This article conducts a corpus-based critical discourse analysis of keywords and their translations in Macao’s gaming discourse, with an aim to explore the impact of translation on the construction of gaming discourse and the development of the gaming industry in Macao from 1999 to 2011, the first decade following the region’s sovereignty handover. The corpus consists of texts from 2000 to 2011 concerning three public sectors in Macao: local government, academia and the media. The study finds diachronic as well as synchronic changes in the distribution and translation of certain keywords in the corpus. It argues that shifts in the keyword terminology being used, such as from ‘gambling’ to ‘gaming,’ aim at framing the Macao gaming industry in specific social developmental ways. It also argues that translation plays a crucial role in the construction of a new gaming discourse.