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　　Many segments of China’s vast economy can rightly be described as shady, but few are as opaque as Macau’s casino junkets.
　　Junkets have evolved partly in response to specialization - middlemen who evaluate the credit-worthiness of rich gamblers- as well as to get around Chinese capital controls. The outfits recruit rich mainland “VIP” gamblers, funnel them to the country’s casino haven, lend them credit to play and later collect the debts. They are variously – some say unfairly – alleged to engage in illegal currency conversion, money laundering and visa malpractice.
　　Junkets also take a generous cut of VIP revenue that in other markets goes to casinos. This is encouraging Macau casinos to reorient their business toward the mainland’s mass market audience.
　　The mass market segment is expanding. But since VIP business is growing nearly as fast, casinos have so far failed to rebalance their businesses. For all the talk of mass market expansion, Macau’s casinos will realistically remain hooked on high-rollers for the foreseeable future.
　　Meanwhile, their battle with junkets shows no sign of letting up. “We’re always concerned about the relative strength of junkets versus casinos, and we have seen strength passed to junkets over the last six to 12 months,” said Philip Tulk, head of gaming research at Royal Bank of Scotland. “It’s really the biggest challenge.”
　　History fails to turn
　　Once a backwater Portuguese colony overshadowed by neighboring Hong Kong, Macau overtook Las Vegas as the world’s biggest gambling destination in 2006. It is now five times as large as Las Vegas. Revenues leapt 42% last year on top of 58% growth in 2010.
　　But the makeup of Macau’s income is lopsided. Gambling accounts for a staggeringly 95% of the territory’s casino revenues, and about 73% of that figure is generated by rich VIP gamblers (visitors who gamble with at least US$125,000, per trip). By contrast, most of Las Vegas’casino income comes from conventions, entertainment, hotels and restaurants; gambling is less than half the total.
　　Macau’s business was not supposed to be this way. The government ended the casino monopoly held by tycoon Stan-ley Ho in 2002 and has since awarded gambling licenses to six other operators: Sands China, Wynn Macau, MGM China, Melco Crown and Galaxy.
　　Many analysts predicted a surge in the mass-market segment when Sands Macao opened in 2004, said Michael Grimes, editor of magazine “Inside Asian Gaming.” The market did grow – gross gaming revenue more than quintupled between 2004 and the end of 2011 – but the VIP segment remained dominant as rich mainlanders piled into the territory.