{"id":36456,"date":"2016-06-07T12:35:04","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T19:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=36456"},"modified":"2016-06-10T14:06:48","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T21:06:48","slug":"macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws\/","title":{"rendered":"Macau Anti-Money Laundering Measures Tightened as Beijing Turns the Screws"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Macau
New anti-money laundering laws in Macau deliver a fresh blow to its ailing VIP sector. (Image: investors.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Macau\u2019s money laundering controls have been strengthened by authorities in Beijing, in a move that will compound the gambling hub\u2019s misery as it reflects this week on two years of consecutive month-on-month economic decline.<\/p>\n

The slump in Macau\u2019s fortunes has been driven by an ongoing corruption crackdown initiated by Beijing, which is seeking to stem the flow of stolen public money carried by corrupt officials from the mainland into Macau<\/a>. The anti-corruption drive has battered the enclave\u2019s junket industry, which facilitates trips for high rollers from China, lending them money to gamble in order to bypass laws restricting the flow of cash into Macau.<\/p>\n

The new anti-gambling measures, which came into effect on May 13, but were only announced on the Gaming Bureau\u2019s website this week, will deal a fresh blow to Macau\u2019s crippled VIP industry, which once accounted for 60 percent of its revenues.<\/p>\n

New $60,000 Reporting Threshold<\/b><\/h2>\n

Under the new regulations, operators will no longer be able to do business with anyone using an alias, and will be required to report all transactions over 500,000 patacas ($60,000). This is far higher\u00a0than the threshold in most jurisdictions around the world, including the US where transactions of $10,000 and above must be reported, but it is enough to damage the necessarily delicate relationship between Macau\u2019s casinos and its discrete high-rolling customers.<\/p>\n

It also gives the upper hand to the casinos of the Philippines, where large amounts of cash can be wagered at gambling tables without operators having to identify its source to financial regulators.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This laxity has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months after millions of dollars stolen from an account owned by the government of Bangladesh at New York Federal Reserve Bank somehow made its way into the Philippine casino industry<\/a>. But while the Philippine sector remains under-regulated it will continue to attract high rollers away from the gaming tables of Macau.<\/p>\n

Sector Downgraded to Negative<\/b><\/h2>\n

“Casino and junket operators now have to assume more due diligence and operational obligations, and to adopt more pre-emptive measures,” Karen Tang, analyst at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong, told Reuters this week.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Daiwa Capital Markets (DCM) has downgraded the Macau gaming sector from neutral to negative. The industry is unlikely to recover this year, said the analyst, adding that it expected gross gaming revenue to drop 10 percent from 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sector looks expensive to us, trading at an estimated 16 times core-earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization multiple, and a 34 times price-earnings ratio this year,” said DCM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macau\u2019s money laundering controls have been strengthened by authorities in Beijing, in a move that will compound the gambling hub\u2019s misery as it reflects this week on two years of consecutive month-on-month economic decline. The slump in Macau\u2019s fortunes has been driven by an ongoing corruption crackdown initiated by Beijing, which is seeking to stem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":36457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMacau Anti-Money Laundering Measures Tightened<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Macau\u2019s VIP industry has taken a new hit from Beijing\u00a0as they seek to tone down money laundering operations in Macau.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Macau Anti-Money Laundering Measures Tightened\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Macau\u2019s VIP industry has taken a new hit from Beijing\u00a0as they seek to tone down money laundering operations in Macau.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-07T19:35:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-10T21:06:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Biz08-macau-052516-iStock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"563\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws\/\",\"name\":\"Macau Anti-Money Laundering Measures Tightened\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Biz08-macau-052516-iStock.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-07T19:35:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-10T21:06:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Macau\u2019s VIP industry has taken a new hit from Beijing\u00a0as they seek to tone down money laundering operations in Macau.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-anti-money-laundering-measures-tightened-beijing-turns-screws\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Biz08-macau-052516-iStock.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Biz08-macau-052516-iStock.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":563,\"caption\":\"New anti-money laundering laws in Macau deliver a fresh blow to its ailing VIP sector. 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