Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in the Gambling Industry

Abstract

The social cost of the gambling industry has always been controversial. In 2015, the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) government initiated a midterm review to evaluate the overall performance of the gambling industry. The objective of the study was to investigate how does the government influence and guide the operators to control their social cost and create value to society. This study applied content analysis and collected data from annual reports, sustainability/social reports, and corporate websites of all gambling operators in Macau from 2005 to 2016. The results were further analyzed by looking into the critical policy documents released and issues occurred during the period. The result indicated that the gambling operators have used CSR reporting as a communication channel with the government, which is consistent with legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory. In addition, most of the companies have reinforced their disclosure related to government policies after the midterm review report. This finding also reflects some insights of the political economy theory.