The head of Macau’s gaming regulator said the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau has inspected 25 VIP rooms and found nothing illegal and confirmed that Suncity Holdings CEO Alvin Chao is not under investigation.
Speaking to Portuguese television channel TDM-Macau, Paulo Martins Chan said the VIP rooms were in seven of the territory’s casinos.
Last week China’s state-run media accused Suncity, Macau’s largest junket, of running illegal online gaming and proxy betting operations targeting Mainland Chinese. Chao held a press conference on Saturday to deny the allegations and apologized to the Macau government for any inconvenience caused.
In the interview, Chan said Chau had underscored his commitment that the group will always abide by Macau law even when operating abroad in jurisdictions that permit online gambling.
This Dossier results from the “Life After POGOs” editorial project by Asia Gaming Brief which culminated with a pop-up digital forum on 9th December to discuss potentials ramifications in the industry.
Covid-19 forced the rapid and unexpected closure of venues across Australia, changing the operating environment with unprecedented speed and leaving managers scrambling to adapt...
Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the number of visitor arrivals grew by 9.3 percent month-to-month to 636,351 in November 2020. However, this figure represented a year-on-year decline of 78.1 percent.
A spokesperson for James Packer has reportedly denied that the Australian billionaire met with Sands China Chairman Sheldon Adelson over the New Year holidays. The super yachts of the two casino executives were moored next to each other, triggering speculation.
The Nagasaki Prefectural Government has reportedly been successful in attracting up to seven operator bids for the IR candidate site at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo city.
Over the years, many of the answers have been remarkably prescient in their forecasts for the near-term direction of Asia’s gaming industry. However, we can safely say that no one came anywhere close to guessing
what 2020 may have had in store.
While nowhere in the world has escaped the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, Macau has been hit harder than most, with forecasts for gross domestic product to shrink more than 50 percent this year.
Before the Covid-19 crisis, tourism in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region was at a record high, on track to welcome 80 million visitors in 2019, generating some $90 billion in revenue.
