The total number of game promoters in Macau, also known as “junkets,” has halved in the past 12 months. The number of game promoters in the Macau market has dropped for the 11th consecutive year, official data showed.
The latest updated list of licensed operators released by the Office for the Coordination of Game Inspection, the city’s gaming regulator, showed the total fell to 18 this year from 36 in January 2023. The announcement did not explain why it led to the decline.
Every year around January, the gaming regulator publishes a list with the names of all the junkets licensed to operate in Macau’s casinos. According to data kept on record, there were a total of 235 licensed junkets in Macau back in January 2013.
The game promoter has been granted permission by the Macau government to support VIP games in urban casinos.
Many of the 18 licensed game promoters currently operate in the Macau market last year, including Pacific Intermediateio Sociedad Unipesol Lda and Heishen Grupo Lda.
Under the new legal framework for the sector, each junket in Macau can partner with only one game concessionaire. Junket operators can earn a commission capped at 1.25 percent on rolling chip turnover for their game promotion services. However, they are prohibited from sharing casino revenues with the casino concessionaire they work in “any form,” and also from running their own VIP rooms within Macau’s casinos.
The Macau government in September announced the maximum number of junkets each of Macau’s casino operators could work in 2024. The total number was limited to 50, according to Macau regulators.
A list released in September on the regulator’s website showed local units of Sands China and SJM Holdings could work with up to a dozen junkets each in 2024.
The subsidiaries of MGM China Holdings Ltd and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd can work with up to eight junket operators each. The local subsidiaries of Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd and Wynn Macao Ltd each have a limit of five junket partners in 2024.
Macau’s junket system includes other “stakeholders” called sub-agents, known as “collaborators,” under Macau’s regulatory system. They are typically people with networks of contacts who introduced expensive players and then allowed junkets to host them in casino VIP rooms.
Gaming regulators said this week they have eight licensed collaborators in 2024.
The junket division saw a significant drop in business in November 2021 and January 2022, respectively, when two of its biggest junket bosses – Alvin Chowchuck of Sun City Brands and Rebo Chan Wong Lin of Takchun Brands – were detained for alleged illegal gambling operations.
BY: 실시간 바카라사이트