THE MACAU METRO MONITOR, JULY 5 2013
SUNCITY MONTHLY VIP GAMBLING VOLUME HITS MOP135 BLN Macau Business
VIP volume at Suncity Group Ltd reached a record 135 billion patacas (US$16.9 billion) last month according to an executive of the company. Suncity is the “number one junket operation in Macau in terms of scale”, said Maggie Lei Siu Wai, the group’s vice president of human resources. She added the company had interests in the profits of 250 gaming tables in 17 VIP rooms.
Lei added that the consolidation of different junket rooms under the management of a few big junket investors is “a general trend based on the limited human resources” of the city. It’s likely it is also driven by business factors including the spread of credit risk and smoothing of trading volatility. The more junket rooms, the more sub-agents recruiting players from China, the more players, the more cross-subsidy of the business and the greater the smoothing effect in the credit trading cycle, say industry sources.
DICJ said in March the city had 235 licensed junket operators – an increase of 7.3% YoY. But a deceleration in growth rates for the VIP segment – against a background of a more challenging macroeconomic picture in mainland China and a new national political leadership apparently committed to reducing corruption and the volume and speed at which money passes through the city’s junket system – has in turn created tougher trading conditions for junkets. That’s especially the case for smaller operations with only a few rooms and a small roster of players.