Less competition for smaller ops
Macau has seen growth in smaller junket operations that target people of means, but not the elite VIPs often referred to in the gaming industry as “whales.”
In fact, several recent news reports referred to the target demographic as “mini-whales,” and said the junkets that serve them have made in-roads in the jurisdiction.
New VIP gaming companies have opened junket rooms inside the L’Arc resort and Legend Palace Hotel. And junket investor the David Group recently debuted rooms inside Studio City and Galaxy, and the David Group has started operations in the newly opened Macau Roosevelt Hotel, as well as in Studio City and Galaxy.
“The business conditions for VIP gaming has improved a lot, hence some of the junket operators have resumed their businesses,” Association of Gaming & Entertainment Promoters President Kwok Chi Chung told GGRAsia.
Travel packages from larger companies like Suncity and Neptune typically start at more than $25,000 and can exceed $600,000. “Many junket operators now have changed for a better business strategy. Now they no longer only aim for the very rich clients, which in turn helps to reduce debt collection risk and stabilize their businesses,” Chung said.
Ricardo Chi Sen Siu, associate professor in business economics at the University of Macau, told the Macau Business Daily it can be to a junket’s advantage to “diversify the sources of contacting and marketing, hence lowering the traditional risks, as the market is dominated by a few large junkets with non-transparent transactions.”
The growth in the sector “could be a good sign for the industry’s development,” the professor said.
