Digital Yuan Coming To A Macau Casino Soon

Talk regarding China’s central government-backed digital yuan (CNY) is gathering pace with a recent report issued by brokerage firm Sanford C. Bernstein, looking at the benefits and drawbacks on the implementation.

However currently Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau continues to deny that they have or are having discussions with casino operators on the introduction of the currency.

But many feel the introduction of the digital yuan has too many upsides for China not to bring it in.

Firstly it would appeal to mass-market Chinese gamblers, they would not need to convert their currency into Honk Kong Dollars which most of Macau casinos use as its commercial currency. It would remove the cost for them using bank automated teller machines or licensed currency exchanges and the costs associated with them.

Thou this would attract some players thou the Chinese government would have greater scrutiny towards regulating the money flow out of the mainland with possibly making deposit limits, removing the need for money lenders and junkets. All areas of illegal currency lending and underground banks would be eliminated.

VIP players could find themselves under more scrutiny also, the lack of using other means to facility money lending would hamper their ability to play large stakes without the government knowing, it could encourage those players to go elsewhere apart from Macau and that would not be a good thing for casino operators.

But the amount of chat and reports now coming towards the digital yuan makes people believe it will be introduced, however ways around using the currency will always be found but in the medium term it could be that not just the COVID-19 pandemic having an impact on Macau Casinos but the introduction of the new digital yuan may also now impeded operators in growing any sort of recovery.