Online Gambling in Macau Thriving Despite Low Liquidity in China

Macau, the worlds’ gambling capital, has continued to thrive as mainland gamblers continue to invest in and more importantly gamble at traditional casinos, which are illegal under Chinese gambling laws.

The number of illegal traditional and foreign baed online casinos in China has been growing as well, frequented by the poor and the rich alike in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

According to online gambling news in China, the vast majority of high rollers in Macau are executives, businessmen, communist politicians, and entrepreneurs from the mainland.

According to gambling news in Macau, a large number of Chinese entrepreneurs who borrowed in the hopes of becoming instant-wealthy have gone into hiding, unable to repay the loans to government bankers or the Triads, who both have little patience for deadbeats.

In early October, shares of Sands China Ltd, Wynn Macau Ltd, Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd and SJM Holdings Ltd took a correction.

This downturn was blamed on rumors that a large number of high rollers are hiding – too scared to visiting a Macau casino and run into a Triad money collector or a PRC tax agent.

However the recent news from operators of junkets from the PRC calmed a lot of frayed nerves and the gaming stocks have begun to slowly recover.

The credit squeeze, which reportedly resulted in a string of Chinese entrepreneurs going into hiding to avoid repaying loans, has also raised concern of restricted funding channels for junket operators — middle men who provide credit to wealthy mainlanders for gambling in Macau.

Mr. Kenny Leong, CEO of Asia Entertainment and Resources Ltd which deals exclusively with Chinese high rollers called these rumors nonsense saying “” – dismissed the concerns, saying “Right now big firms do not have such problems. This may be related to the smaller operations that use more informal funding channels and less rigorous checks on customers.”
Mr. Leong said he gave HK$5 billion ($725 million US) in credit just in the first five days of October to high rollers who continue to make Macau the golden goose of Asia.