Ups. Have you been there already? I have to go there this week...

Double or nothing for Macau's big casino plans
By Dominic Whiting

MACAU, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The tepid applause for the band at the Sands Macau should worry the casino moguls who are pouring billions of dollars into a new Las Vegas-style entertainment district.

The Canadian group, finishing a rap to a dozen gamblers drinking at a bar lined with video poker screens, follows up with one of the two Chinese songs in their repertoire. Belorussian ballroom dancers draw a few more to the audience.

"It's difficult. This is a casino and people are just here for the gambling," said one of the musicians. "They'll really need to think carefully about entertainment for Chinese people."

Big casino operators such as Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts , are planning to build giant casino, hotel, entertainment and shopping complexes. The plans, involving $24 billion of government and private investment over the next decade, assume that visitors will do more than gamble.

The idea is to transform the former Portuguese enclave on the southern tip of China that long has had a reputation for hard-core gambling and dingy massage parlours.

The challenges include fixing roads, bridges and sewage as well as persuading visitors to spend on entertainment.

For now, the hushed throngs of Chinese visitors are fixated on the blackjack and baccarat tables on this weeknight in Macau's newest and plushest casino.

"Some Chinese people just walk across the border, stay all night in the casino, and walk back," said Vanessa Fan, managing director of casino operator Emperor Entertainment Group .

"QUANTUM LEAPS"

The idea behind the construction boom is: If you build it, the hordes of China's new middle class will come. Another favourite line is that 1 billion people live within a three-hour flight and 100 million live within a three-hour drive of Macau, the only place in the country where casino gambling is legal.

"You're going to have quantum leaps in the repositioning of the market," said Frank McFadden, chief operating officer at the Venetian Macau. "But there has to be a product to excite them -- top quality dining, spas, theatre, concerts, conference venues."

The Venetian Macau, run by Las Vegas Sands, is at the forefront of developing the "Cotai Strip" -- a parcel of reclaimed land that fuses two of Macau's islands into one. The development will double the number of Macau hotel rooms to 20,000 and quadruple the number of gaming tables by the end of 2008.

Cotai, where operators expect up to 40 percent of revenue to come from non-gaming income, will also house the City of Dreams, built by Hong Kong-listed Melco International Development , where sharks will circle an underwater casino, and a casino built by Galaxy Entertainment Group .

Most analysts believe the future of the Cotai strip is neon bright, but competition could pressure margins. Daily revenue per table has already dropped from $22,382 in 2002 to $12,810 at the end of 2005, according to Citigroup analysts, because of new casinos and mass market tables in a market previously dominant high-roller VIP market.

"Is it just a spigot you turn on, the people are waiting and just turn up? It's difficult to say," Deutsche Bank gaming researcher Marc Falcone said of the Cotai Strip's prospects.

All the same, Las Vegas Sands is raking in profits: Its Macau revenues zoomed up 61 percent to $270 million in the fourth quarter, more than half of its total income.

MACAU STRESS POINTS

Much of Macau's future depends on the Chinese government allowing more of its citizens to travel. Its "individual visitor scheme" launched in 2003 covers residents of about 40 of the richest cities, but more than 600 cities remain outside it.

Macau's visitor numbers rose from 11.89 million in 2003 to 18.7 million last year, helping to lift real gross domestic product (GDP) 28 percent in 2004 and 6.2 percent in 2005.

To cope with a 40 million visitors a year after the Cotai Strip is completed, the city will have to import workers, who are expected to swell the population by 27 percent to 610,000 over the next 15 years.

Public transport, drinking water supplies and waste disposal will all need massive upgrades.

"Now at rush hour it's impossible to get a taxi," said Prudential Equity Group analyst William Lerner. "Things have got to change internally in Macau."

Ups. Have you been there already? I have to go there this week...

been there last week...........

Thats fine. I have been there today. Nice place to play.

Public transport, drinking water supplies and waste disposal will all need massive upgrades - it's the real "defi".

Starwood to operate two Las Vegas Sands hotels at Macau casino
By HELEN LUK
23 February 2006

HONG KONG (AP) - U.S. casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced Thursday that luxury hotelier Starwood has agreed to operate two Sands hotels in a massive casino complex it is building in the Chinese gaming enclave of Macau.

The companies said in a statement that they "have entered into a nonbinding letter of intent" and expect to finalize the deal before the end of the second quarter this year.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. will operate a new 1,200-room Sheraton hotel and a new 300-room St. Regis hotel in the Cotai area, touted by Las Vegas Sands as Macau's version of the Las Vegas Strip.

"Starwood's participation furthers our goal of establishing the Cotai Strip as Asia's Las Vegas," Sheldon G. Adelson, chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands said in the statement.

The value of the agreement wasn't disclosed.

The hotels will form a complex that will house a casino and other shopping and entertainment facilities, all of which will be operated by Las Vegas Sands.

"As we continue to aggressively develop hotels throughout China to secure our position as the country's number one operator of upscale and luxury properties, this was a great opportunity to fly our flags," said Starwood's Chief Executive Steven J. Heyer.

Starwood now has 22 hotels and resorts under development in mainland China under its various brands.

Las Vegas Sands is among the two new casino operators granted licenses in Macau since 2002 when the local government ended a four-decade monopoly held by gaming mogul Stanley Ho.

The U.S. company, which operates the Venetian Casino Resort in Las Vegas, opened the Sands Macau casino in May 2004 and is building its flagship property, The Venetian Macau. It has previously announced other hotel projects in the Cotai Strip with various chains, including Shangri-La Asia and Four Seasons.

Macau, a former Portuguese colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1999. Thousands of Hong Kong and Chinese gamblers -- who have no casinos at home -- flock to the tiny enclave every year.

