Talk:Prostitution in Macau

Is it legal or not?
Is there anyone who can provide exact information that shows the actual legal situation in Macau,PRC? It appears that, unlike in HK,prostitution is illegal in Macau as many prostitutes have been caught by their police for prostitution (rather than for working without permit in case of foreign ones).

The article http://www.uschina.usc.edu/article@usct?survive_in_the_cracks_%E2%80%94_the_sex_industry_in_macau_19452.aspx

"Professor Luo Weijian, the vice-chairman of Macau’s Law Reform Commission, noted that prostitution is illegal in Macau"

implies that the situation is quite different than in Hong Kong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Noob2013 (talk • contribs) 03:56, 16 September 2015 (UTC)


 * I've been trying to figure this out too, but with limited success. The WP article Prostitution law says that prostitution is legal in Macau, but procuring is illegal. The source given for that information, the 2008 Human Rights Report: China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau), says that "Prostitution is legal and common; however, procurement and the operation of a brothel are illegal." The US-China Today article is rather self-contradictory, following its claim that prostitution is illegal with the assertion that "if sex workers and consumers are acting privately and with mutual consent in a non-public place… the police have no right to accuse them”. It doesn't say whether such people can't be accused because they are not breaking the law, or because they have some sort of legal immunity. The article from the Independent calls it "legally tolerated", which is simply ambiguous. I used the phrase "not illegal" (admittedly Weasel Words WP:Weasel) to try and avoid claiming that it's actually legal. Calling it legal is hard to cite definitively and in some ways rather misleading as prostitutes in Macau do seem to get arrested for something. I've updated the article to include the 2008 Human Rights Report reference and brought the text more in line with it. If anyone has any more information, please feel free to help. Polly Tunnel (talk) 12:13, 16 September 2015 (UTC)