{"id":9123,"date":"2020-08-18T23:02:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T23:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=9123"},"modified":"2026-04-24T02:38:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:38:20","slug":"china-clampdown-hurts-macaus-vip-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/china-clampdown-hurts-macaus-vip-business","title":{"rendered":"China clampdown hurts Macau\u2019s VIP business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China’s clampdown on capital flows is causing liquidity problems for the city’s casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- China\u2019s crusade to control capital outflows may inadvertedly complicate Macau\u2019s struggle to recover from the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent travel restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters reports that since China identified the cross-border flow of funds for gambling as a national security risk in June, channels usually used by VIPs at Macau\u2019s casinos have been cut off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news agency said thousands of bank accounts that used those channels to enter money into casino accounts have been frozen, and more than 229 billion yuan (US$32.95 billion) has been seized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has also set up online whistle blowing platforms<\/a><\/em><\/strong> and raided illegal gambling rings across the country in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casino executives and junket operators in Macau told Reuters the measures were hitting big spending VIP customers who are concerned about their financing channels. The VIP junket sector in Macau accounts for almost 50 per cent of revenue, which reached US$36.5 billion last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lam Kai Kuong, director of the Macau Junket Association, said \u201cit definitely impacts liquidity,\u201d adding that unless China stops its persecution of VIP gambling, spending in the segment may never recover to pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anthony Lawrance, managing director of Greater Bay Insight, told Reuters: \u201cThe junket sector in Macau has been living on borrowed time for years, and the end is drawing nearer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChina clearly intends to cut out these middlemen and gain better control over the outflows of renminbi (yuan) through Macau.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Lee, founder of Macau gaming consultancy IGamiX, said that even if there was demand from high rollers to come back to Macau<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, the ability of the junkets to finance gaming activity remains severely constrained and would put further onus on casino operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cthe only way for the VIP segment to recover is for the casinos to expand their lines of credit without corresponding cash collateral (from the junkets) which has been a prerequisite for them in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China’s clampdown on capital flows is causing liquidity problems for the city’s casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9125,"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 intensified clampdown on cross-border capital flows, specifically targeting gambling-related funds, is severely impacting Macau's VIP casino sector. This has led to frozen bank accounts, seized funds, and significant liquidity challenges for junket operators, threatening the recovery of Macau's gaming revenue. Industry experts suggest this may force casino operators to extend credit without traditional collateral, fundamentally altering the VIP financing model.","focusai_entities":"Lam Kai Kuong, Macau Junket Association, Anthony Lawrance, Greater Bay Insight, Ben Lee, IGamiX, Reuters","focusai_location":"China, Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"VIP Segment Recovery?","query":"What specific policy adjustments or alternative financing mechanisms would be required for Macau's VIP gaming segment to recover to pre-pandemic GGR levels, given China's sustained capital control enforcement?"},{"label":"Operator Credit Risk?","query":"How will Macau casino operators mitigate increased credit risk if they are compelled to expand lines of credit to VIPs without traditional junket-provided cash collateral, and what are the implications for their balance sheets?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338,158],"tags":[227,257],"class_list":["post-9123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-china","tag-macau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123","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=9123"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9143,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123\/revisions\/9143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}