Macau’s gambling industry is in for a bumpy ride as structural headwinds in the second half of 2018 will blow the VIP gaming sector off its course, according to analysts.

International brokerage Sanford Bernstein sounded the alarm over a possible “deceleration” of Macau’s VIP gaming sector in the second half of the year due to a number of political and economic factors in mainland China, reported the Macau News Agency.

These factors include instituted cooling measures on Chinese real estate; credit tightening in China; increasing [focus on] regulatory environment in Macau; and continued Chinese government focus on capital outflows in China, among others, according to the report.

Bernstein estimated that the VIP sector growth could slow to 8 percent in 2018.