The Macau junket system could see changes if the new VIP gaming promoter law is approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Macau.-\u00a0Professor Wang Changbin<\/strong>, director of the Centre for Gaming and Tourism Studies at Macao Polytechnic University, has told GGRAsia that junket operators could become mere agents in the future, introducing players to the city’s casinos. The relationship would then be directly managed<\/strong> by the casinos themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the system would work like the independent agents that work in Las Vegas. There, independent agents not part of the casinos are authorised to deal with operators to bring in quality players. Inside the casinos themselves, casino hosts deal with the players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Changbin added: \u201cMost of the\u00a0promotion business would be likely to pull out of mainland China\u00a0<\/strong>due to the crackdown there, and turn to other markets such as Hong Kong, and to outside countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bill that proposes\u00a0changes to the legal framework<\/a>\u00a0concerning junket operations aims to improve oversight of the industry. In the future Macau junket operators will only be able to work with one casino operator<\/a>. Individuals will no longer be licensed as intermediaries; only companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bill also provides criminal penalties for junkets who \u201cillegally accept deposits from the public.\u201d Offenders could face up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Judiciary Police in Macau<\/strong> is investigating a sub-agent working in gambling junket promotions who failed to return nearly HKD280m (US$35.8m) from more than 200 deposit holders. Officers say the money was deposited in a casino VIP room over two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police have not identified the junket operator who worked with the sub-agent nor the casino venue or location where the VIP business was conducted but says the sub-agent is believed to have been involved in gambling transactions in Macau from October 2019 to September last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An investigation began after 18 depositors reported that they were unable to recover deposits totalling MOP27m after the closure of a VIP room last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Macau junket system could see changes if the new VIP gaming promoter law is approved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26697,"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 proposed VIP gaming promoter law aims to transform junket operators into mere agents, directly linking players with casinos and restricting them to single-operator partnerships. This regulatory overhaul, driven by mainland China's crackdown, introduces stricter licensing for companies only and severe criminal penalties for illegal deposit-taking. Concurrently, a significant fraud investigation involving a sub-agent highlights the critical need for enhanced oversight within the VIP gaming sector.","focusai_entities":"Professor Wang Changbin, Macao Polytechnic University, GGRAsia, Judiciary Police","focusai_location":"Macau, Las Vegas, China, Hong Kong","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"VIP Model Impact","query":"What is the projected financial impact on Macau's concessionaires from transitioning to a direct casino-VIP relationship model and the restriction of junkets to a single operator?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement","query":"How will the Macau Judiciary Police enhance enforcement capabilities to prevent illegal deposit-taking and mitigate fraud risks under the new VIP gaming promoter legal framework?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338,158],"tags":[23911,23907,23906],"class_list":["post-28704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-land-based-casino","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28704","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=28704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28711,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28704\/revisions\/28711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Macau: VIP agent allegedly stole US$35.8m from casino VIP deposits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n