‘If the water's too clean there'll be no fish’: China’s CBDC may hurt Macau’s ca

[Cordillerabit]

China’s central bank digital currency is expected to further exacerbate Macau’s declining gambling revenues.

According to a Dec. 2 article from Bloomberg, junkets — Macau businesses that act as middlemen to facilitate visits by China’s high-roller gamblers — claim their clients are looking to other jurisdictions due to concerns the digital yuan will be introduced to Macau’s embattled gambling sector.

The report cites anonymous sources who claim local casino operators have been approached by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau to discuss the viability of denominating casino chip purchases in digital yuan, rather than Hong Kong dollars as is presently the case.

The sources noted that popular digital payment platforms such as AliPay and WeChat are not being considered for use in Macau’s casinos as they will not assist the central government in tracking capital flows.

However, a Dec. 2 statement from Macau’s Government Information Bureau asserts that the rumored discussions concerning “the use of digitized RMB in gaming casinos [...] is false.”

Regardless, the rumors have sent shockwaves through the territory’s gambling industry, with shares in casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group and Macau’s largest junket operator Suncity Group Holdings each falling by roughly 3% on the same day.

The introduction of the digital yuan into Macau’s casinos would threaten the junkets industry, which garners significant revenue from providing Hong Kong dollar conversion and credit services. With Macau’s revenue falling by $27 billion amid the pandemic, junkets are already feeling the pain.

China’s central bank would also gain greater insight into the sources of the capital flowing into Macau’s gambling industry, which Bloomberg’s sources claim may scare off many high-rollers — some of who have previously been linked to the Chinese shadow banking system. Junket service provider, Eric, Leong told Bloomberg:

“If the water is too clean, there’ll be no fish. The big gamblers will go away if casinos need to be that transparent.”
Last month, Cointelegraph reported that China’s digital yuan would be trialed in the Suzhou district for the “Double 12” shopping event on Dec. 12. The shopping festival, which is hosted by e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, will see participants gifted $200 worth of digital RMB via a lottery to spend during the day. The event will also trial the CBDC wallet’s “offline” and “touch” functionalities.

The pilot follows successful trials of the CBDC in Shenzhen that saw $1.5 million worth of digital yuan distributed via a lottery to roughly 50,000 Luohu district residents to spend at more than 3,000 merchants in October.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/if-the-water-s-too-clean-there-ll-be-no-fish-china-s-cbdc-may-hurt-macau-s-casinos

[TomPluz]

The takeaway here is that although the story is denied by Chinese authorities what is clear is that using the digital yuan the government is now able to track everything. And when you can be able to track then you have the control stick under your hands. I am sure that if this move can be bad for the business in Macau then certainly the government will go a little backward until such time that imposition can be generally acceptable. This is what China is good at, of course aside from the virus they "generated" (just a little bit of a joke).

[Fenix]

Any non-cash forms of payment are very well tracked.  The movement of the digitized yuan will also be fully controlled by the Chinese banking system.  These are the costs of technological progress and, in particular, digital technologies.  Therefore, one should not strive for a complete abandonment of cash.  Cash is the least trackable. 
In my opinion, the panic in Chinese casinos is still premature.  So far, there is no exact information that casino visitors will be required to pay only with the digitized yuan after its introduction.  It is unlikely that the government will take such a step, since the casino brings good profits to the state in the form of taxes, and from this the amount of casino profits and, accordingly, taxes will fall.