An affiliated company of Asia’s leading casino junket operator Suncity Group says it’s still losing millions, but its controlling shareholder is stepping up with billions of bailout cash.  

On Tuesday, Suncity Group Holdings informed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it expects to book a net loss of around RMB108m (US$15.6m) when it delivers its financial report card for the six months ending June 30. However, the company was keen to stress that this was a far more preferable situation than the RMB1.25b it lost in the first half of 2019. So cheer up.

Suncity Group Holdings is the publicly traded sister of the Suncity Group junket, both of which are controlled by Alvin Chau. The public company began life as a ‘travel and hospitality’ business that primarily served to funnel high-rolling gamblers to VIP gaming rooms run by the junket arm in casinos across the Asia-Pacific region.

Suncity Group Holdings said it recorded “a substantial decrease in revenue from travel-related products and services” in H1 as casinos across Asia either shut down completely or saw their traffic slow to a trickle. The latter group includes Macau, which until recently was largely off-limits for most mainland Chinese residents.