Macau maintains 50-junket cap through 2026

The Macau government will maintain its current cap on VIP junkets for at least the next 18 months. According to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, a total of 50 licensed gaming promoters are permitted to operate in the city through 2026.

That leaves room to grow in the sector. Macau now has just 29 junkets, less than 58% of the maximum allowed, per Macao News.

But those berths are unlikely to be filled. Junkets have been on a steady decline since their peak in 2014. That year, 235 operators served the VIP trade and contributed an estimated 60% of casino revenues. But within a decade, the number of active junkets dropped to just 18.

Relic of a bygone era

Junkets make their money by luring free-spending high-rollers to casinos. Traditionally, organisers have arranged travel, accommodations and lines of credit for punters who don’t blanch at betting $50,000 a hand. In the past, they have also served as debt collectors.

That model started to unravel with Beijing’s crackdown on corruption, including capital flight and gamblers’ attempts to bypass foreign-exchange limits.

The government case was strengthened by scandals surrounding the two biggest junket runners in Macau. In 2023, Alvin Chau, head of the Suncity Group, was convicted on more than 100 counts of illegal gambling and fraud. He was sentenced to 18 years behind bars. Three months later, Levo Chan, head of the Tak Chun Group, was found guilty on similar charges. He received 14 years in prison.

That same year, Ji Xiaobo, onetime boss of the Hengsheng Group, was called the “head of a criminal syndicate” by a Beijing court. All three junket operations have since been dissolved, along with many others. Some have shifted their focus to other jurisdictions with less stringent regulations, such as Vietnam.

A leaner junket framework

While junkets survive in Macau, they now operate under a different regulatory structure.

According to Macau’s 2022 gaming law, operators may no longer share revenue with casinos. Instead, they earn a fixed 1.25% commission on rolling-chip turnover. They are restricted to working with just one casino concessionaire (though concessionaires can work with multiple junkets). Dedicated VIP rooms at casinos are also a thing of the past. And in 2024, the government enacted a new law that restricts the issuance of casino credit to concessionaires alone.

According to The Economist, Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to “purify the social atmosphere” by transforming Macau’s reliance on gaming as an economic driver, in part through stricter monetary controls.