Once the new gaming law is approved, junkets can only be officially established if they satisfy all the requirements and conditions the government has set forth, meaning contracts with gaming concessionaires need to have the approval of the government.
Only companies will be licensed as junkets, of which the government will set out the capital and other requirements in the law, contrary to the current state of affairs, where an individual is allowed be a licensed gaming promoter.
“That’s why we want to see junkets serve one concessionaire [only]. Under this junket, there will be collaborators and these collaborators will serve the junkets,” Andre Cheong, spokesperson of the Executive Council (ExCo), explained in a press conference yesterday.
It was emphasized that there are no regulations on the limit of collaborators.
Collaborators would also have to be screened by the government.
The ExCo yesterday presented a new law proposal that regulates gaming concessionaires’ relation to junket operators and collaborators.
The bill stipulates the conditions for industry participants engaged in the sector, as well as stipulating that junket operators can only provide services to one gaming concessionaire.
“What we want to focus on is the difference of scope of the operation. For Law 16/2001, it is mostly about the legal framework and games of fortune and chance; but for Executive Regulation No. 6/2002, we focus mostly on junket operations and also other possible participants of the gaming industry,” Cheong explained.
“Before, we used to rely on Executive Regulation No. 6/2002 to regulate junkets, but what we are doing now is trying to expand the scope of regulations […] because we have to understand the point that there is difference between law and executive regulations,” Cheong explained, adding that the government is aimed at defining several irregularities, penalties and punishments.
The ExCo aims to have this passed before June 26.
DICJ forecasts ‘steady’ junket numbers
A total of 46 junkets are operating in the city, although not all have signed contracts with gaming operators, Adriano Ho, director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), said in a press conference yesterday.
Ho forecasts the number of junkets in Macau to be “steady” amid the turmoil the sector is facing.
“There is one company that made it clear that they will no longer operate. Some of the junkets [agreements] may have expired already. 37 of them are in operation and one […] applied to cancel their license,” Ho revealed. The DICJ director has refused to discuss about reports of the closure of seven satellite casinos in the city.
