MGM China President and Chief Operating Officer Hubert Wang said Tuesday that Macau’s junket operators are contributing as little as 3% to gaming revenues in his properties in 2023, and even less profit, as focus turns to the mass and premium mass segments.
Speaking exclusively to Inside Asian Gaming after taking part in a panel discussing the future trends of Asia’s integrated resorts, Wang confirmed that MGM’s reliance on junkets was negligible in 2023 following significant changes to the way the VIP industry is regulated under Macau’s revised gaming law.
As previously reported by IAG, these changes include an end to both revenue share agreements between junkets and concessionaires, and to junkets running their own VIP rooms in Macau casinos.
“I think right now in Macau you have 30-odd [licensed] junket operators,” Wang said. The DICJ has allowed MGM to have eight this year, but fewer are actually operating and only a couple are bringing meaningful business.
Wang commented that the total VIP market in Macau is currently contributing around 15% of all gaming revenues and added that probably less than 5% is generated through junkets, with the remainder coming from direct VIP. Profit from junkets is even less than its share of revenue, Wang added.
Earlier, Melco Resorts’ Chief Operating Office – Macau Resorts, David Sisk, said the future of junkets was “outside of China” and agreed Macau’s concessionaires would have increasingly little reliance on what they can offer.
“We’ve been migrating junket play to in-house for some time,” Sisk said. “In the future, most VIP will migrate to premium mass.”
