Macau no longer VIP bet hub of Asia, admits Suncity listco

March 31, 2022 Macau Earnings & Filings

Macau “used to be the gaming mecca in Asia, with VIP gaming as a major source of gross gaming revenue [GGR]” says a firm linked to Macau casino junket investor Alvin Chau Cheok Wa. But Suncity Group Holdings Ltd added, in its annual results filed on Wednesday, that in Macau “the reliance on VIP business has already gone”.周焯華

The speeding of the unwinding of the Macau junket market had coincided with Suncity Group Holdings’ former chairman Mr Chau being detained in Macau in November, on suspicion of promoting cross-border gambling to Chinese customers. Mr Chau, also formerly boss of privately-held casino junket group Suncity Group Ltd, is no longer able to give financial support to Suncity Group Holdings, the latter noted in its 2021 results.

On Sunday, Macau Golden Group, a veteran presence in the city’s VIP gambling market, and a long-term junket-investor partner to local casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd, became the latest in the sector to say it was to terminate “all” VIP gaming operations with effect from Wednesday (March 30).

Suncity Group Holdings has interests – via a network of associated businesses – in casino projects in respectively, Vietnam, the Philippines, and the Russian Far East.

The group said that in future it would be focusing not on Chinese gambling customers but on “the rise of the mega-rich and middle-class customers in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines etc,” which were the “fundamentals of demand for high-quality integrated resorts with a localised theme in Asia”. Mainland China has been having a well-flagged crackdown on cross-border gambling.