The total number of licensed game promoters in Macau, also known as "junkets," has halved in the past 12 months. Official data shows that the number of licensed junkets in the Macau market has dropped for the 11th consecutive year.

The total is down from 36 in January 2023 to 18 this year, according to the latest list of licensed operators released by the city's gaming regulator, the Game Inspection and Coordination Bureau. The announcement did not explain why it led to the decline.

Every year around January, the gaming regulator releases a list with the names of all licensed junkets to operate in the city's casinos. According to records, in January 2013, Macau had a total of 235 licensed junkets.

The game promoter has been approved by the Macau government to support VIP games in urban casinos.

18 currently licensed game promoters, including Pacific Intermediateario Sociedad Unipeso Lda and Haishen Gruppo Lda, were operating in the Macau market last year.

According to a new legal framework for the field, each Macau junket can be partnered with a single game concessionaire. Junket operators are allowed to earn a 1.25% commission for their game promotion services. However, they are prohibited from sharing casino income "in any form" with the casino concessionaire they work for, and also from running their own VIP rooms inside Macau casinos.

The Macau government announced in September the maximum number of junkets that casino operators in the city can work with in 2024. According to the city's regulators, the total number was limited to 50.

The local units of Sands China and SJM Holdings could each work with up to a dozen junkets in 2024, according to a list published in September on the regulator's website.

The subsidiaries of MGM China Holdings Ltd. and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd. may each work with up to eight junket operators this year. The local subsidiaries of Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. and Wyn Macau Ltd. each have five junket partner caps for 2024.

The Macau junket system contains other "stakeholders" called sub-agent — known as "cooperators" — under Macau's regulatory system. They are generally people with networks of contacts, who could introduce high-stakes players so that junkets could host them in casino VIP rooms.

The gaming regulator said this week it has eight collaborators licensed in 2024.

The junket sector saw a significant drop in business in November 2021 and January 2022, respectively, coinciding with the detention of two of the biggest junket bosses, Suncity Brands' Alvin Chow Chow and Takchun Brands' Levo Chan Wong Lin, on separate charges of illegal gambling operations.

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