The Transformation of Macao’s Gaming Industry: Policy, Law and the End of the “Junkets”

Abstract: This article situates Macao’s sweeping gaming law reforms from 2022 to 2024, the first substantial revision of the casino framework in over two decades, within China’s evolving governance and economic priorities. Central to the reforms is the dismantling of the traditional VIP ecosystem run by gaming promoters (commonly known as junkets), despite its historical contribution of over 70 per cent of gross gaming revenue. Tracing the industry’s evolution since the 1999 Macao handover to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the article argues that curtailing junkets reflects strategic alignment with mainland China’s objectives, including tighter capital controls, enhanced financial transparency and law-based governance. It shows how the junket model, while integral to Macao’s growth, increasingly conflicted with China’s anti-money-laundering enforcement and sectoral modernisation. More broadly, the analysis demonstrates how subnational legal reform mediates between Macao’s gaming practices, China’s national strategic priorities and evolving legal frameworks; the article then contextualises Macao’s changes within wider economic and social reforms, and explains how these reforms align regional economies with national policy goals in China’s unique political-economic system.