Casino junket operators in Macau will each have to pay a guarantee of MOP1.50 million (US$186,854) either to renew a licence or get a new one, according to a dispatch from the city’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lei Wai Nong. The regulation will come into force next Monday (January 1), according to the document published on Wednesday on the city’s Official Gazette.
Junkets – also known as gaming promoters – are licensed by the Macau government to support VIP gaming in the city’s casinos. Their services include: arrangement of gambling credit for players; collection on losses generated by high-roller play; and organisation of player accommodation.
The deposit aims to guarantee that a company applying for a junket licence complies with the payment of costs arising from the verification of its suitability and financial capacity; other legal obligations; and the eventual payment of any fines that might arise “from the exercise of the game promotion activity,” according to Macau’s amended gaming law.
Secretary Lei’s dispatch also states that a “gaming management company” will also have to pay a MOP1.50 million guarantee, for the same reasons. The management company is a category of enterprise linked to so-called satellite casinos and distinct from the gaming concessionaires themselves.
Those known as “collaborators” of junkets will have to pay a deposit of MOP500,000, according to the dispatch. In Macau, collaborators are traditionally sub-agents that have worked with junkets, to bring in high-value players.
Macau’s Legislative Assembly gave a fortnight ago a second and final nod to a consolidating bill that regulates the licensing and activities of casino junket operators and what are termed “gaming management companies” in the city. The document states that individuals would no longer be licensable as junkets; only companies. The share capital of a junket firm should be no less than MOP10 million, and at least 50 percent of this capital has to be held by a Macau permanent resident aged 21 year or above.
As of January 2022, there were 46 licensed gaming promoters – either entities or individuals – in Macau, down 45.9 percent over the past 12 months, according to the latest available data from the city’s gaming regulator. The number marked the ninth consecutive year of decline in the number of licensed junkets in the Macau market.
