\nThe apparent billion-dollar heist of a Macau casino junket operator has underscored the volatility surrounding Macau\u2019s VIP gambling business. Huang Shan, a shareholder in the Kimren Group (aka Jin Lin) VIP gaming promoter, reportedly absconded with between HKD 8b and HKD 10b (US $1b-1.3b) of the company\u2019s funds on April 19. On April 23, Kimren \u2013 which operates VIP rooms at SJM Holdings\u2019 Grand Lisboa, Galaxy Entertainment Group\u2019s Starworld, Melco Crown Entertainment\u2019s Altira and MGM Macau \u2013 placed an advertisement in the Chinese-language Macao Daily stating that it would \u201cnot be held responsible for liabilities incurred due to Huang\u2019s actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Wall Street Journal\u2019s Kate O\u2019Keefe reported that Huang had earned a name in the junket business by offering investors payouts of 2.5% a month, higher than the industry norm of 1% to 2%. Macau has witnessed similar chicanery from junket operators going on the lam before, but never on this scale. Ironically, Huang\u2019s disappearance was first noted by Charlie Choi, the operator of the notorious Wonderful World website, which publishes the names and personal details of Macau casino debtors.<\/p>\n
\tWhile Macau casinos aren\u2019t on the hook for any of the purloined cash, they could still get caught in the fallout. Macau\u2019s junket operators were already reeling from the recent arrest in Hong Kong of the wife of the boss of junket operator Neptune Group on money laundering charges. That action was said to be linked to an investigation of around 20 junket operators\u2019 dealings with Chinese government officials. Credit Suisse analysts issued a note earlier this week saying those investigations, coupled with Huang\u2019s heist, were \u201clikely to adversely affect the high roller business\u201d as skittish junket investors decide to keep a tighter grip on their own money, thereby decreasing the available credit pool.<\/p>\n
\tThe near-term deceleration of the VIP gambling business will further accelerate the growing clout of the mass market sector, the proceeds of which casinos don\u2019t have to share with middlemen. High-rollers accounted for nearly two-thirds of revenue in Macau\u2019s Q1 statistics, but the mass market accounted for 70% of casino operators\u2019 profits. Credit Suisse suggested that casino investors shift their money to Sands China, whose mass market growth has outperformed the overall Macau rate.<\/p>\n
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The apparent billion-dollar heist of a Macau casino junket operator has underscored the volatility surrounding Macau\u2019s VIP gambling business. Huang Shan, a shareholder in the Kimren Group (aka Jin Lin) VIP gaming promoter, reportedly absconded with between HKD 8b and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}