AUSTRALIA PRESS: PBL, Melco May Float Macau Casino Assets
Monday April 3, 2006, 8:15 am

MELBOURNE (Dow Jones)--Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. (PBL.AU), Australia's largest media and gaming company, and Melco International Development Ltd. (0200.HK), which is controlled by Hong Kong's Lawrence Ho, might float their Macau casino assets to help raise funds for the planned US$1 billion City of Dreams project, the Australian reports Monday.

Ho said in Hong Kong that a spin-off of the Macau assets is one idea as the joint venture considers ways to raise money for construction, the newspaper reports.

Groundbreaking on the Cotai strip in Macau is scheduled for April 10, the Australian reports. Ho also said he is considering a third Macau casino, it says.

Plans for the third casino follow the US$900 million deal announced last February with U.S. casino owner Steve Wynn and the PBL/Melco joint venture to buy a full casino license in the former Portuguese colony.

Newspaper Web site: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Melco keeps plans for third casino as trump card
1 April 2006
South China Morning Post

The US$900 million purchase of Macau's sixth and last gambling licence last month by Melco International Development and its Australian partner Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) has paved the way for the gaming firm's third casino.

But for now Melco, which yesterday unveiled a ninefold increase in last year's net profit to $548.7 million, is not showing its hand to rivals.

Chairman and chief executive Lawrence Ho Yau-lung, son of Macau gambling mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun, said the licence would be the firm's ultimate wild card in the gaming and entertainment market of the former Portuguese enclave.

The company had not yet formulated a specific plan for the casino, said Mr Ho, and any new project would hinge on the demand and supply in the market.

"Since the licence is bought, we are considering the third casino project, but up to this second, we have no concrete plans yet," he said. "The deal will not only save us annual fees payable to licencees but also give us direct control of all gaming and entertainment operations."

In an alliance with PBL, Melco paid US$160 million for a 40 per cent equity stake in the licence while PBL paid US$240 million for a 60 per cent stake. In addition, the partners, who also agreed to a 50-50 split of the economic benefits of the licence, paid the vendors of the licence a further US$500 million raised through a bank loan.

The licence, sold by Wynn Resorts, will allow the Melco-PBL joint venture to operate an unlimited number of casinos and unlimited number of tables and machines until June 2022.

Mr Ho said the joint venture was on track to complete next year Crown Macau, a $1.5 billion project with a luxury hotel and a casino, and in 2008 City of Dreams in Cotai Strip, an $8 billion entertainment resort featuring an underwater casino, restaurants, clubbing facilities and high-end hotels.

Despite the intensified investment in casinos and gaming facilities by the Ho family members and big rival players from Las Vegas, Mr Ho said Macau had yet to show any signs of oversupply.

The booming market last year lifted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of Melco's profit spinner, Mocha slot machine parlours, to $65 million.

Previous figures were not comparable as Melco modified the depreciation period of slot machines to five years from 10 years.

Mr Ho said two to three new Mocha outlets would be opened this year.

The bulk of Melco's net profit last year included a non-recurring gain of $514 million from setting up the Melco-PBL joint venture.

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Macau's casino industry gets back on a roll
Tourist numbers and tax revenue surge, but city still needs to diversify economy
18 April 2006
South China Morning Post

Macau's casino industry has shown a strong recovery in the first two months of this year after recording its lowest recent year-on-year growth last year.

Latest figures provided by the Macau government economist Lao Pun-lap also show that the gaming sector remained its largest source of tax revenue, despite Beijing's call for a more diversified economy.

The industry recorded gross revenue of $7.7 billion for January and February, up 14.8 per cent over the same period last year. The sector's annual revenue growth rate was 11.3 per cent last year, the lowest since the handover of the former Portuguese enclave to China in 1999.

Mr Lao said gaming tax revenue stood at $2.7 billion for the first two months, accounting for 77.1 per cent of government's overall tax revenue of $3.5 billion.

Despite the industry's double-digit revenue rise, the government's gaming tax revenue for January and February went up by only 4.2 per cent over the same period last year.

Mr Lao said the 14.8 per cent growth in gaming revenue was not beyond expectations, as it reflected the increase in tourist numbers over the same period.

Total inbound tourists reached 3.4 million for the first two months of this year, up 17.5 per cent over the same period last year. Mainlanders accounted for 56.3 per cent of inbound travellers.

"Tourist consumption has tended to concentrate on gaming," said Mr Lao. "Tourist spending in other sectors has been unsatisfactory."

Hotel occupancy also recovered after falling by 4.6 per cent last year over 2004. January and February saw a combined 68.1 per cent hotel occupancy rate, up 2 per cent over the same period last year.

Mr Lao said the gaming industry would continue to grow in the first quarter, although March figures had yet to be released.

He said it was too early to predict whether the market would become saturated over the next two years, as the demand would depend on variable factors such as the widening of the mainland's individual traveller scheme to cover more second-tier cities.

Macau's 1,500 gaming tables are expected to expand to 4,000 by the end of 2007, which some critics say will be an oversupply.

Premier Wen Jiabao referred to the need for Macau to seek "adequate economic diversity" in his government report last month, but Macau's legislators are divided over how this should be achieved.

Mr Lao said the city should diversify gaming before changing the whole economy.

"It's more practical to develop first a variety of tourism services under the gaming industry, such as cultural tourism and sports tourism," he said.

But pro-democracy legislator Ng Kuok-cheong dismissed this approach as perfunctory. "It's dividing a pack of nails into several packs without making any actual change," he said, adding that the authorities should work harder to seek economic growth outside the gaming industry.

Casino mogul Ho sees revenue drop

Former monopoly casino operator Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, currently preparing for an initial public stock offering in Hong Kong, saw its gaming revenue decline by 2.3 percent last year in the face of new competition.

