Shares in US casino operators bounced back today, following big falls yesterday, after authorities in Macau denied a report that daily ATM money withdrawal limits in the gambling haven would be halved.
In a statement today, the Macau monetary authority said it had halved the amount that could be withdrawn from an ATM per transaction to 5,000 patacas ($626), but that the daily withdrawal limit of Rmb10,000 ($1,449) remained unchanged.
Macau-exposed gaming stocks listed in the US, Hong Kong and Australia fell heavily yesterday after Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that China UnionPay would lower the daily limit for ATM withdrawals by its mainland bank card customers.
The former Portuguese colony is the only place in the country where gambling-obsessed Chinese punters can bet in casinos legally.
China UnionPay said in a separate statement on Friday that its policies on overseas cash withdrawal by cards issued from mainland China “remain the same” and that the daily maximum was still “capped at 10,000 renminbi equivalent per card per day”.
It added that it “will continue to provide safe cross-border payment services while complying with the regulations and laws issued by relevant authorities”.
US-listed casino stocks including Wynn Resorts Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN) and Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NASDAQ:LVS) fell by more than 10% after the report first emerged — losses initially matched by their counterparts in Hong Kong and Australia.
In pre-market trading today on Wall Street, shares in both Wynn and Sands were up around 5%
Restrictions on the amount of money that can be moved through Macau began with an anti-corruption campaign launched by Chinese president Xi Jinping this year, as the city’s gambling establishments were seen as a popular way of laundering money.