Macau is the largest gambling market on earth — it overtook Las Vegas in 2006 and has never surrendered the lead. But Macau isn't just the noisy ground floor of the mega-casinos. Its upper floors hide an entire economy: the VIP rooms run by junkets.
The junket economy
Historically, more than 70% of Macau's revenue came from private VIP rooms on the upper floors of the casinos. These rooms are sub-let to operators (junkets) that bring high-roller players from mainland China with credit, service and discretion. No advertising. No public reference.
Grand Lisboa, 40th floor
On the 40th floor of the Grand Lisboa, a specific room — never publicly photographed — hosts the highest layer. Reserved elevator, code at the door, baccarat with negotiable no-cap betting. It's here that, for decades, million-dollar deals between Asian fund managers have happened.
Macau and the model
Macau is the empirical proof that private gambling moves more money than public gambling — by factors of 3x to 7x depending on the metric. The Circle is born from the same logic: build first for the people who generate the right product, not for the people who generate high volume.
Macau is two cities. The ground floor one and the 40th floor one. The 40th is the one that pays.
In a few days, you enter ours.
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