Macao's booming casino industry is to need at least 50,000 croupiers in 2009, local media reported Wednesday.

The Macao Post Daily quoted Joao Bosco Cheang Hong Lok, chairman of the Macao Gaming Industry Workers Association, as saying that a large number of residents are keen to become croupiers as the job does not require high level education yet offers "good benefits."

The number of the current croupiers stood at 20,000 or 7 percent of Macao's labor force.

The region, the only part of China where casino gaming is legitimate, has 25 casinos.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2007)