Macau gaming regulators are conducting audits of licensed casino junket operators to determine the value of bad debts on their books.

In a report this week, public broadcaster TDM quoted Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) chief Paulo Martins Chan saying his office had tasked auditors with going over the accounts of licensed junkets to get a sense of the scale of their unrecoverable loans to high-rolling gamblers.

Late last year, the DICJ imposed new rules requiring junkets to submit monthly financial data in a bid to impose stricter accountability of the industry. The move was prompted by a wave of scandals, including internal thefts that left junket investors high and dry and led to the closure of many junket-controlled VIP rooms.

Chan told TDM that the DICJ was in uncharted territory as “we have never had this kind of information before.” Chan said he hopes to get a sense of just how bad the bad debt situation is by the end of 2016.