A Macau casino heist reportedly resulted in a loss of $258 million last week and led to a tumble in stock prices for Wynn.
Thieves swiped the funds from the Dore Group, a junket operator that acts as a sort of middle-man for high rollers at the
Wynn Macau in China, Bloomberg Business reported.
For its part, Wynn claims it did not lose any money and is not owed any money by Dore but shares still dipped 2.8 percent Friday to $67.72 at the close in New York, marking a third day of declines, Bloomberg noted.
Junket operators have become known to create relationships with gamblers on mainland China, and they work with high-rollers to organize trips to casinos, along with loaning them money to play. Bloomberg said the operators have been important in turning Macau into a global gambling destination.
"That kind of relationship is always vulnerable to attack," Derk Boss, a casino security consultant in Las Vegas, told the business publication. "[Junket operators] are very powerful and work very much independently."
Wynn Resorts may be called on to step up to cover some of the losses in the
reported heist, according to the Business Insider, which cited a report from Hong Kong-based investment bank Daiwa Capital Markets.
"Wynn may still face some form of bad debt in the event that the junket's remaining capital base is unable to absorb the loss," Daiwa wrote, according to the Business Insider.
"Continued junket closures are a real possibility, and as previously highlighted, we have already witnessed an acceleration of junket closures in the past two months. There are at least 11 VIP rooms slated for closure in Aug/Sep 15 alone, based on our count," Daiwa continued.
Rob Goldstein, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp, the parent of Macau casino operator Sands China Ltd, said last week that he believes the junket model
"for now, is broken," according to the website GGRASIA.com. He made the statement during the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2015 Gaming and Lodging Conference in New York.
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