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Macau is sticking with its new gambling promoter regulations, setting the maximum limit on licensed junkets at 50 in 2026, the same limit that has existed since last year. The limit was affirmed by the city’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, the news reported on the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) website. The move ensures no expansion in junket operator licenses next year, upholding a status quo that mirrors the region’s tightened grip on the industry.
Operator Allocations Unchanged
Alongside the overall cap, Macau authorities have also preserved individual junket partnership limits for each of the six licensed casino operators. For 2026, Sands China Ltd and SJM Holdings Ltd both maintain the maximum allotment, each allowed to work with a maximum of 12 junket partners. MGM China Holdings Ltd. and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd. each maintain an eight-junket partner ceiling, while Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. and Wynn Macau Ltd. get five each. These rules of allocation are still in the hands of Macau regulators and indicate no relaxation.
Long-Term Decline for Junkets
Although 50 licences are available, the number of active junkets employing those licences is still much smaller. According to the most recent DICJ figures, only 29 licensed junkets remain active, occupying just 58 percent of available permits. That’s a slight improvement from previous months, four more since May, but still a small figure compared to what Macau used to experience. For reference, junket numbers in early 2024 dipped as low as 18.
Years ago, junkets dominated. In Macau’s 2014 peak, 235 junket operators were working in the city, contributing up to 60 percent of total casino revenues and helping Macau’s gaming market surge past $45 billion, three times larger than Las Vegas at its peak. Those days are firmly in the past as the sector continues to contract and reshape itself under stricter policies.
Regulatory Overhaul Rewrites the Rules
The biggest changes for Macau’s junket ecosystem have occurred in the past few years. In 2023, officials first established the fixed license limit. Then, last August 2024, a comprehensive new law, Macau’s Legal Regime of Credit Concession for Games of Chance in Casinos, came into force. The rule now makes casino concessionaires the sole actors who may extend gambling credit. This took away one of the junket industry’s fundamental functions: extending credit to VIP players and carrying that credit risk for the casinos. That policy change is a major reset of Macau’s gaming industry, with consequential effects on the way junket firms do business going forward.
Eyes on the Numbers, Eyes on the Future
For now, Macau’s junket landscape is all about recalibrating to a smaller, more strictly monitored space. The government’s continued 50-license ceiling reaffirms its controlled approach, even as actual junket participation recovers only inch by inch.
With operator allocations remaining constant and modest increases in active licensees only, 2026 is set to follow the same conservative trajectory. Stakeholders will be observing whether this equilibrium between strained regulation and subdued growth is able to provide stability in an industry that, a decade prior, was characterized by rapid expansion.
Source: Asia Gaming Brief (AGB)
