{"id":190298,"date":"2021-10-28T05:43:44","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T12:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=190298"},"modified":"2021-10-28T14:15:24","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T21:15:24","slug":"dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s \u2018DCEP\u2019 Digital Yuan Could Prevent Up to $600B Capital Flight to Macau: Analyst"},"content":{"rendered":"

The uptake of China\u2019s state-backed digital currency<\/a> in Macau would stem the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars from the Chinese mainland into the special administrative region (SAR).<\/p>\n

\"DCEP
iGamix analyst Ben Lee, pictured during an appearance on Macau TV network TDM. Lee recently commented on digital currency and the future of Chinese economy. (Image: TDM\/YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s according to iGamix gaming analyst Ben Lee, who estimated up to $600 billion is taken out of the Chinese economy by Macau-bound gamblers each year.<\/p>\n

As reported by Macau Business<\/em>, Lee was addressing a conference organized by Britcham Macao, a British business association. The analyst said the SAR\u2019s casino industry reported gross gaming revenues of US$45 billion in 2013, its best year. But that was just the casinos\u2019 hold rate, the amount retained after winnings are returned to patrons.<\/p>\n

Based on that figure, Lee estimated that gamblers would have, in fact, brought the equivalent of around US135 billion into the SAR that year. And if side-betting was factored into the equation, that number could rise to US$600 billion.<\/p>\n

That is why China has been very unhappy with our gaming industry,\u201d <\/strong>Lee added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

China\u2019s Ministry of Public Security said last year that about RMB1 trillion (US$145.5 billion) flows out of the mainland into gambling activities every year. This was a \u201cthreat to the country\u2019s economy and national security,\u201d it warned.<\/p>\n

\n

Hugo Luz dos Santos, an expert on Macau gaming law, explained in Asian Gaming Lawyer<\/em> that side-bets are an \u201cagreement between the player placing the bets [in the casino] and a third party who promises to cover an additional illegal parallel bet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhat appears to be a simple bet placed at a certain casino table might represent hidden supplementary wagers,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHence, a single dollar lost or won in a bet at a casino table may well correspond to two, five, ten or even hundred tax-free dollars under a parallel bet agreed with a third party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corruption Crackdown<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Soon after Macau posted its record results in 2013, Beijing kickstarted a \u201ccorruption crackdown.\u201d That targeted corrupt officials it believed were transporting their ill-gotten gains into the SAR with the help of the junket industry.<\/p>\n

This was in defiance of the mainland\u2019s strict rules on the movement of capital. Currently, mainlanders are permitted to bring the equivalent of around US$3,000 into Macau, which can seriously cramp a high roller\u2019s style.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The crackdown scared away the high rollers who had previously accounted for 60 percent of Macau\u2019s gaming revenues. That sent the market spiraling into an economic slump that lasted for almost two years.<\/p>\n

Future Cashless Macau<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But Beijing may have found a better way to exert financial control on the SAR. The central government announced<\/a> the creation of the digital yuan, or DCEP, in November 2019, the first state-backed cryptocurrency. It was cautiously rolled out in April 2020 and is still in the trial process.<\/p>\n

The goal is a cashless society. And if that is ultimately adopted in Macau, it would hit the VIP sector hard and all but destroy the junket model.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, there would be an intrinsic built-in function that enables authorities to monitor, control, and filter theoretically any and all transactions,\u201d<\/strong> said Lee.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But it would not be all bad for the casino industry. The mass-market segment would likely go through the roof because a cashless economy would eliminate capital flight, and thus the need for monetary controls, upping travelers’ spending power.<\/p>\n

Lee said he knew of at least one Macau casino operator that had conducted an organizational-wide study into the potential impact of a future without cash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The uptake of China\u2019s state-backed digital currency in Macau would stem the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars from the Chinese mainland into the special administrative region (SAR). That\u2019s according to iGamix gaming analyst Ben Lee, who estimated up to $600 billion is taken out of the Chinese economy by Macau-bound gamblers each year. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":190299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018DCEP\u2019 Digital Yuan Could Prevent Up to $600B Capital Flight to Macau<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Beijing\u2019s digital yuan, DCEP could plug 600 billion hole in Chinese economy, but a cashless society would not be all bad for Macau casinos.\" \/>\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\/dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018DCEP\u2019 Digital Yuan Could Prevent Up to $600B Capital Flight to Macau\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Beijing\u2019s digital yuan, DCEP could plug 600 billion hole in Chinese economy, but a cashless society would not be all bad for Macau casinos.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau\/\" \/>\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=\"2021-10-28T12:43:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-28T21:15:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ben-lee.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"784\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018DCEP\u2019 Digital Yuan Could Prevent Up to $600B Capital Flight to Macau\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ben-lee.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-28T12:43:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-28T21:15:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Beijing\u2019s digital yuan, DCEP could plug 600 billion hole in Chinese economy, but a cashless society would not be all bad for Macau casinos.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dcep-digital-yuan-could-prevent-up-to-600b-capital-flight-to-macau\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ben-lee.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ben-lee.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":784,\"caption\":\"iGamix analyst Ben Lee, pictured during an appearance on Macau TV network TDM. 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