Inside Asian Gaming

June 2016 inside asian gaming 31 of information within the industry,” MGIA Vice Chairman Tony Tong says. “Our mission is the promotion of healthy, sustainable development of the gaming industry.” Macau’s junket sector has appeared neither healthy nor sustainable of late. Hong Kong-listed top five junket promoter Neptune Group expressed doubt about the industry’s survival in its 2015 annual report. The number of registered Macau junkets has dropped from 235 in 2014 to 142 at the latest count – a 40% fall and the lowest number since 2006 – as VIP play continues to decline in the face of China President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign and slowing mainland economic growth. Many surviving junkets have curtailed operations, with Golden Moon reportedly closing its room at Wynn Macau last month. All junket promoters are facing additional pressure from the DICJ’s new financial reporting regulations and last month’s ban on phone use at tables, effectively barring proxy betting. Estimates had proxy betting pegged at up to 10% of junket revenue. LENDING RACE Exchanging player credit information won’t cure all of the junket sector’s ills, but it will allow better informed decisions on credit. “Previously, many industry players were competing against each other, leading to bad debt problems,” Mr Tong, founder of junket advisor and investor Pacific Financial Group, says. He believes a blacklist, “hopefully an official one,” can help reduce bad debts. At G2E Asia, AMJEM President Kwok Chi Chung told reporters that junkets have overdue debt of more than HK$30 billion. A Daiwa Securities report in April gave a “conservative” estimate of VIPs’ current debt (not overdue) to junkets as also being around HK$30 billion. Last year, Macau’s VIP revenue totaled HK$124 Features Debt collection is a major challenge facing the junket sector, with outstanding credit to players estimated to be around HK$60 billion, roughly equivalent to Macau junket promoters’ revenue from gaming last year.