MACAU BUSINESS “Our business has significantly improved compared
to the start of the year, when the COVID-linked travel restrictions were lifted,” says U Io Hung, president of the Macau Professional Association of Gaming Promoters, one of the industry groups of Macau junkets. “As we have seen an influx of tourists in town now, the same happens to casinos.”
The number of visitors to Macau more than
quadrupled year-on-year to 14.4 million in the first seven months of this year, according to the latest government figures. In July 2023 alone, the daily visitation averaged over 89,000, recovering to more than 78 percent of the pre-pandemic volume. Meanwhile, the gross gaming revenue of the city surged 263 percent year-on-year to MOP 96.8 billion in the January-July period of the year, which accounted for 55.6 percent of the pre-COVID level.
Controlling the volume Mr. U estimates that the overall turnover of casino junkets, or gaming promoters in government terms, “has doubled” from the volume at the beginning of 2023, while there are currently 15 active junkets working with the city’s six gaming concessionaires, compared to only eight gaming promoters earlier this year. For instance, gaming operator Galaxy Entertainment Group resumed a partnership with one junket in June, months after its new 10-year gaming concession began at the start of 2023. “The sector is also on the path of recovery. With the
increasing turnover, it is expected that more junkets will gradually become interested in business again... and gaming concessionaires might also be interested in working with more junkets,” he says in an interview. But he emphasises that the hike in the number of
junket operators could be controlled by the local regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), during its annual licencing process for gaming promoters. “Despite the recent market recovery, DICJ can regulate the number of licenced junkets if it wants to rein in the scale of the segment,” he explains. The latest data from DICJ shows that there are
currently a total of 36 licenced gaming promoters. This is in stark contrast to over 100 licenced junkets before the pandemic and more than 200 junkets during the sector’s heyday a decade ago.
Penalising casino trips The collapse of the junket segment in recent times, including the wind-down of many local junkets, was not solely due to the negative repercussions of the pandemic but also the arrests and sentencing of two major junket magnates, Alvin Chau Cheok Wa and Levo Chan Weng Lin.
Gaming analysts and scholars also cite tightening
“Despite the recent market recovery, DICJ can regulate the number of licenced junkets if it wants to rein in the scale of the segment,” – says junket veteran U Io Hung
22 OCTOBER 2023
regulations as another significant factor behind the demise of the decades-old junket model in the city, including the implementation of the new gaming law last year. This new regulation prohibits junkets from operating their own clubs within Macau’s casinos and restricts them to establishing business ties with just one casino concessionaire. Furthermore, junkets are no longer allowed to participate in a revenue-sharing business model with concessionaires, as their earnings are now limited to a commission on rolling chip turnover. Critics also argue that Beijing’s stricter stance on cross-border gambling has a negative impact on the
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