Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau says it is stepping up its monitoring of VIP casino operations in the wake of a recent report out of mainland China accusing junket giant Suncity of illegally recruiting Chinese nationals for its online gambling and proxy betting services.
The regulatory agency said it recently conducted 25 unannounced checks of VIP rooms at seven Macau casinos and found no illegal activities. It added, however, that “relevant inspections will continue to ensure the gambling industry operates according to the law and develops healthily”.
The accusation against Suncity has proved troubling for the junkets, and the local authorities as well, because its source, a news website specializing in economic and business affairs, has ties to China’s government-sponsored Xinhua news agency, which implies the report carried the weight of official sanction from Beijing.
Online and proxy gambling are illegal in Macau and China both, and though Suncity strenuously denies the truth of the report, it has said it will begin applying Macau law in all its markets and therefore will close those services in places like the Philippines where they are legal and reputedly very lucrative.
The DICJ, meanwhile, has emphasized that Suncity𑁋Macau’s largest junket with an estimated 40 percent of the VIP casino market𑁋is not under investigation.
Macau’s Judiciary Police said it has investigated seven cases so far this year involving illegal online gaming, none of which point to local residents or to web servers hosted in Macau, it said.
