Macau casinos fare better than junket operators in government’s mid-term review

Macau’s mid-term review of its gaming market proved anti-climactic for casino operators while promising ever more scrutiny on “problematic” junket operators.

On Wednesday, Macau’s government delivered the results of its year-long examination of its casino operators, whose gaming licenses will be up for renewal in two bunches in 2020 and 2022. However, the government said the review had no direct bearing on the renewal process and was more focused on ways to optimize Macau’s casino market.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Lionel Leong Vac Tai, Secretary for Economy and Finance, was joined by Gaming Inspection and Policy Coordination Bureau (DICJ) chief Paulo Martins Chan to announce the review’s findings. Leong said all six Macau casino concessionaires had lived up to the obligations in their initial pacts.

Leong said Macau’s market had developed largely on the strength of the VIP sector, but times change – oh, how they change – and Macau “cannot only depend on a small number of customers to generate most of the revenue. We need to have new clients.”