ZachColeman

Thursday, April 27, 2006


Former monopoly casino operator Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, currently preparing for an initial public stock offering in Hong Kong, saw its gaming revenue decline by 2.3 percent last year in the face of new competition.
The downturn came despite the market's overall 11.3 percent growth and SJM opening two new casinos early last year and subsequently expanding several others.

Analysts had expected SJM to lose market share in 2005, its first full year facing competition, but the absolute revenue decline came as a surprise even though the Macau government previously reported that VIP gaming revenues in the enclave fell 3.1 percent last year.

In its annual report published in the Macau government gazette Wednesday, SJM did not break out VIP and mass market revenues, but as with the enclave as a whole, most of its turnover traditionally comes from VIP baccarat.

"SJM and its partners are still having some difficulty matching up with the competition," said analyst Kent Yau of Core Pacific-Yamaichi International.

BOC International analyst Ken Yeung said: "We expect SJM's market share to continue to decline in 2006." Yeung and Citigroup both said they expect SJM's market share to decline from 75 percent to 25 percent by the end of 2009 as three new operators enter the market.

Citigroup added in a research note that it sees SJM's annual gaming revenue potentially declining to 16 billion patacas (HK$15.53 billion) by 2009.

SJM reported gaming revenue of 34.41 billion patacas for 2005, down from 35.21 billion a year before. However, net income rose 36.3 percent to 5.56 billion patacas after the company booked income of 1.61 billion patacas from selling subconcession Macau casino operation rights to a joint venture between MGM Mirage and Pansy Ho Chiu-king, the daughter of SJM controlling shareholder and managing director Stanley Ho Hung-sun. The company recorded 13.9 billion patacas in marketing and promotion expenses.

Analysts said the results cast a shadow over the IPO, targeted for June, and dash any hopes that SJM could achieve pricing comparable to United States-listed operators such as Las Vegas Sands, now a competitor in Macau. Shares of Las Vegas Sands, listed in New York a year and a half ago, trade at 80 times 2005 earnings based on its prospects for future income growth. By contrast, Yeung said, SJM's prospective investors face a potential profit decline.

SJM paid out 11.4 billion patacas, double its profit, in dividends last year. Stanley Ho's Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau, the former sole gaming license holder in Macau, holds an 80 percent stake in SJM and Ho personally holds a 10 percent interest.

SJM said in its annual report that management is focusing on controlling costs and upgrading facilities. The company has several casino projects under way, including the HK$3 billion Grand Lisboa, set to open late this year. It now operates 16 of Macau's 19 casinos.

Galaxy Casino and Venetian Macau, a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands, both entered the market in mid-2004. In its annual report Wednesday, Galaxy reported annual gaming revenue of 3.99 billion patacas, up 29.5 percent on 2004 when it was only open for six months. It recorded an annual net profit of 6.2 million patacas for 2005. Venetian Macau, by contrast, reported 2005 gaming revenue of 7.71 billion patacas, up from 3.11 billion in the previous year.

Galaxy Casinos are very good but Sociedade de Jogos de Macau is still the number one. Venetian Casinos are nothing special...

Macau casino revenues eclipse Las Vegas Strip resorts
By BRENDAN RILEY
26 May 2006

STATELINE, Nev. (AP) - Macau has been described as Asia's Las Vegas, but a researcher says that in terms of casino revenue -- both reported and unreported -- the former Portuguese colony's clubs have eclipsed Las Vegas Strip earnings.

Merrill Lynch casino analyst Sean Monaghan, speaking at the 13th International Conference on Gambling and Risk-Taking which ended Friday, said the reported $5.6 billion in revenue for Macau casinos has been compared to a similar win by Strip resorts in fiscal 2005.

But there's "a significant underreporting of actual revenue of the market" in Macau, Monaghan said, adding that the incentive for that is a Macau tax rate of 40 percent.

"So people think $5.6 billion is almost as big as the Las Vegas Strip and all that," said the Singapore-based analyst. "It's probably $2 billion -- at least -- bigger than that."

"It's probably incontestable, it could be corrupt money," Monaghan said in discussing what he termed unreported "funny money."

Part of the underreporting stems from increased competition among junket operators who handle VIP players, Monaghan said. But he added there's a "massive" slowdown in VIP play in Macau that reflects a Chinese government crackdown on "certain people going there and spending money they shouldn't have had."

Ricardo Siu of the University of Macau said new government regulations and pressure from outside investors are helping to change the way gambling has been run there for decades. But Siu said change is slow given the influence of long-entrenched interests.

Tracking large sums of money, to guard against money-laundering by players, isn't always easy given a strong desire of Chinese high-rollers for confidentiality, added Wu Yi Wang of the Macau Polytechnic Institute.

But he said the confidentiality concern isn't as great among newly affluent gamblers from mainland China, which produces 90 percent of Macau's players, as it is among longtime gamblers.

Macau's economy has been booming, driven by liberalized gambling rules and relaxed travel restrictions. The tiny island, about 40 miles west of Hong Kong, was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1999 after more than four centuries of Portuguese control. As a special administrative region of China, Macau has economic and legal autonomy.

The local government ended a four-decade monopoly held by local billionaire Stanley Ho in 2002, and new investors since then have included Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and MGM Mirage.

Also, Melco International Development Ltd. is involved in a joint Macau casino venture with Australian partner Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. PBL is led by James Packer, and Melco is backed by Lawrence Ho, son of Stanley Ho.

Monaghan said the Macau boom is part of a "decade of massive change in Asia." He said the growth should continue in Singapore, Thailand and Japan, adding, "The whole world is looking at Asia, particularly after the success of Macau."

The former Portuguese colony's clubs have eclipsed Las Vegas Strip earnings!!!

That's really lovely! Bye Bye Las Vegas! Go Go Macau!

