In a provision of Macau’s newly amended gaming law, casino operators will have the right to offer “special accounts” for customer deposits, but those accounts cannot be interest-bearing.
According to Inside Asian Gaming, Chan Chak Mo, chairman of the second standing committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL), said casino concessionaires can open the accounts “for gambling customers to keep their chips or cash,” but cannot provide “interest like a bank, because the government has to eliminate all illegal deposits and the account has to comply with money laundering regulations.”
The accounts “will not have a time limit,” he continued. “It is no problem for the customer to come eight years later or 10 years later to withdraw their money, but the process must comply with money laundering laws.”
To open such accounts, players must provide in-depth personal information, including their sources of funds.
Another change to the so-called junket bill is a provision requiring that “the issuance or renewal of junket licenses to take into account the scale of the junket industry.” In the new text, the word “renewal” has been removed, and replaced with “issuance,” IAG reported.
As Chan stated, “The reason for eliminating ‘renewal’ is that the size of the gaming junket industry was already considered when the license was originally issued, so the size of gaming junket industry should not be re-examined when the license is renewed.
“Junkets still can… on behalf of their patrons, deposit their [patrons’] cash or gaming chips in accounts established at concessionaires, for the purpose of gambling. This rule also extends to collaborators,” he said.
“Junket operators and their collaborators have to be able to show that they are authorized [by their patrons] to access the patrons’ accounts, or withdraw money from the account for them, or help them to exchange gaming chips.”
The bill holds that the number of gaming junkets will be set by Macau’s Gaming and Inspection Bureau (DICJ), but it is the responsibility of the concessionaires to decide how many junkets they will work with.
