Asia’s leading casino junket operator is winning VIP gamblers’ hearts and minds with its unorthodox player rewards program.
The Suncity Group junket, considered the biggest gaming promoter currently steering high-rollers to casino VIP rooms in Macau, Manila and beyond, claims to have dramatically boosted betting volume this year through a customer incentive program more commonly associated with credit cards or airlines.
Suncity chairman Alvin Chau told Bloomberg that the company’s rewards program, which allows VIP gamblers to turn their betting volume into points that can be redeemed for real-world luxury items, has helped boost betting volume by 30% this year and Chau expects a further 20% boost in 2018.
Chau (pictured) estimates that Suncity now controls over 40% of Macau’s junket market, and its Macau VIP gaming rooms are reportedly handling total bets of over HKD 150b (US $19.2b) per month.
Among the rewards that Suncity offers its customers are limited-edition luxury watches, travel packages to major sporting events around the globe and the use of private jets and hotels. The company has also thrown its own invite-only entertainment events featuring Asian pop stars.
The rewards program is actually 10 years old but has taken on new relevance now that China’s upper crust has begun to believe that Beijing has backed off its corruption crackdown of the past few years. While Macau has been keen to emphasize its mass market growth during its ongoing recovery, VIP gambling recently reclaimed its rightful spot as the chief driver of Macau’s gaming revenue.
The fact that VIPs now have extra incentives to stick with Suncity as their junket of choice means that Suncity can smooth out the traditional ebbs and flows surrounding season holiday periods. As Chau put it, “we don’t need to wait for Golden Week holiday to have the Golden Week revenue.”
The Suncity Group’s publicly traded counterpart, Suncity Group Holdings Ltd, held an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday, at which shareholders unanimously approved the company’s plans to invest in the Hoiana integrated resort project in Vietnam’s Quang Nam province.
