The recent crackdown on money transactions in China doesn’t seem to have impacted Macau’s casino industry. At least, not yet. This is the takeaway from a recent announcement by the Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. brokerage, which asserts that the new rules have not had a negative effect on the city’s gaming market.

Analysts with Bernstein, Vitaly Umansky, Eunice Lee and Kelsey Zhu, pointed out that the new rules don’t appear to have hurt the industry, but that only time will tell the real outcome. They stated, “The devil is in the details and enforcement. It’s unclear as of yet what (if anything) the government will target.”

The analysts further noted, “The junket conversations we have had so far are that there has been some ‘chatter’ around these new pronouncements, but this seems more like talk and nothing more at this stage. From our sources, there has been no meaningful disruption in money flows in the channels – i.e. ‘business as usual.’”

At the end of January, China introduced new rules, or variations on existing rules, that regulate certain types of foreign currency transactions. Bernstein’s industry experts explained, “The rules, issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (the prosecutor general), highlight a slew of foreign exchange movement transactions, most of which are already illegal in China.”