New | Chinese high rollers back to Macau as graft crackdown slows

China’s gamblers are flocking back to the world’s gaming hub on the country’s doorstep, as high-stakes gamers have had time to absorb the impact and adjust their style to President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on graft.

Wynn Macau, Sands China and Melco Crown Entertainment, three of Asia’s biggest gaming operators, all reported recovering businesses for high rollers in 2016.

Macau’s gambling industry had been in the doldrums since 2014, a year after Xi began his crackdown on graft and extravagance, putting the profligate spending habits of scores of thousands of officials, military men and business tycoons under scrutiny and investigations.

As hundreds of so-called tigers (senior officials) and flies (junior cadres) end up behind bars, a chill has descended on the former Portuguese colony, which had already surpassed the Las Vegas Strip as the gambling capital of the world.

High rollers who contributed two out of every gambling pataca spent in Macau’s casinos shrunk by half over the past three years.

As China’s anti-graft campaign continued, people started making adjustments to their habits and absorbed the impact. In the last quarter of 2016, Macau’s VIP gambling revenue rose 13 per cent to 33.3 billion patacas (US$4.16 billion), reversing three years of slump.