Inside Asian Gaming speaks with industry insiders about the emergence of foreigner-only gaming zones within Macau casinos – part of the government’s plan to encourage more foreign visitation by offering tax breaks to concessionaires.
On 9 December 2022, the Macau government announced an administrative regulation called “Regulations on the implementation of the reduction [of tax on] on gross gaming revenue of the concessionaire”. The regulation stipulates that if visitors holding a foreign passport gamble in designated foreigner-only areas within Macau casinos, concessionaries can receive a tax break on revenues generated of up to 5% of GGR.
These foreign visitors do not include visitors from mainland China, Taiwan or Hong Kong. Director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), Adriano Marques Ho, mentioned at a press conference that “the DICJ had guidelines for foreign gamblers betting in the foreigner-only gaming zones. Chips in the designated zone are foreigner-only so that the DICJ can learn the GGR generated by foreign gamblers.
“Concessionaries are free to decide the scale of the foreigner-only zones, including the number of tables. The DICJ will not set a betting limit (for the zone).”
Four months have now passed and reports are emerging that concessionaires have been quick to establish small foreigner-only zones within some of their casinos.
A staff member of Sands China told Inside Asian Gaming that The Londoner Macao and The Venetian Macao have established foreigner-only gaming zones. All customers must present their foreign passport and be accompanied by a casino host when entering these zones.
“The foreigner-only gaming zones have been renovated from former VIP rooms and have around 10 gaming tables.
Guests from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau are not allowed to enter this area.”
The staff member said the majority of players in the foreigner-only gaming zones are from Singapore and Malaysia, with some Japanese and Korean guests.
“But there are not many gamblers in the zone because of the [small] number of international flights,” he said.
In addition to Sands China, MGM China has also set up special zones for foreigners.
U Io Hung, who runs licensed junket Pacific Intermediário Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, said both of the company’s IRs – MGM Macau and MGM Cotai– have set up foreigner-only gaming zones.
“Malaysian gamblers are the main customers in the foreigner-only gaming zones so far, but only baccarat is available for playing,” he said. However, he does not believe the zones are achieving their stated goal, despite some operators offering foreign players a full 1.25% commission – the same rate offered to junkets – to help lure them to Macau.
“The 5% tax break did not increase the commission on rolling turnover, and that did not serve the purpose of the designated zone,” he said. “It is difficult to attract foreign gamblers to play in Macau and compete with foreign casinos.”
He emphasized that the foreigner-only gaming zones should not be “set up for the sake of setting them up” and should be weighed further as to what real benefits they provide.
However, Stephen Lau Ka Weng, President of the Power of the Macao Gaming Association, noted that foreigner-only gaming zones are still in their pilot phase.
“Casinos around the world are fighting for customers,” he said. “Tax relief is a way to attract foreign visitors to Macau, which is a good thing in the long run.
“So far I do not see many guests and rolling turnover is not much, but I believe the concessionaires are still figuring out how to run (the zones).”
IAG approached all six concessionaires for comment on their plans around the establishment and operation of foreigner-only gaming zones but all six refrained from comment. Nevertheless, IAG understands that Galaxy Entertainment Group was planning to open a zone at Galaxy Macau in late March, according to sources.
The DICJ explained that concessionaires are required to set up a special database when establishing their foreigner-only gaming zones.
“Gaming concessionaires shall identify foreign customers in accordance with the measures approved by DICJ and shall establish a database to store supporting documents and information required to be submitted to DICJ for granting the waiver,” then regulator said.
