Inside Asian Gaming

IAG OCT 2020年10月 亞博匯 34 Philippines, that China will not tolerate seeing US$8 billion a year in online gambling losses flow out of the country. “Cambodia heeded China’s request and shut down its online gaming operations at the end of 2019. President Duterte rebuffed the PRC’s request and allowed Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations [POGOs] to continue to operate. There will be a price to pay for that.” CAPITAL CONTROLS China’s efforts aren’t only about punishment. “To ensure the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policies to stimulate internal demand and ensure economic stability in the mainland, the Chinese government’s administrative measures to control capital and fund outflows from the mainland will remain serious in the foreseeable future,” University of Macau Associate Professor of Business Economics Ricardo Siu says. Macau is not a target of the blacklist, but high- COVER STORY end Chinese gamblers often use shadow banking services that mainland authorities are targeting. "It's inevitable we will see some dent in the pace of VIP recovery given potential collateral damage,” JP Morgan analysts DS Kim, Derek Choi and Jeremy An write. “The junkets/agents who bring players to non- Macau markets are the same ones as those in Macau, and they will most likely keep a low profile for now to avoid any fallout from the clampdown.” There have also been recent reports of cash withdrawals en masse from Macau’s junkets on concerns over their ability to access funds, and rumors that some, including Suncity Group, may be facing their own financial shortfall due to COVID-19. Suncity has denied this, with CEO Alvin Chau even going to the extreme of revealing the junket’s financials in July in order to allay investor concerns. “We have the capability and enough capital to offset any bad debts and chip deposits of all clients,” Chau said. “I would like to reiterate that Suncity is