On January 30, the chairman and chief shareholder of Macau junket operator Tak Chun Group was arrested and jailed on the same charges that face his former rival, Suncity CEO Alvin Chau.
Chan Weng-Lin, also known as Levo Chan, is being detained in Macau’s Coloane Prison, the same facility where Chau is detained.
Chau was arrested in December and charged with unlawful gambling operations, money laundering and leading a criminal group. Similar allegations have been lodged against Chan. Tak Chun was reportedly second only to Suncity in bringing VIP clients to Macau casinos.
Shortly after the arrest, Macau Legend Development announced that Chan had resigned his roles as co-chairman, CEO and board director “to avoid distraction to the company and for the interest of the shareholders of the company as a whole.” The company said the arrest “relates to the personal affairs of Mr. Chan.”
Chan assumed control of Macau Legend in 2020. Its assets include the casino in the New Orient Landmark Hotel and the entire Macau Fisherman’s Wharf complex, which includes three hotels and two casinos, reported Nikkei Asian Review.
Junkets earn their money by bringing VIP clients from Mainland China and other markets to Macau. They make their travel arrangements and accommodations and extend lines of credit. Suncity previously operated VIP rooms within the properties of all six of the city’s casino operators, but all are now closed. Tak Chun announced in December that two unnamed casino operators also planned to shut its rooms.
Historically, junkets generated a majority of gaming revenues in Macau—in 2013, 235 junkets were at work in the city. At the start of 2021, that number had dropped to 85. In a 2020 interview with Inside Asian Gaming, gaming consultant Alidad Tash said, “Macau’s VIP glory days are long gone. Macau in five to 10 years down the line will be far less reliant on VIP.”
According to Bernstein Research analyst Vitaly Umansky, daily VIP betting volumes between in the first three weeks of January were half the level generated during the same period of December. Almost all recent VIP wagers came from direct clients of the casinos, rather than junket clients.
The Asean Business Times reported that the downfall of two of Macau’s most high-profile figures “has sent shockwaves through the casino industry.” They are part of a government crackdown on capital flight and amid a campaign by Beijing to diversify the Macau economy away from a reliance on gambling.
It called the arrests “a death knell for the decades-long operating model, under which junkets lure gamblers in with limousines, luxury suites and millions of dollars in credit.”
Despite the arrest, Tak Chun and Macau Legend affiliate New Legend VIP Club were included on a list of 46 approved junket licensees issued last month by the Macao Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. The bureau is reviewing 29 more applications. The government has said the sector is not necessarily dead, but going forward, junkets will be allowed to provide customers to just one casino concessionaire, under stricter rules.