:eek2:

Cops calm casino jobs cat fights
Wendy Leung
Hong Kong Standard
Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Chaos reigned for 20 minutes in Macau Tuesday when 2,000 people, many middle-aged women, battled each other to get one of 500 application forms to join to a casino training program.

The Macau Gaming Industry Laborers Association had planned a three- day exercise to recruit people wishing to take up a career with one of the casinos in the Special Administrative Region.

However, they did not prepare sufficiently for the large turnout and tempers flared when some would-be trainees tried to jump the queue.

Police reinforcements were called in to restore order. Police said no one was injured.

One of those who turned up early was a middle-aged woman who said her children were at school and her husband could not find suitable work.

"The salaries offered by casinos are quite good so I decided to apply for the training," the unidentified women said.

An association spokesman said the large turnout caught them by surprise as they had planned to give out 500 application forms for each of the three days. "We did not expect the training program to be so popular, so we were not well prepared for the crowd," the spokesman said.

The training is free and is open to candidates who have completed secondary three schooling.

The gambling industry in the territory is huge. Macau's gambling revenue nearly tripled to US$5.8 billion (HK$45.2 billion) last year from US$2 billion in 2000, according to the government, pulling nearly even with the world's most lucrative gambling center, the Las Vegas Strip, which last year took in US$6 billion, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

RTHK News:
Las Vegas' Sands to build new complex in Macau 2006-09-01 HKT 19:50

The Las Vegas Sands casino group has announced plans for a multi-billion dollar hotel and leisure complex on a mainland island close to Macau. The Wall Street Journal quoted the group's head, Sheldon Adelson, as saying that the project would become China's Riviera.

Soon Macau is going to be the Las Vegas of the east.

Steve Wynn shop opened yesterday.

Wednesday September 6, 10:08 PM
Macao Set to Trump Las Vegas in Gambling Biz
By Frederik Balfour
BusinessWeek

It's mid-afternoon on a Monday at the Sands Macao casino and the joint is jumping. A Chinese woman emits a shriek after winning a big hand at the baccarat table, where players and onlookers are packed three deep. White-gloved waiters dispensing free drinks make their way past green felt-covered tables and blinking slot machines where gamblers hunker down, as far as the eye can see.

Open for just over two years, the 740-table casino already accounts for more than half of parent company Las Vegas Sands' (LVS) gambling revenues. But that's just for starters. The group will open the 3,000-suite Venetian Macao in fall of next year, part of a $2 billion plan to build a strip with 12 hotels and a convention center, an entertainment Mecca that Chief Executive Officer Sheldon G. Adelson calls "an unprecedented development not only in Macao but in the entire world."

He's not the only one betting big on Macao, the former Portuguese colony opposite Hong Kong that is now a special enclave of the People's Republic of China. On Sept. 6, casino tycoon Steve Wynn will unveil the first phase of his $1 billion eponymous casino and luxury hotel with 600 rooms and 200 gaming tables. Nearby, the MGM Grand Macao, a joint venture between MGM Mirage (MGM) and Pansy Ho, daughter of gambling doyen Stanley Ho, is set to open its doors before the end of the year.

A BILLION GAMBLERS.

Las Vegas research and advisory firm Globalysis predicts that next year Macao gambling revenues will be catapulted 17.6%, to $8 billion, displacing the Las Vegas Strip as the world's gambling capital. With an average daily win per table of $8,000 to $9,000 -- compared with a daily per-table take for the house of about $3,200 in Vegas -- corporate tax rates of just 12% compared with 35% in Nevada, and 1.3 billion gambling-crazy mainlanders at its doorstep, Macao is the future of global casinos.

It wasn't until 2002, when the Macao government ended Stanley Ho's 40-year-old monopoly and awarded licenses to international players, that the stakes got so huge. The government hoped that the foreigners would help clean up the image of a city best known, after gambling, for brothels and organized crime.

Dealing with dubious partners could cost U.S. companies their Nevada gaming licenses, so they have rigorous in-house teams vetting everyone they do business with. "We always have to be vigilant," says William P. Weidner, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands.

UPPING THE ANTE.

Ho's first competition came from the Sands Macao, which opened in 2004 and now has a 25% market share. It has succeeded largely by focusing on the mass market overlooked by Ho's casinos, which have catered to high rollers. Currently, hoi polloi account for 75% of the Sands' gambling revenues, mostly day-trippers crossing the border from China or arriving by ferry from Hong Kong. For Macao's 18 million visitors last year, the average stay was only 1.1 days.

The new hotels being built by Adelson and Wynn up the U.S. ante. By offering Broadway hits, Cirque du Soleil, wave pools, and gondola rides, Adelson hopes to entice tourists and conventioneers to extend their stays to several days -- and spend plenty of time at the tables. But whether the Chinese will be willing to shell out $300 a night for accommodations is no sure thing.

"Mainland Chinese tourists gamble a big amount, but don't spend on accommodation," says Gabriel Chan, gaming analyst with Credit Suisse Group in Hong Kong. "Initially, the Americans may be disappointed by the nonperformance of nongaming attractions."

CONVENTIONS COMING.

Still, Sands executives are confident they can replicate their success in Las Vegas, where Adelson helped turn the city into one of the country's premier convention destinations. The group has signed deals to operate casinos in properties planned by the Four Seasons Hotel (FS), Starwood Hotels & Resorts' (HOT) Sheraton and St. Regis brands, Shangri-La Hotel, and the Hilton Hotels (HLT) and Conrad chains.

Meanwhile, it has signed up retail tenants ranging from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (KKD) to Prada. Its flagship Venetian Macao has already booked its venue for 26 meetings, including a convention of hematologists. "You can look at the history of Las Vegas as a template to Macao," explains Weidner. "Not that long ago pharmaceuticals, insurers, and financial institutions wouldn't have held meetings in Las Vegas. So people who wouldn't have come to Macao will come."

