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Macau has quietly expanded its list of licensed gaming promoters for 2026. The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau has authorized 29 gaming promoters to operate this year, up from 24 at the start of last year. It is a rise, but it is still a restrained one. The government’s cap allows up to 50, so the market is still running at about 58 percent of the ceiling.
That alone says how far the junket model has been cut down since the pre-pandemic era. More licences are appearing again, but the system is no longer built for the old-style business.
The big concessionaires hold the most promoter relationships
The updated promoter list also shows how the market is being distributed across the six concessionaires.
Sands China and SJM Resorts each have up to 12 gaming promoters tied to their operations. MGM China and Melco Resorts each have eight. Galaxy and Wynn each have five.
Every licensed gaming promoter must sign an exclusive contract with a single concessionaire. A promoter cannot work across multiple operators at once. That exclusivity rule is designed to make accountability easier to enforce, and it forces promoters to stay inside one operator’s compliance system.
It is one of the many ways Macau has rebuilt the junket model into something it believes it can police.
The 2023 law changed the junket business and the old playbook is gone
Under the 2023 gaming law, gaming promoters can no longer run VIP rooms independently. They also cannot operate under private revrevenue-sharingrangements in the way they once did. And they cannot issue credit directly to players. Credit is now a concessionaire function.
In other words, promoters still exist, but they no longer control the same levers. They sit closer to the operators. They are easier to audit. And they have less room to run their own mini empires inside casino walls.
VIP is growing again but it is still a smaller slice of the pie than before
Macau’s numbers show VIP is recovering, but the structure is different.
VIP baccarat revenue in 2025 was about MOP 67.99 billion, roughly US 8.46 billion. That was nearly 25 percent higher than the year before. But VIP’s share of total gaming revenue was about 27.48 percent in 2025, far below the 46.24 percent share recorded in 2019.
Macau is taking more VIP revenue again, yet the market is still being driven much more by mass play than it was before the crackdown era.
Total Macau gaming revenue in 2025 was MOP 247.40 billion, about US 30.78 billion. The government’s budget forecast for 2026 gaming revenue is MOP 236 billion, about US 29.4 billion. The signal is steady. Macau expects a strong year, but it is not budgeting for a wild spike.
A small staffing detail shows how much the sector has shrunk behind the scenes
Only 12 licensed junket collaborators were reported as active, even though up to 250 are permitted by the regulator. That gap suggests the promoter channel is operating on a tight headcount, with far fewer satellite workers than the system once supported.
This is what Macau’s junket reset looks like now. Fewer players. Stricter rules. Smaller teams. And a slow, controlled rise in approvals rather than a flood.
Source: Asia Gaming Brief
