevelopment. Chapter 12, written by Chan Kam Wah and James Lee, studies the evolution of social welfare policy. They argue that the ad hoc and piecemeal approach of the “flexible welfare strategy” wastes valuable resources and makes social problems more costly to correct. Instead, Macau needs a comprehensive social welfare system and long-term planning. The concluding chapter, jointly written by Ian Scott and Newman Lam, attempts to analyse the constraints and opportunities posed by the triangular issues of gaming, governance and public policy in Macau. They argue for greater government policy intervention in the longer term to tackle social inequalities.

The strength of this volume is the diversity of its chapters, ranging from gaming to public policy. However, its weaknesses include the disconnection between the introductory chapter, which attempts to delineate an analytical framework, and other chapters which adopt different lenses of analysis. Quite disappointingly, the concluding chapter fails to “wrap up” Macau's complex triangular relations. It remains unclear how gaming has impacted on both governance and public policy in Macau – a theme that has been inadequately addressed in some chapters. Although attention is paid to its impact on land use, public opinion and political culture, the book lacks a detailed historical chapter on the development of gaming in Macau. The section on public policy is largely detached from the discussions on gaming and casino industries, especially the chapters on education, housing, and social welfare. The entire section on governance is a combination of political analyses with administrative perspectives; nevertheless, none of the contributors to this section has really addressed the question of how political institutions and civil service reforms are directly or indirectly related to the rapid growth of the gaming industry. From the perspective of advancing the study of Macau, this book is indeed a welcome addition to the existing English literature. Nevertheless, the entire book lacks not only a central argument but also a coherent analytical framework that is utilized by all its authors to bind together the issues of gaming, governance and public policy.

From a critical perspective, this book contributes little to our deeper understanding of these triangular relations, not to mention the ramifications of the political economy of casino capitalism. The very interesting concept of casino capitalism appears in the concluding chapter, but it is not defined clearly (p. 218). Nor did any of the chapters examining the role of labour in Macau's casino economy define and elaborate on Angela Leong's concept of “casino state” (p. 148). A central pertinent question is not really addressed in the book: namely, how has gaming shaped both the governance and public policy-making in Macau? Has gaming improved, or exacerbated, Macau's governance? Is public policy-making in Macau constantly a response to tackling the side-effects and problems of casino capitalism, such as the widening gap between the rich and the poor? Is casino capitalism negatively affecting social stability but positively stimulating economic growth? If the editors and contributors had focused more consistently on these fundamental questions, this book could have been improved significantly.