The way that VIP casino business is conducted in Macau looks like it may change as a new generation of junket operator starts its tilt at one of the gambling industry’s largest continents. Goldenway is a new breed of junket operator as they attempt to target high rollers using Asia’s lucrative online gaming industry. Their approach sees them targeting VIPs in two seprarate ways. The company is attempting to shift VIP casino business in Macau so that it’s a cash rather than credit model whilst attempting to recruit high rollers by online marketing via a dedicated website. It would mean that the recruitment is almost exclusively online with just agents at the VIP room for verification purposes.
“Our management structure is modern and a long way from the traditional image of Macau junket management and gangsters, etc. It’s about creating new channels and a new environment for the guests,” says Jerry Tse, one of the Goldenway executive team, told Inside Asian Gaming.
Junkets have operated in Macau for a number of decades and are responsible for bringing the vast majority of VIPs to casinos in Macau. In return for bringing the players to the casinos, they receive a commission and are responsible for collecting credit from the VIP players when it’s due. It’s estimated that 70% of all gaming revenue in Macau comes from junkets. That just shows how lucrative online involvement in the system could be.
The Inside Asian Gaming article goes on to question just how safe a cash system will be in relation to where the money has come from. It’s most likely that this will be the case when it comes to US-traded firms that the have US laws on “money-laundering, racketeering and terrorism funding” to think about.
Goldenway’s new system, that will use their newly opened VIP room at the Grand Lisboa, also rewards the customers as explained by Tse: “With traditional junkets the VIP room shares the commission provided by the casinos with the player agents. With our model the customer directly benefits. In our marketing materials we stress the direct benefit to customers. That we share commission with the players rather than giving it to agents
“The agency model is about giving a credit line with all the credit management issues that go with that. We don’t have those credit management issues. That’s the beauty of our business.”
The fact that junkets are making the move onto the internet only goes to reiterate what we say here at CalvinAyre.com: Asia is currently the fastest growing market in the entire gambling industry and without a strategy in this part of the world companies will never fulfill their full potential.