Its time to Stanley Ho and Steve Wynn combat american Sands challenge! War Zone at Macau ;)

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CasinoMan21
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Is it a surprise?:)

* Tom Mitchell, Hong Kong
* December 20, 2006

MACAU has finally turned the tables on Las Vegas, overtaking the desert city's strip as the world's largest gaming market.
Gross gaming revenues in the former Portuguese enclave on China's south coast reached $US5.51 billion ($7.05 billion) over the first 10 months of this year, according to figures compiled by the territory's Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau. That surpassed the Las Vegas strip's total of $US5.44 billion over the same period.

Macau's heady growth has been driven by a series of new casino openings. These include a 270-table expansion at Sheldon Adelson's Sands Macau, the world's largest casino by tables, and Steve Wynn's first Macau casino, which opened in September.

"Right now the pie is just growing and growing," said Prentice Salter, a former Sands executive and managing director at Super Resorts, a Macau-based consultancy. "It's a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity. It's like going into Las Vegas in the 1960s and 70s."

The catalyst for Macau's renaissance was the decision taken by the territory's government four years ago to liberalise the market, which had been monopolised by Stanley Ho since 1961.

Concessions have since been granted to six operators, including Mr Ho, unleashing a flood of investment in the tiny territory, which has a population of just 508,500 but attracted 18 million visitors over the first 10 months of this year.

The 600-room, 200-table Wynn Macau - the most luxurious casino to open in the territory so far - has done much to spur the market's growth. Overall gaming revenues reached $US714.5 million in October alone, up 44 per cent year on year.

Macau is expected to extend its lead over the strip in the new year, with a host of major new openings in the pipeline, including Venetian Macau, a $US2.3 billion, 3000-room integrated resort designed to turn the territory into a leading trade show centre.

Rivals raise the stakes in Macau
Bloomberg
William Mellor and Oliver Staley
Thursday, January 04, 2007

The Hotel Lisboa used to be the only game in Macau. The birdcage-shaped casino has welcomed Chinese playing baccarat, blackjack and Asian dice game sic bo- amid smoke-stained walls and frayed carpets for 35 years.

Now, the Lisboa and other casinos in Stanley Ho Hung-sun's gaming company, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM), are facing a horde of competitors. Ho, who had a government monopoly on Macau gaming for four decades until 2004, has seen his share of gambling revenue dive to 55 percent from 100 percent - and it is still shrinking.

All around the Hotel Lisboa, crowded into a territory measuring just 28 square kilometers, gambling billionaires Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands, Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts, and Kirk Kerkorian of MGM Mirage are building new resorts.

Blurring the battle lines is the maneuvering and feuding within the sprawling Ho family. Patriarch Stanley Ho, 85, a billionaire in his own right, says he wants to sell as much as US$1.9 billion (HK$14.82 billion) worth of shares in closely held SJM to raise funds to go head-to-head with the Americans. That plan has so far been blocked by a lawsuit brought by his sister, Winnie Ho Yuen-ki, 84, who holds a minority stake in SJM's parent company and says she was not consulted about the share sale.

Meanwhile, two of Ho's 17 children have formed joint ventures with his Western rivals. Pansy Ho Chiu-king, 44, chief executive of the family's conglomerate, Shun Tak Holdings, has used her own money to form a 50-
50 partnership with Kerkorian's MGM Mirage, which is building the US$1 billion MGM Grand casino-hotel close to her father's flagship Lisboa.

And Lawrence Ho Yau-lung, chairman of Hong Kong-listed Melco International Development, has teamed up with Australian tycoon James Packer to invest as much as US$3.3 billion in three casinos in Macau.

Lawrence, 30, and Packer, 39, raised US$1.14 billion by selling shares in their joint venture, Melco PBL Entertainment (Macau), on the US Nasdaq market in December.

The stock rose 11.9 percent, to US$21.26 on December 29, in its first 10 days of trading.

In all, foreign investors are staking US$20 billion on making Macau into the gambling capital of Asia.

"In 10 years, Macau will resemble Vegas on steroids," says Brian Summers, who helps manage US$28 billion at Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Thornburg Investment Management, including US$240 million worth of Las Vegas Sands shares. Summers points to the demographics. Macau, with a population of 500,000, is the only place in Greater China where its 1.3 billion people can wager in casinos. "They like retail, they like to gamble, their income is rising and they're being offered something they've never had before," Summers says of the Asian players.

Macau is already the biggest single gambling market in the world.

In 2006, Macau's casinos raked in an estimated US$6.8 billion, probably overtaking the Las Vegas Strip, says Rob Hart, a Hong Kong-based gaming and property markets strategist for Morgan Stanley. The Strip took in around US$6.5 billion.

Adelson's 740-table Sands Macau, which opened in 2004, is doing such good business that he recouped his US$260 million investment in eight months, he says. As many as 40,000 gamblers a day besiege the croupiers.

The gambling frenzy goes beyond Macau. Foreign investors are also targeting Singapore, Japan, Vietnam and other Asian countries, as governments move to lift decades-long restrictions on casinos, says Sean Monaghan, a Singapore-based analyst with Merrill Lynch.

The next gambling venue that will open up is Singapore, where in May the government issued its first casino license to Adelson's Las Vegas Sands. He will spend US$3.6 billion building a casino and a 2,500-room hotel and convention center.

In December, Singapore authorities announced that a second license had been awarded to Asia's biggest casino company, Kuala Lumpur-based Genting. Across Asia, annual gaming revenue for the region could double to US$23 billion in 2010 from US$11.9 billion in 2005, according to a 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers report.

