A recent police action against a group alleged to have been running illegal money exchange operations in eight Macau jewelry shops could negatively impact the city’s mass and premium mass gaming segments due to multiple casino hosts being caught up in the incident, according to Macquarie Equity Research analysts.
In a note, Macquarie’s Chad Beynon and Sam Ghafir said the sweep – which saw 33 people detained – had included the arrest of 14 casino hosts from three different Cotai-based casinos. This, they added, “raises concerns about GGR for the coming months, particularly in the premium and grind mass segments. We believe this would lead the market to further revise down the full-year GGR.”
