recent crackdown<\/a><\/em><\/strong> on money laundering and corruption crimes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe outflow of funds comes as another setback as Macau hopes for a recovery in gaming activity when mainland China resumes issuing Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) permits from today (September 23).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Reuters, the trend of VIPs removing funds from Macau junkets and casinos began in July after Beijing identified the cross-border flow of funds for gambling as a national security risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The news agency reports that hundreds of customers then began to pull deposits from top junket Suncity through its VIP clubs across Macau, although the operator denies\u00a0the suggestion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An anonymous\u00a0casino executive told Reuters that customers have withdrawn\u00a0billions of dollars from Macau junkets since July. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cWe have cash in the bank but with everyone withdrawing, it\u2019s a problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most Macau casinos have ample reserves to ride out several months with diminished operations due to the pandemic, but analysts warn that withdrawal of funds suggests a severe\u00a0loss of confidence in the VIP market, which represents about half of\u00a0overall gambling revenues (US$36.5 billion last year).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Junket agents have also begun taking back deposits from casinos, and Casinos have reacted by limiting the amount of cash chips that can be withdrawn to HK$1 million (US$129,039). Some months ago the limit was\u00a0HK$5 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In some casinos, only account holders can make withdrawals and any\u00a0transaction over HK$200,000 is now flagged. This\u00a0has led\u00a0to people making multiple separate withdrawals.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some cash machines and exchange desks in Macau have had limited or no availability for brief periods in recent weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some Suncity customers who were not able to gain access to their funds have started an online group called \u201cSuncity victims\u2019\u201d and plan to protest at VIP rooms across Macau today (September 23).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Casino sources have lost billions in withdrawals as high rollers fear a crackdown from Chinese authorities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau's VIP gaming sector is experiencing a significant outflow of funds, estimated in the billions, as high rollers withdraw deposits from junkets and casinos amidst a heightened crackdown by Chinese authorities on cross-border gambling and money laundering. This capital flight, driven by national security concerns articulated by Beijing, severely impacts the confidence in Macau's crucial VIP market, which constitutes approximately half of its gross gaming revenue, complicating the region's post-pandemic recovery efforts.","focusai_entities":"Suncity, Reuters, Chinese authorities, Beijing","focusai_location":"Macau, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Macau VIP Outlook","query":"What is the projected long-term impact of Beijing's intensified anti-money laundering efforts on Macau's VIP GGR contribution and the operational viability of junket models?"},{"label":"Operator Liquidity Risk","query":"How are Macau's integrated resort operators stress-testing their balance sheets and liquidity positions against sustained VIP capital flight and reduced high-roller activity?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[161,16338,163,158],"tags":[23751],"class_list":["post-10225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news","category-east-asia-news","category-finance-news","category-slider-home","tag-junkets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10244,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10225\/revisions\/10244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}