Macau casinos to stop junkets at world's biggest gambling hub - Bernstein

LET group

07/12/2021 09:55

By Eduardo Baptista
    HONG KONG, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Macau's gaming regulator has
ordered junket operators in the world's largest gambling hub to
stop offering credit to customers, according to brokerage firm
Bernstein.
    Macau's Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau (DICJ)
has ordered the operators, who bring big-spending clients from
mainland China to VIP rooms in Macau casinos, often with loans
to gamble with, to stop offering credit, Bernstein said in a
research note on Monday, citing sources.
    "Wynn and others are in the process of shuttering junket
operations," Bernstein said in the note.
    Separately, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing
unidentified sources, that Wynn and Melco would close their
junket rooms by Dec. 20 and Dec. 21.
    Macau's gaming regulator did not respond to a request for
comment. 
    Casino operators Wynn Macau  1128.HK , Sands China
 1928.HK , Galaxy Entertainment  0027.HK , SJM Holdings
 0880.HK  and Melco International Development  0200.HK  also did
not respond to requests from Reuters for comment.
    The news comes days after embattled junket giant Suncity
closed all of its VIP gambling rooms in Macau after its chief
executive, Alvin Chau, was arrested over alleged links to
cross-border gambling.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2SM028
    Authorities in mainland China, where gambling is illegal,
see junkets as responsible for helping to siphon billions of
yuan overseas, a risk to a country that has always had strict
controls on capital outflows.
    Carlos Lobo, a Macau-based gaming consultant, said if the
Macau government did make junkets stop offering credit to
clients, it would mark the end of an era.
    "If this is true, the junkets will have to operate as a
travel agency, through activities such as receiving fees for
bringing rich clients to casino operators, rather than receiving
commissions from VIP gaming rooms which has been the main
business model for years," he said.
    

 (Additional reporting by Anne Marie Roantree
Editing by Robert Birsel)
 ((annemarie.roantree@thomsonreuters.com; +852 97387151; Reuters
Messaging: annemarie.roantree.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))