译者 野百合小D
Macau’s gambling industry
澳门赌博业
A window on China
——中国之窗
What an offshore gambling mecca reveals about business in China
从离岸赌博圣地窥看中国商业
NOT far from China’s coast, Macau’s casinos buzz with the energy and abandon of the wildly wealthy. Marble columns, gold decor and money are everywhere. But behind the glittering facades there are signs of something darker.
在中国近海，澳门赌场喧嚣不已，大笔财富在此挥霍无度。大理石柱、黄金饰品，还有钱币，无处不在。但在这金光灿灿的浮华背后，却隐藏着更黑暗的内情。
Macau’s success is not built purely on the Chinese love of gambling. It is also fuelled by a stampede of nervous money fleeing the mainland. A look behind the scenes at Macau reveals a lot about Chinese corruption, and also about how scared many Chinese businessfolk are about the political climate back home.
澳门的成功，并非纯粹依赖于中国人对赌博的热衷，它也受到大笔急需逃离大陆的黑钱推动。窥看澳门幕后的景象，能揭露出中国的腐败，也能了解到中国的生意人对家乡政治风气有多么不安。
Since 2004 when American casino operators first opened there, Macau has grown faster than a dealer sorts chips. Gaming revenues in the first 11 months of the year were 44% higher than in 2010; Macau is now four times bigger than Las Vegas. The former Portuguese colony, a “special administrative region” of China since 1999, is now the world’s gambling capital.
自2004年美国赌场主进驻于此，澳门的发展速度令分筹码的庄家都自愧不如。今年前11个月的赌场收入比2010年同期上涨了44%；现在澳门的赌博业规模堪称是拉斯维加斯的四倍。这个前葡萄牙殖民地，自1999年以来成为中国的“特殊行政区”，如今已是世界的赌博之都。
High-flyers who gamble with borrowed money in private rooms, known as VIPs, contributed around 72% of Macau’s $23.5 billion in revenues last year (see chart). Because gambling is illegal in mainland China, Macau is their destination of choice. The island’s idiosyncratic “junket” system helps to bring rich Chinese to Macau. Junkets are middlemen who lend high-rollers money, arrange accommodation and are paid around 40% of the casinos’ take in return. (In Las Vegas casinos carry out background checks on gamblers and lend to them directly.)
成功人士用借贷得来的钱在包间赌博，这些VIP们的贡献占去年澳门235亿美元赌场收入的72%（详见下表）。由于赌博在中国大陆属于非法活动，澳门便成为他们赌博的首选之地。这个岛上独有的“中介”体制，把中国大款带入澳门。而作为中间人的“中介”，会给大款们提供贷款，为赌客们安排食宿，然后以赌场40%的收入作为回报。（在拉斯维加斯，赌场会在对赌客们进行背景调查后，直接向他们提供借贷。）
But it is not just a passion for cards that brought more than 13.2m mainlanders to Macau in the first ten months of this year. Many come to elude China’s strict limits on the amount of yuan people can take out of the country. A government official who has embezzled state funds, for example, may arrange to gamble in Macau through a junket. When he arrives, his chips are waiting for him. When he cashes out, his winnings are paid in Hong Kong dollars, which he can stash in a bank in Hong Kong or take farther afield.
然而，今年前10个月来到澳门的1320万大陆人，并不都是仅仅出于对赌牌的热衷。许多人过来，是为了逃避中国对人民币出境金额的严格限制。例如，一个挪用国家公款的政府官员或许会通过某中介安排到澳门赌博。等他来到澳门，他的筹码已经恭候多时。一经他兑现，他赢得的钱款将会兑成港币，可以存在香港的银行，亦或是转移到更远的地方。
“There are many ways to launder money, more than we can think of,” says Davis Fong, an associate business professor at the University of Macau. Some bypass junkets and instead use pawnshops and other stores, where they buy an item with yuan and promptly sell it back for Macanese pataca or Hong Kong dollars—less, of course, a generous cut for the shopkeeper. No one can quantify how much money is laundered in Macau, but it’s “such an obscene amount of money you would die”, one resident avows.
“洗黑钱的方式有很多，超乎我们的想象，”澳门大学商科副教授戴维斯·方（Davis Fong）说道。一些人不通过中介，而是利用当铺或其他商店，以人民币买入某商品，再立即转手退回去，以将现金兑成葡币或港币。当然，这样拿到手的钱要少一些，算是慷慨地让店主也分得一瓢羹。没人能算出在澳门洗白的黑钱有多少，但这“确实是一笔巨款，多得要死”，一位澳门居民坦言。
Mainland China offers scant legal protection for private property. The rich, many of whom cut corners to get that way, know they could lose it all suddenly. Many also fear losing their political patrons next autumn, when China’s Communist Party will anoint a new generation of leaders. Small wonder they are seeking havens for their money and their families.
中国大陆对私有财产的法律保护还很不足。许多人是利用手段一夜暴富，他们知道自己的财富，也可能瞬息之间空空如也。许多人还担心，到明年秋天，中国共产党进行领导人换届时，他们在政界的靠山可能会垮掉。难怪他们要为这些钱和他们的家人找个避风港呢。
According to the Hurun Report, a wealth researcher, some 14% of rich Chinese say they have already left the country or are filling out paperwork to obtain a foreign passport. Another 46% are considering one of these steps. A recent report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch warned about the destabilising effects of “hot money” speeding out of China this year.
