The first meeting between casino operators and government officials in Macau, held earlier today, focused on junket commissions and table limits, according to the Xinhua news agency.
"The government takes the responsibility to regulate the gaming industry, ensuring its healthy and sustainable development, and now it is time to take a more active step and provide a platform for the operators to exchange their opinions," Tam Pak Yuen, Secretary for Economy and Finance, told Xinhua.
Tam said most of the representatives from Macau's six casino operators agreed that junket commissions should have a lower maximum rate. Casinos in Macau pay a percentage of their winnings in VIP rooms to the junket operators who provide the high rollers. VIP winnings contributed over 67 percent of total gaming revenue last year, according to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
Ho Hau Wah, chief executive of the Macao Special Administration Region government proposed at the meeting that the maximum commission rate be set at 1.25 percent, but not all of the operators agreed.
Ho told Xinhua that Las Vegas Sands had earlier hoped for a commission rate of 1.5 percent, which Ho describes as "nonsense."
Furthermore, Melco Entertainment, operator of the Crown Macau casino resort, was able to jack its VIP gaming revenue up from 4.9 percent last July to 21 percent this February by raising its maximum junket rate to 1.35 percent.
Ho also suggested capping the number of gaming tables at 1,000 in each casino. "The only way to control this crazy cutthroat competition is to control two things, the number of tables for each licensee and the commission rate," he told Xinhua after the meeting.