After junket crackdown in Macau, SEA casinos target Chinese gamblers
Hello readers,
The quiet transfer of a major casino in Vietnam from the former company of an imprisoned gambling tour kingpin to a billionaire Hong Kong family suggests China’s massive gaming industry still sees potential in Southeast Asia.
Driven by Chinese government crackdowns from the casino enclave of Macau, some organisers of VIP gambling tours – known as junkets – appear to be enduring the storm while also transferring business elsewhere in their regional networks. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, locally owned gambling operators are restyling themselves to snap up Chinese whales of their own, potentially cutting deeper into the besieged junkets.
In today’s feature, Globe’s Coby Hobbs takes a look at the new “integrated resort model” materialising in casinos in Vietnam and across the region.