Xi advises Macau to regulate its gambling business

On a visit to Macau, a former Portuguese colony, to celebrate 15th anniversary of its return to Chinese sovereignty, President Xi Jinping has asked the government there to better regulate its gambling business, the world's biggest.
Xi, who visited Macau for the celebrations, yesterday called on the Macau government to find "greater courage and wisdom" to "strengthen and improve regulation and supervision over the gaming industry" which has seen its revenues slump and casino share prices plummet due to twin effects of China's anti-corruption drive and economic slowdown.
It is also the latest and clearest sign yet that Beijing is serious about stemming the capital flight problem it has with the casinos, Hong Kong based South China Morning Post reported today.

Gambling has been a cash cow that last year injected more than USD 45.2 billion into the economy of this city of half a million people. The gambling sector accounts for just over 80 per cent of Macau's economy, Carlos Siu Lam, an associate professor at the Gaming Teaching and Research Center at Macao Polytechnic Institute, estimated according to the Post.
The Post last week that China is to launch a major crackdown on the multibillion-dollar flow of illicit funds through the casinos in a coordinated security drive that will see the country's powerful Ministry of Public Security play a leading role.

The unprecedented move also turns up the heat on controversial VIP junket operators who bring in the high-rolling gamblers who generate the bulk of revenues, it said.

The security drive will give the ministry's Economic Crimes Investigation Bureau electronic access to all transfers through the state-backed China Union Pay bank payment card system to identify suspicious transactions, it said.
The bureau is spearheading the "Fox Hunt" operation aimed at securing the return of corrupt officials who have fled overseas and funnelled millions worth of illicit funds out of the country.
The VIP junkets are coming under increasing law enforcement scrutiny in China, Hong Kong and overseas amid Xi's "tigers and flies" anti-graft drive which targeted hundreds of Chinese officials including several top army officials.