China’s anti-corruption campaign has significantly affected Macau’s VIP segment, according to a recent investigation by scholars from Mainland China and the USA. The study shows that this is the segment that has taken the biggest from the crackdown, while other areas of the hub’s gambling industry have remained mostly unaffected.
The report comes almost 10 years since Chinese President Xi Jinping took office in 2013 with a commitment to fight corruption. These efforts ramped up from 2014 onwards, extending throughout China and its non-Mainland territories, with the effects reaching Macau as well. Prior to the campaign, two-thirds of the gross gaming revenue was contributed by the VIP segment, and more than 95% of VIP customers were Mainland-Chinese corporate and public officials.
The new study measured the impact of China’s corruption crackdown on Macau’s tourism and gaming industry, reports Macau Business. “The anti-corruption policy prevented high rollers in mainland China from spending large amounts on gambling and punished over 1.34 million corrupt officials from 2013 to 2017, which directly affected Macau casinos’ bottom lines,” state the authors of Examining the Impact of China’s Corruption Crackdown: A Forecast for Macau’s Tourism and Gaming Industry (2022).
Macau’s gaming revenue dropped by 34% in 2015, “largely due to the decrease in spending from VIP patrons,” authors point out. When mainland China began to ramp up its anti-corruption…
