5月1日，工人们走上街头，抗议官方腐败及非法劳动力的输入。

　　澳门议员Au Kam-san认为，赌场的繁荣正加速社会的不平等，并促使物价上涨和迫使当地公司退出竞争。

　　澳门平均工资的上升是由于越来越多的人在赌场从事高薪工作。其实大多数人的工资并没有上升，随着物价的上涨，他们的生活质量实际上是下降了。

　　澳门政府对赌博业收入制定了39%的税率，但是赌博业可能将大部分收入转入地下操作。澳门前交通公共工作部部长在本周就因收取大量贿赂而加快建设工程的审批时间被指控。

　　用历史作赌注当地资深记者Ricardo Pinto认为，澳门一定不能成为阿斯维加斯的复制品“澳门…不能像拉斯维加斯那样，大多数人都依靠赌博业赚很多钱，而市中心的其他产业却面临濒临倒闭的境地。”Pinto说道：“澳门不是适合那样发展的地方，因为澳门不是沙漠，她是一个拥有上百年历史的城市。

　　澳门在1999年回归中国前，有着长达4个半世纪的葡萄牙殖民统治。城市旧市中心景观仍然保留着鹅软石的街道，巴罗克风格的教堂及殖民统治时期留下的文字。

　　在保罗教堂街遗迹附近的一个古董商店里，老板Liang Meiqing站在一堆佛像和木制家具中间，说道：“新兴的赌博业并没有对他的生意起到促进作用，现在的游客大部分来自大陆，他们过来是赌博的，不是来买古董的。相比之下，在大陆开放对澳门旅游前，我们的生意还更好些，因为那时，很多外国人会买我们店里的古董。”

　　议员Au Kam-san补充道：“在大陆政府放松签证限制，允许更多的内地游客进入澳门之前，澳门的经济不太景气。”同时他又强调，如果大陆政府对入境澳门旅游这一政策再次改变的话，澳门的赌博业繁荣可能很快就面临破灭。

　　译文：

　　On May 1, workers took to the streets, protesting official corruption and the importation of illegal laborers.

　　Macau legislator Au Kam-san says the casino boom is fueling inequality, driving up property prices and forcing local companies out of business.

　　"The increase in Macau's average wage is because there are more people with high incomes working in casinos," Au said. "It's not because poor people's wages have risen. Most people's wages have not risen, but prices have, and so their quality of life has declined."Macau's government levies a 39 percent tax on the casinos' earnings. But they may be taking more under the table. Macau's former secretary for transport and public works went on trial this week, accused of taking huge bribes in exchange for expediting approval of construction projects.

　　Veteran local journalist Ricardo Pinto says Macau must not become a Las Vegas clone.

　　"Macau … cannot become like a new Las Vegas with a strip with a lot of people making a lot of money, and then a downtown which is mostly moribund, almost dying," Pinto said. "Macau is not a place to do it, because Macau is not a desert, you know, it was not a desert, it's a place with hundreds of years of history."Macau was a colony of Portugal for nearly four and a half centuries before returning to Chinese sovereignty in 1999. The city's old center remains a picturesque mix of cobbled streets, baroque churches and colonial forts.

　　In an antique shop near the ruins of St. Paul's church, merchant Liang Meiqing stands amid Buddhist statues and wooden furniture. She says the new casinos haven't helped her business a bit.

　　"Tourists these days are mostly mainlanders. They come to gamble, not to buy our antiques. It was better before China became so open. There were more foreigners who would buy our things," she said.

　　Au notes that Macau's economy was stagnant until Beijing made the decision to ease visa restrictions and allow more mainlanders to visit Macau. Au warns that if Beijing changes its mind about the policy, the casino boom could quickly go bust.