Macau junket Golden Group closes all operations

Macau gambling junket Golden Group closed all of its operations on 30 March 2022 and formally terminated the labor contracts of all its employees the same day, according to a notice the company issued to staff. The notice said severance payments would be settled within nine days of that date¹.

The company ran the Golden VIP Club (黃金廳貴賓會) in Macau. In the notice it described the decision to close as one taken after careful consideration, reluctantly and with pain¹. The report did not give a reason for the closure, the number of employees affected, or the size of the severance bill.

Macau media, cited in the same report, said the city's gambling regulator, the DICJ, had been notified by SJM Resorts that the Golden VIP Club would close that day, and that the regulator would follow the procedures related to the closure¹.

The same notice stated:

Junkets are the agents that bring high stakes players to Macau casinos and extend credit to them, and they sit behind the VIP rooms and junkets in Macau that make up a large share of the city's gaming revenue. Golden Group's exit is a company level closure, not a change in the law: casino gambling remains legal in Macau for locals, residents of mainland China and visitors, under the rules set out in Can I Gamble in Macau?.

What it means for players

For anyone who gambled through Golden Group's VIP club, the practical effect is that the room is shut and the junket that ran it has ended its operations. The report does not say what happens to outstanding credit, deposits, chips or player balances held through the junket, and no such detail has been reported¹.

Players who deal with junkets rather than directly with a casino take on the credit risk of the junket itself. The closure notice covers employee contracts and severance only; it says nothing about customer funds¹.

For visitors and expats, the closure of one junket does not change which forms of gambling are open to them in Macau. Which law applies to a resident as opposed to a visitor, and where each form of gambling is available, is set out in Gambling in Asia for Expats and Visitors. Numbers games marketed under Macau names are a separate matter, covered in Toto Macau and New Macau Mark Six.

What happens next

The DICJ said it would follow the procedures related to the VIP club's closure, after receiving notice from SJM Resorts that the room would shut on 30 March 2022¹. The nine day severance window from 30 March 2022 is the only other dated step reported. No further timeline, and no statement on player balances, has been reported.