根据胡润百富榜的报告，中国富人中，约有14%的人表示，他们已经离开中国或正在申请外国护照。还有46%的人正在考虑采取类似的行动。美林银行近期发布报告警示道，今年从中国流出的“热钱”可能会造成局势不稳定。
The flow of money through Macau has caught the eye of the government in Beijing and may explain a temporary crackdown in 2008 on the number of Macau visas given to mainland Chinese. According to cables made public by WikiLeaks, an online troublemaker, others are also watching. A memo sent in December 2009 from the American consulate in Hong Kong to the secretary of state said that “[Macau’s] phenomenal success is based on a formula that facilitates if not encourages money laundering.” In a cable in 2008 Joseph Donovan, then the American consul-general in Hong Kong, wrote that “some of these mainlanders are betting with embezzled state money or proceeds from official corruption, and substantial portions of these funds are flowing on to organised crime groups in mainland China, if not Macau itself.”
澳门的资金流动已经引起了北京政府的关注，这可能可以解释为什么2008年澳门暂时严格控制向中国大陆人发放签证。根据维基解密这个线上闹事者公开的电报消息，其他国家也在静观其变。美国驻香港领事馆2009年12月在给国务卿的备忘录中写道，“（澳门）非凡的成就是通过帮助（如果不是鼓励）洗钱的方式实现的。”当时的美国驻港总领事唐若文（Joseph Donovan）在2008年一封电报中写道，“一些大陆赌客是在用贪污国家公款或官场腐败得来的钱赌博。这些贪污得来的钱很大一部分如果没有留在澳门当地，就会落入中国大陆有组织的犯罪团伙手上。”
Many have also started to worry about the junkets’ health, partly out of concern about the stability of China’s “shadow lending” system. If rich Chinese saw their businesses collapse or property investments plunge, as some fret could happen if the mainland’s economy slows, the 200 or so junkets that operate in Macau could have trouble getting their money back from gamblers. At best there would be less money to lend. But junkets that could not collect debts might implode, leaving the casinos that had extended credit to them with big losses. Many casino executives do not seem to know how much money they have lent to junkets, which makes it hard to assess the possible extent of defaults.
也有许多人开始担心中介的状况，在一定程度上是出于对中国“影子贷款”体系的担心。就像如果大陆经济发展放缓会引起躁动一样，如果中国富人发现自己的企业倒闭或者资产投资出现负债，大约有200个左右在澳门活动的中介可能会遇到麻烦，难以收回借给赌客们的赌金。这样看来，充其量可能就是不会再有这么多的钱出借。但是，收不回钱的中介可能会撒手不管了，使得向他们提供贷款的赌场蒙受巨大的损失。许多赌场高管似乎并不清楚赌场向中介借出多少钱，这样便难以估量可能拖欠的债务数额。
Casino operators, like their customers, remain sanguine about future winnings. According to analysts, no big junket has reported any issues with bad loans so far. A casino executive said recently that he worried less about a junket going under than he did about the implication of a Macanese official in a corruption scandal or a murder at a casino. Any big crime would probably encourage China to intervene more heavily in Macau’s affairs and specifically in the gaming industry.
赌场经营者，同他们的顾客一样，仍旧认为未来的营收将一片大好。据分析师表示，至今尚没有老牌中介上报坏账的情况。某赌场高管说，最近他对中介没落的担心，不及对澳门官员牵涉入贪污丑闻或赌场发生凶杀案件的担心。任何一宗大型犯罪都可能促使中国政府加大对澳门事务的干涉，尤其是对澳门赌博业的干涉。
You can bet that the casinos want to avoid that. They are trying to attract more “mass-market” customers, who actually want to gamble for fun. Such people do not need loans to play and offer better margins, because casinos do not need to pay junkets a cut. A high-speed railway being built from Guangzhou province to Macau will make it easier to lure them. Some casinos are also building venues with less floor space for blackjack and more for shops, theatres and restaurants.
我敢打赌，赌场希望避免这种情况发生。他们正在竭力吸引更多以赌博为乐的“大众”客户。这类赌客不需要通过借贷赌博，而且会带来更多利润，因为赌场不需要向中介支付报酬。广州与澳门之间正在修建高铁，这将进一步诱惑这些赌客来到澳门。有的赌场也在修建场地，少铺了一些21点牌桌，留出更多空间开设商场、剧院和餐厅。
This may help placate the government in Beijing, which would rather see its citizens shop for jewellery than for a different currency. But as long as money feels nervous in China, it will seek a way out, and Macau is awfully convenient.
这或许可以使北京政府得到一些安抚，因为她宁愿看到自己的子民为珠宝花钱，也不愿看到他们为兑换货币而购物。但只要钱在中国看得紧，就势必会有人想找地方为那钱谋出路，而澳门是再方便不过的地方了。
from 译言-每日精品译文推荐 http://article.yeeyan.org/view/270699/238629
