Reframing and Reconceptualising Gambling tourism in Macau as a Chinese Pilgrimage

Abstract

While dominant discourses, media representations and corporate entities in China downplay the presence of Chinese mainland gambling in Macau, Beijing sanctions millions of its citizens to make the journey to Macau to gamble each year. While Macau's success is often put down to the extent to which visitors are drawn to a secular destination with integrated resorts to engage in individualistic activities, our approach explores Chinese gambling tourists' movements, rituals and behaviours along poststructuralist lines, so as to generate new insights. The analysis shows how the metaphor of pilgrimage is an important lens to address individual and communal practices amongst outbound Chinese gambling tourists and brings to light the hyper-meaningfulness, shared values, ritualization, play, risk, and liminal conditions that characterise the processes of their entanglements and the centrality of commercial and political interests. In particular, the analysis indicates the need to explore the significance of cultural, spiritual, economic and social dimensions of Chinese outbound tourism, as well as the unique discourses of power and control affecting their movement and practices. By reframing and reconceptualising gambling tourists as a Chinese pilgrimage, we account for manifestations of culture, governmentality and intentional ritualization as well as contribute an alternative construction of pilgrimage beyond euro-centric accounts, which in turn, will stimulate discussion on geographies of pilgrimage.

Towards relational geographies of gambling harm: Orientation, affective atmosphere, and intimacy

“…The cultural political economy of gambling consumption focuses on the production of values and identities and tends to emphasise the immaterial aspects of capitalism. This work examines how normative discourses influence gamblers and commercial gambling in English- and Chinese-speaking markets and how the industry has shifted its approach to sustain consumer expenditure in casinos through urban and national strategies (O'Regan et al, 2019; Zhang and Yeoh, 2016). For instance, O'Regan et al, (2019) describe how the industry in Macau reimagined gambling for the Chinese market as a pilgrimage, where festive sociality and spiritual rituals create a community of ‘collective joy’ that conceals harm.…”

Framing Slogans for Responsible Gambling Campaigns: A Tale of Two Models

“…Moreover, we identified two studies that explored the use of metaphors to promote gambling activities. One study investigated the framing effect of PILGRIMAGE as a meaningful metaphor, enabling outbound Chinese gambling tourists to interpret their experiences [52]. The other study analysed commercial advertisements for online betting, identifying the metaphors 'THE ACT OF LOVE', 'A MAR-KET', 'A SPORT', and 'A NATURAL ENVIRONMENT' used to illustrate and promote betting activities [53].…”