Investors are buying into the plan to clone Vegas across Asia. As of December 29, Las Vegas Sands' New York Stock Exchange-listed shares had more than tripled, to US$89.53, from its initial share sale in December 2004. Wynn Resorts' stock rose sevenfold, to US$93.85 as of December 29, since it listed on Nasdaq in 2002. And Shun Tak Holdings, Ho's Macau-focused conglomerate, has more than quadrupled in value since December 31, 2003.

While Ho held a monopoly, Macau casinos catered to hard-core gamblers who spent most of their money at the tables. Adelson, Wynn, Kerkorian and Packer, chief executive of Australia's Publishing & Broadcasting and son of the late tycoon Kerry Packer, are all betting that gamblers from China will be able and willing to pay for fine dining, cabaret shows, shopping trips and other extras that lure non-gamblers to Vegas.

Adelson has ridden his casino investment to a huge fortune. His 69 percent stake in Las Vegas Sands stock had a value of US$22 billion on December 29. Adelson says he aims to overtake Bill Gates to become the world's richest man. Gates' 9.54 percent stake in Microsoft is worth US$28 billion, according to data.

Wynn, 64, is matching Adelson chip for chip. His 600-room, US$300-a- night Wynn Macau offers a 220-table casino, seven restaurants and 26,000 square feet of luxury shopping. In the casino's opening weeks last year the gambling czar pulled in thousands of potential customers by hanging paintings by Renoir and Matisse in the hotel lobby and placing a US$10 million Ming vase in the Wynn Club, a 100-room VIP annex for high rollers.

One potential pitfall is an oversupply of hotel rooms. There are currently 13,000 hotel rooms in Macau, and occupancy rates are only 75 percent, says the Macau Tourism Association.

By the time Adelson and his rivals finish their projects in 2009, there will be 30,000 rooms.

I feel Adelson is going too far...

Hi fellow forumers!:banana:

welcome!:)

RTHK news:
Macau's gaming industry expected to surpass Las Vegas in four years (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/elocal/news.htm?elocal&20070116&56&371766)

^^ also read this thread
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=425036

AFN news within Channel NewsAsia:
Virgin in talks to build Macau casino (http://channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/254878/1/.html)

More on Virgin.:)

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group may open a casino in Macau, according to a report.

The Financial Times from the UK claimed that Branson met the Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah (何厚鏵) on Wednesday (24 January), and he will be conceded 20 hectares of land 'soon' for building a casino and resort facilities.

Virgin will invest USD 3 billion in this Macau project, which will include three hotels and a casino.

The resort is expected to open in 2010.

The FT also reported that Virgin is likely to seek for a venture with the six concessionaires and sub-concessionaires of Macau's casino operations to run the business.

This is the first time that a UK business has expressed interests in Macau's booming gaming sector, whose performance has overtaken Las Vegas in late last year.

source (http://macau.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/1/26/2684247.html)

hmm...baccarat becomes so popular...

Gaming and gambling activities in Macau posted gross revenues of 55.884 billion patacas (US$6.985 billion) in 2006, a rise of 22 percent against the figures for 2005, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (GICB) said in Macau Monday.

Revenues from Macau’s 24 casinos totaled 54.998 million patacas, or 22.96 percent more than the total for 2005.

Baccarat, VIP baccarat, mini-baccarat and three-card baccarat together generated turnover of 47.526 billion patacas, an annual rise of 23.6 percent.

Last year the four types of baccarat accounted for 85 percent of all gaming and gambling revenues in Macau.

The Macau gaming sector has six operators – three concession holders and three sub-concession holders – of which just five are operating as the consortium between US company MGM and the daughter of gaming magnate Stanley Ho, Pansy Ho, as yet has no facility.

Stanley Ho, through Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM), runs 17 of the Macau’s 24 casinos, Galaxy Resorts has five gaming facilities, Las Vegas Sands has one casino (the largest in the world) and Wynn Resorts has one casino.

The consortium between Melco and Australia’s PBL, with Lawrence Ho, son of Stanley Ho, as yet operates no casinos, but runs several slot machine rooms.

In 2007 it plans to open the Crown hotel/casino, on Taipa island and a year later, the City of Dreams casino, also on Taipa.

In 2007 the Venetian hotel/casino is due to open, in the land fill areas between Taipa and Coloane, which will be operated by Las Vegas Sands, as well as Grande Lisboa, Stanley Ho’s new casino located in Macau’s biggest building and Pansy Ho’s MGM casino.

In 2008 a casino and hotel complex run by Hong Kong’s Galaxy group is due to open in the landfill area between Taipa and Coloane islands.

With the opening of another casino in Macau on December 23, owned by the Group headed by Stanley Ho, Macau now has 24 casinos.

In 2002, when the monopoly on gaming and gaming held by Stanley Ho’s Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau (STDM) ended, there were 11 casinos in Macau.

Source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/macua-gaming-revenue-in-2006-up-22/)

so how to spend out all these money ?? :D

Macau is really booming this time ..

Macau wrests crown from Las Vegas Revenue of US$6.87b makes it world's biggest gaming market
12 February 2007
South China Morning Post

At last, its official: Macau overtook the Las Vegas Strip last year as the largest gaming market in the world.

The 39 casinos and slot halls located on the iconic stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South pulled in US$6.69 billion in gaming revenue last year, a 10.9 per cent increase over 2005, data released over the weekend by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show.

Gaming revenue from Macau's 24 casinos surged 23 per cent to US$6.87 billion during the year, according to figures published last month by the DICJ, the territory's gaming inspector.

Slot machines accounted for 51 per cent of total gaming win on the Las Vegas Strip. Macau by contrast relied on VIP baccarat, the favoured game of mainland high-rollers, for 65 per cent of its revenue.

The passing of the baton to Macau was long expected within the gaming industry, but the symbolic shift is expected to raise the former Portuguese colony's international profile to new heights. In the space of a few years, the high-rollers' Mecca on the south China coast is shedding its status as second city to Hong Kong and is enjoying newfound recognition across the globe.

