{"id":21393,"date":"2021-08-11T13:40:27","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T16:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=21393"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:45:07","slug":"macaus-vip-rooms-untenable-under-chinas-new-penal-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macaus-vip-rooms-untenable-under-chinas-new-penal-code","title":{"rendered":"Macau’s VIP rooms untenable under China\u2019s new penal code"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Legislative Assembly has indicated that VIP rooms will \u201chardly be able to continue with their modus operandi” under China’s revised penal code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- Legislators in Macau have warned authorities that increased\u00a0regulatory controls in China\u00a0<\/strong>could make it difficult for VIP rooms to continue in their current form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislators said: “The proposal to revise the penal code of the People\u2019s Republic of China (\u2026) the\u00a0control of money outflows and the fight against organising the participation in gaming activities<\/strong>\u00a0outside the country, is of great alarm to the gaming sector of Southeast Asia and the whole world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They said the rules \u201cwill make it\u00a0difficult for VIP rooms to continue<\/strong>\u00a0their operating methods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to local media reports, the new measures state that anyone who \u201corganises\u201d mainland\u00a0Chinese citizens to gamble \u201coutside the country’s borders\u201d\u00a0could face a possible prison term of up to 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has blacklisted several countries<\/a> and questioned Chinese citizens they believe to be travelling to gamble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, analysts believe the measures will not have a deep impact on Macau\u2019s gaming sector<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noting the restart of applications for the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS)<\/a> for Macau, analysts said: \u201cWe think this suggests China will continue to allow gambling in Macau <\/strong>despite potential regulatory headwinds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They added: \u201cWe remain constructive in the hope of the border opening and eventual extension of licences<\/strong>, both of which we expect in second-half 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to\u00a0fight against money laundering and tax evasion,\u00a0<\/strong>the Legislative Assembly has suggested the\u00a0use of digital currency<\/a>\u00a0in the gaming sector\u00a0could mark a before and after for the gaming industry<\/strong>\u00a0as customers could buy chips instantly using RMB without the need to convert to HKD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Legislative Assembly has indicated that VIP rooms will \u201chardly be able to continue with their modus operandi” under China’s revised penal code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"China's revised penal code, targeting the organization of cross-border gambling, poses significant challenges for Macau's VIP room modus operandi. While analysts anticipate limited deep impact on Macau's overall gaming sector due to IVS restart and expected license extensions, the Legislative Assembly suggests digital currency adoption to combat AML and tax evasion.","focusai_entities":"Legislative Assembly","focusai_location":"Macau, China, Southeast Asia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), tech_data (0.7), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"VIP Junket Model Adaptation?","query":"How will Macau's gaming operators adapt their B2B VIP junket models to comply with China's revised penal code on organizing cross-border gambling?"},{"label":"Digital Currency Implementation?","query":"What specific governance frameworks and technological infrastructure would be required to implement a digital RMB for gaming transactions in Macau, and what are the timelines?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338,158],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-21393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21393","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\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21417,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21393\/revisions\/21417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}