Macau is the biggest gambling city on Earth, taking more revenue than Las Vegas several times over, and its VIP market runs on a system that does not exist anywhere else: the junket. A junket is a middleman company that brings high rollers to the casino, lends them money to play with, collects their debts, and takes a cut of the action. Understanding the junket system is the key to understanding how Macau's VIP rooms actually work — and why they have changed so dramatically in recent years.

A junket operator recruits players, usually in mainland China, and arranges everything: the travel, the hotel, the credit line, and the chips. The player arrives in Macau, plays in a VIP room operated by the junket inside a licensed casino, and settles up with the junket — not the casino — when the trip ends. The junket extends the credit, bears the risk if the player does not pay, and earns a commission on the player's turnover, typically around 1% to 1.25% of the rolling chip volume. The casino provides the room, the tables, and the licence; the junket provides the players and the money.

VIP play in Macau runs on rolling chips, a system unfamiliar to most Western players. The player buys rolling chips with cash or credit, bets with them, and any winnings are paid in cash chips, which can be cashed out. The rolling chips themselves cannot be cashed — they must be wagered. Each time a rolling chip is bet, it generates commission for the junket, which is why junkets track rolling volume obsessively. A player who turns over $10 million in rolling chips generates roughly $100,000 to $125,000 in commission for the junket, regardless of whether the player won or lost. The system rewards volume, not outcomes.

The junket system changed forever in 2021 and 2022, when the arrest of Suncity's Alvin Chau and a sweeping regulatory crackdown dismantled the industry's biggest operators. New rules banned junkets from extending credit, restricted them to a single casino, and imposed strict licensing. VIP revenue collapsed, and Macau's casinos pivoted to the mass market and premium mass players — wealthy visitors who play with their own money rather than junket credit. The VIP rooms still exist, but they are smaller, more transparent, and far more regulated than they were at the peak.

For players today, the lesson is that Macau's VIP market is no longer a world of unlimited credit and invisible middlemen. Players who visit now deal directly with the casino, use their own funds or a casino credit line, and face the same responsible-gaming rules as everywhere else. The junket era produced some of the biggest bets in gambling history — and some of its biggest debts. The new Macau is smaller, cleaner, and safer for players, even if it is less spectacular. And for anyone tempted by the old stories, the message is simple: the credit that made Macau's VIP rooms famous was real, and so were the debts.

The replacement for the junket system is the premium mass segment — wealthy players who come to Macau on their own money, play directly with the casino, and expect a VIP experience without a middleman. Premium mass players typically bet $500 to $5,000 a hand, stay in the casino's own suites, and are managed by the casino's in-house hosts rather than by a junket. The casinos court them aggressively: direct marketing, private gaming salons inside the main floor, and credit lines issued by the casino itself under strict regulatory oversight. The segment is smaller than the old junket business, but it is more stable, more transparent, and more profitable per player for the casinos, because there is no junket taking a commission. For players, premium mass is a better deal than the junket era: the credit is cleaner, the terms are clearer, and the relationship is with the casino, not with an intermediary whose interests may not align with yours. Macau's future is premium mass, and the casinos are building for it.