The state of Nevada remains a substantially larger gaming market than Macau, with US$12.6 billion in revenue. And greater Clark County, which consists mainly of urban sprawl surrounding Las Vegas, still trumped the Chinese enclave with US$10.6 billion in gaming winnings.

But the sixkm stretch of road between Sahara Avenue and McCarran International Airport has for years reigned undisputed as the world's biggest gaming market.

Analysts have been forecasting that Macau would overtake the Las Vegas Strip for several years. Many predicted 2005 would be the pivotal year, but slow growth in Macau coupled with a late-season revenue bump in Nevada allowed Las Vegas to hang on to its crown.

But a massive influx of investment has finally claimed the top spot for Macau. The territory added seven new casinos last year, doubling the total number of gaming tables to 2,762 at the end of December. The roll-out of slot machines continued apace, rising 51 per cent to 5,165 units during the year.

Macau's winning streak continued yesterday, as former monopolist Stanley Ho Hung-sun unveiled the Grand Lisboa, his HK$5 billion new flagship casino.

The building spree shows no signs of slowing, with Melco PBL Entertainment's US$513 million, 220-table Crown Macau set to open in April. Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp will unveil its mammoth US$2.3 billion, 3,000-room Venetian mega-resort this summer, which includes a 1.2 million square foot convention centre and a one million sq ft shopping arcade.

The second half will see the launch of MGM Grand Macau's US$1.1 billion, 600-room casino hotel jointly developed by MGM Mirage of the United States and Mr Ho's daughter Pansy and also the HK$2.4 billion Ponte 16 casino hotel built by Mr Ho and Hong Kong-listed Macau Success.

MSAR Press Release:
Gaming revenue expected to maintain double digit growth this year (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e910ba0657c98f6faa144603c0ac)

Under-age gambler scandal may help Macau shed Wild West image

HONG KONG, Feb 28, 2007 (AFP) - Macau's casinos welcomed proposed new security rules Wednesday following a pay-out row over an under-age gambler who won the jackpot on a slot machine in one of the city's mega gaming halls.

Analysts believe the new measures to be imposed later this year by the government will also help the southern Chinese territory's casinos better police their halls and go some way towards ridding the city of its "wild West" image.

Macau's casinos face stiffer penalties for allowing youngsters onto their premises after a 16-year-old girl pulled the jackpot from a slot at the American-run Sands Macau.

Officials at Sands Macau had originally refused to pay the 740,000 Hong Kong dollars winnings, saying it was against the law for anyone under 18 to gamble.

But gaming watchdog, the Gaming Inspection and Co-ordinating Board (GICB), over the weekend forced the casino to pay out the prize to the girl's mother after her family complained.

Wynn Macau, the first Asian casino opened by Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn, said the new measures would not affect business and wouldn't require any increase in security.

"For our part at Wynn Macau, we will continue to enforce our current casino access rules," a spokesman said.

"We do not anticipate the latest case to impact our guest flow."

Macau's latest super-casino, the Grand Lisboa, which opened earlier this month, agreed.

"Measures do not need to be put into place as they are already in place," a statement from the casino said.

"Our trained security personnel will ask for proof of age if there is any doubt at all," the statement added. "Grand Lisboa reserves the right to refuse admission."

Macau is jostling with Las Vegas to be the world's biggest casino draw. Its 22 casinos already pull in more money per year than the 40-odd casinos on the Vegas Strip -- last year the figure was just short of seven billion dollars.

A former Portuguese enclave now governed as a largely autonomous region of China, Macau is the only city in the world's most populous country that has legalised casinos.

The relaxation of foreign ownership rules that ended a 40-year monopoly on casino control by tycoon Stanley Ho brought in a flood of investment from the United States and Hong Kong that has rejuvenated the once moribund sector.

Like Las Vegas, Macau's casino operators want to tap the lucrative family vacation and convention market by providing all-round entertainment venues, rather than just gambling halls.

However, a history of gang-related crime linked to the old casinos means the city still has a tough reputation that it is finding hard to shake off.

Analysts say that a tougher regulatory regime, as proposed in the wake of the under-age gambler incident last week, should help.

"Macau's casino regulatory environment will continue to increase in its level of sophistication as the jurisdiction experiences higher levels of gross gaming revenue," said Jonathon Galaviz of Las Vegas-based gaming and tourism sector analysts Globalysis.

"As Macau becomes one of the leading centres in the world for casino gaming activity, the regulatory environment will continue to evolve to address these new and upcoming challenges," Galaviz added.

HI All, back from CNY and distraction caused by stock market plunge....

Following results from Wynn. Seems like Wynn Macau contributed 50% of net income in last quarter 2006 !!!!!!!


From AP

Wynn Resorts 4th quarter loss widens but new Macau casino revenue helps firm beat Wall Street

