{"id":25305,"date":"2021-12-08T07:17:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T10:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=25305"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:08:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:08:54","slug":"gaming-operators-will-terminate-agreements-with-junkets-analysts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/gaming-operators-will-terminate-agreements-with-junkets-analysts-say","title":{"rendered":"Gaming operators will terminate agreements with junkets, analysts say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Analysts at Morgan Stanley have said that more gaming operators will end agreements with junkets, effectively closing the junket sector in Macau without the government having to intervene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- Analysts at Morgan Stanley believes that\u00a0more gaming concessionaires will terminate their agreements\u00a0<\/strong>with junkets, effectively ending the industry in the city even if the authorities have not formally ordered a ban. All junkets licences in the city will expire on December 31. However, according to Morgan Stanley,\u00a0if gaming operators cut contact with junkets, the industry may be brought to an end\u00a0without official government orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forecast comes after all VIP rooms operated by Suncity, one of the largest junket operators in Macau, were closed following the arrest of\u00a0Alvin Chau<\/a>\u00a0and 11 others on December 1 on cross-border gambling and money laundering accusations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit Suisse has since revealed\u00a0Wynn Macau plans to close all of its VIP rooms<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>from December 20. Other operators are reviewing their positions but have not taken decisions.\u00a0It appears that\u00a0Wynn will retain only its direct VIP business<\/strong>, which currently accounts for about 20 per cent of its VIP revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of junket licences issued by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) has been falling each year, from 235 in 2013 to 85 in 2021. In 2019,\u00a0Suncity accounted for more than 45 per cent of the junket market<\/strong>, while Tak Chun accounted for about 19 per cent. VIP revenue that year was approximately US$14bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts at Morgan Stanley stressed that the VIP industry is more important for local taxes than to casino operators’ EBITDA. The industry has generated US$228bn in revenue<\/strong>\u00a0and US$89bn in taxes for the Macau government in the past 15 years, but casino operators only saw US$20bn in EBITDA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macau: DICJ tells junkets to stop offering credit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A report published by Sanford C. Bernstein says that Macau\u2019s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ has issued instructions to junkets to stop providing credit to customers<\/a> and to require prepaid cash to purchase chips. Junkets will no longer be allowed to provide VIP gamblers with loans, one of the pillars of their business model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIP junket operators usually work with a network of sub-junkets<\/strong> that know the credit history of their customers. The sub-junkets collect commissions from VIP junket operators, which provide credit to gamblers and are responsible for debt collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Analysts at Morgan Stanley have said that more gaming operators will end agreements with junkets, effectively closing the junket sector in Macau without the government having to intervene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Analysts predict Macau's junket sector will effectively cease due to gaming operators terminating agreements, following high-profile arrests and regulatory directives. This shift, exemplified by Wynn Macau's move to direct VIP business, will significantly impact Macau's tax revenue and necessitate operational adjustments for concessionaires, even without a formal government ban.","focusai_entities":"Morgan Stanley, Suncity, Alvin Chau, Wynn Macau, Credit Suisse, Tak Chun, Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), Sanford C. Bernstein","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.95), payments_fraud_aml (0.85), investor_analyst (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Direct VIP Impact","query":"What is the projected EBITDA impact for Macau concessionaires transitioning entirely to direct VIP operations, considering the historical tax contribution disparity of the junket sector?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution","query":"How will the DICJ's regulatory framework evolve to manage direct VIP credit provision and AML compliance in the absence of the traditional junket intermediary structure?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338,158],"tags":[229,23906],"class_list":["post-25305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25305","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=25305"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25312,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25305\/revisions\/25312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}