Representatives of the country's largest hotels and casinos have offered diverging opinions of the country's prospects in gaming junkets, with one official arguing that the new gaming market offers "more downsides than upsides".
Speaking with Guardian Business, Baha Mar Senior Vice President of Administration and External Affairs Robert "Sandy" Sands suggested that VIP gaming was only a part of Baha Mar's "broader" gaming offering, which will likely expand to include mobile gaming and proxy gaming.
"Each of the world's most successful gaming jurisdictions has a distinct business model. The new Gaming Bill will enable The Bahamas to regulate its casino industry responsibly and successfully by capitalizing on its unique location, amenities and customer base," said Sands.
Although Baha Mar officials praised the government following the passage of the 2014 Gaming Bill, Baha Mar has yet to settle on how it will capitalize on gaming junkets moving forward.
"The Bahamas is world-renowned as a beautiful beach destination with its own unique market. Although the new Gaming Bill will allow for junket play in Bahamian casinos, it will be one element of a much broader customer mix at Baha Mar," stated Sands.
Gaming junkets, also known as VIP gaming, works like this: a promoter arranges for a group of players to gamble with a partnered casino operator in exchange for a commission on the player's chip buys or other payment from the casino operator.
The Bahamas' recent gaming legislation could position the country to capture part of the global junket market currently dominated by Macau.
Although VIP gaming has generated huge amounts of revenue in Macau in recent years, accounting for 70 to 80 percent of its overall gaming revenue, China's recent anti-corruption and money laundering probes into the industry have led Deutsche Bank analysts to cut their annual junket revenue projections from 5 percent growth to 5 percent decline for the year.
A recent UBS report additionally indicted that Macau's VIP gaming revenues fell between 14 and 18 percent for the month of July.
Given international junket concerns, President and Marketing Director of Atlantis George Markantonis told Guardian Business that Atlantis is unlikely to capitalize on junkets following the updated legislation, arguing that VIP gaming offers "more potential downsides than upsides".
"The gaming regulation regarding junkets was not initiated by Atlantis, it was requested by other Bahamian casino operators. ?Atlantis has never had any interest in pursuing junkets, and nor are we likely to going forward. As far as we are concerned, [there is] more potential downsides than upsides.
"We have been able to take this position because the success of our business model has never been based purely on casino revenues, but rather on multiple revenue streams," stated Markantonis.

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