Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | November 2010 22 billion in the same period of last year, according to the Gaming Coordination and Inspection Bureau (DICJ), the territory’s casino regulator. The term ‘casino junket’ is familiar to most casino professionals around the world and also to the general public, but it means very different things to different people. In Macau in particular, it refers essentially to those businesses that recruit VIP players from China and Hong Kong via sub agents and then provide gambling credit to those high rollers. Chinese VIPs are passionate players. During the holiday period following China’s National Day on 1st October, the volume of betting in one high roller room with 20 tables visited by Inside Asian Gaming reached HK$1 billion (US$128 million) in a single day. Even beyond Macau’s borders, Chinese high rollers are impatient for more action at baccarat—known universally to Chinese people as ‘the fair game’ because of its low house advantage. Some Chinese VIP players are so I f Macau is the engine of global casino gaming, then VIP play—specifically VIP baccarat—is the oil that keeps that engine turning. If that metaphor sounds too analogue for our digital age, then Macau VIP gaming can be seen instead as the processor powering the fancy new smart phone that is 21st century Macau. The VIP gross in Macau was already stratospheric even in recession-hit 2009. It managed to rise 57% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2010 to a record MOP34.05 billion (US$4.26 billion), from MOP21.74 Golden Rules Our beginner’s guide to the complex relationship between casinos, junkets and VIP players in Asia In Focus