The government will keep Macao’s current cap on licensed gaming promoters – also known as junkets – at 50 for 2026, GGR Asia reports. The decision was made by Tai Kin Ip, the secretary for economy and finance, and published on the website of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, the casino industry news outlet says.
Each of the city’s six gaming concessionaires will maintain the same junket allowance as they had this year. Sands China and SJM are each permitted 12 junkets; MGM China and Melco Resorts & Entertainment each have a cap of 8; Galaxy Entertainment Group and Wynn Macau can have up to five each.
As of May, only 29 junkets were operating in Macao – less than 58 percent of the total allowance. This is a dramatic decline from junket operators’ heyday, around 2014, when there were 235 gaming promoters active in the city.
[See more: Where will low-stakes gamblers go when Macao’s satellite casinos close?]
Junkets operators offer lavish travel incentives to high-roller customers to get them to play at certain casinos. The sector has been under pressure from both the central and local governments in recent years, as new laws have prohibited promoters from sharing in casinos’ revenues, offering credit and partnering with more than one concessionaire. The shift is part of the SAR’s efforts to shift away from its reputation as a gambling hub.
A number of major scandals have also tarnished junket operators’ reputations. In 2023, “junket king” Alvin Chau was sentenced to 18 years in prison for financial wrongdoing, while former Macao junket operator Ji Xiaobo was declared a criminal kingpin by a Chinese court that same year.
High-roller or VIP baccarat meanwhile produced gross gaming revenue (GGR) of 16.33 billion patacas (US$2.02 billion) in the second quarter of 2025, up by 13 percent sequentially and 22.7 percent year-on-year. That amounted to 26.7 percent of Macao’s total GGR for the April to June period, GGR Asia says.