LAS VEGAS: Casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd. said its fourth-quarter loss widened, but its new Macau casino helped drive its adjusted results above Wall Street's expectations.
The loss widened to $55.4 million (€41.87 million), or 55 cents per share, because of a December special distribution to convertible debenture holders, from a prior-year loss of $9.9 million, or 10 cents per share.
Excluding special items, Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts said its adjusted earnings per share were 53 cents in the recent quarter, compared with analysts' expectations of 47 cents, according to a Thomson Financial survey.
Net revenue grew to $563.6 million (€426 million) from $269.4 million in the prior-year quarter, versus analysts' expectations of $500.2 million (€378.08 million).
Helping fuel the growth was the opening of Wynn Macau in September, with 220 tables, 80 slot machines and 600 hotel rooms. It generated $248.7 million (€187.98 million) in net revenue during the quarter.
Billionaire company owner Steve Wynn was effusive about the growth of gambling in Macau and Las Vegas during conference call Tuesday with investors and analysts.
"As much attention as the investment community has paid to Macau, it's hard to verbalize it without sounding hyperbolic," he said.
A company statement pointed to construction continuing on a second phase of Wynn Macau, which is expected to open in the third quarter of 2007, and the company's announcement that it plans to build Wynn Diamond Suites in Macau.
In Las Vegas, Wynn noted that work was progressing past the 16th floor of a new tower, dubbed Encore, next to the Wynn Las Vegas resort. It is expected to open 2,034 suites in early 2009.
"There hasn't been a single moment since 2000 that we haven't been in major construction in two cities," Wynn added.
Overall casino revenue jumped to $388.5 million (€293.65 million) from $131.9 million in the prior-year period, and food and beverage revenue leaped to $85.4 million (€64.55 million) from $64.4 million.
Wynn Resorts said it swung to a full-year profit of $628.7 million (€475.21 million), or $6.24 per share, from a prior-year loss of $90.8 million, or 92 cents per share. Annual net revenue jumped to $1.43 billion (€1.08 billion) from $722 million.
Wynn Resorts fell $4.48, or 4.5 percent, to close at $95.90 on the Nasdaq Stock Market before the earnings announcement during a broad market sell-off. Shares fell another 65 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $95.25 in after-hours trading.
Shares have ranged between $60.82 and $114.60 in the last year.

From SCMP today

RISING COSTS LIFT SANDS' SPENDING ON COTAI 40pc
Sheldon Adelson expects to employ 70,000 people by the time all his resorts open

Summary...
The current forecast budget for the Cotai developemnt was USD11bn to USD14bn, compared with the previous estimate of USD10bn, said Mr Adelson.
"The demand that we've created for construction cranes in this community has so far overwhelmed the capability of the community to handle it that our construction costs have gone up significantly, along with world prices of steel and concrete, "said Mr Adelson.
The firm's 12 casino resorts on the Cotai Strip are to include 20,000 hotel rooms, three million sq ft of retail space, 2900 gaming tables and 16000 slot machines when fully open in 2009.
In addition to the 3,000-room Venetian casino-resort complet, set to open in July or August with 1.2m sq ft of convention space and a one million sq ft shopping plaza, the company unveiled four other hotel management deals.
Starwood Hotels will open the 4000-room Sheraton Macau - the largest in the brand's portfolio worldwide - in two phases from next year. The company's luxury St Regis brand will open a 460-room hotel and a 400-unit branded residential complex by 2009.
Shangri-La Hotels will open the 600-room Shangri-La Hotel and 1209-room Traders Hotel around the third quarter of next year.
Mr Adelson said his firm would have some 70000 employees in Macau by the time all the Cotai resorts were up and running.
The company placed an order recently for 10 high-speed 420 passenger ferries to transport visitors to and from Macau.....

Mr Adelson also said he will bring some NBA games to Macau.

Sands will cooperate with the US basketball league NBA to hold a series of international matches at its premises in Cotai, declared Sheldon Adelson in a belated ground-breaking ceremony for four hotels there. The four hotels, including Hilton and Shangri-La, will offer more than 6,000 rooms. Adelson also expected that more than half of Sands Macau's revenue will come from gambling, and 10 ferries were purchased to offer passenger services between Macau and Hong Kong from November onwards. An interesting point to note is that Hong Kong media is not invited to the ceremony.

source (http://macau.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/3/2/2774139.html)

World's casino kingpins gamble on Macau (http://www.insidebayarea.com/business/ci_5354702)


By William Foreman, Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 03/04/2007 07:22:01 AM PST

MACAU — Chinese businessman Cao Yanglin let his lunch of slow-cooked beef rib with truffle puree and lemon cream sauce go cold as he talked about his gambling spree the night before at the baccarat tables in Macau — the world's new epicenter for gambling.

The 58-year-old property developer said he won $3,840 at the Las Vegas-style Wynn Macau casino hotel, where he was enjoying his noon meal. But he said he lost $7,680 at the new Grand Lisboa, shaped like a giant Faberge egg covered in flashing lights.

The sting of losing so much money seemed to have faded for the smiling Cao, who resembled a TV anchorman with a deep voice, square jaw, dyed black hair and a blue blazer. He was busy musing about the amazing ongoing changes in China and how Macau would profit from the increasingly wealthy Chinese who have a reputation for wagering more than Americans.

"My father was a railroad worker who never left the country," said Cao, from the northern city of Tianjin, near Beijing. "But I've been to Macau more than 10 times and I've even been to Vegas. They need to have more baccarat tables there."

It's gamblers like Cao who helped this tiny city on the southeastern Chinese coast bump off the Las Vegas Strip last year as the world's gambling center. The city raked in $6.95 billion in gambling revenue, while the Strip made $6.69 billion, regulators in both cities said.

Macau — the only place in China where casinos are legal — says it's just getting started. More casinos, malls, convention centers, resorts and thousands of hotel rooms are being built in the city — about one-sixth the size of Washington, D.C.

Those investing billions could be on the dream team of the global casino industry: MGM Mirage Inc., U.S. tycoon Steve Wynn and Las Vegas Sands Corp. head Sheldon Adelson, ranked No. 3 on Forbes' list of the richest Americans.

Also involved is James Packer, executive chairman of Australia's biggest media and gambling company, Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. And the flamboyant Richard Branson of Britain's Virgin Group Ltd. has been talking about investing in a casino resort.

The tycoons say Macau is a financial no-brainer. They're certain that booming China will continue to get richer and millions of new gamblers will flood into the casinos. The moguls also plan to follow the same blueprint that was wildly successful in transforming Las Vegas from a seedy casino town to a global hot spot for dining, shows, conventions and shopping.

"Macau is the safest bet on Earth," Wynn, who opened his $1.2 billion casino resort here in September, told The Associated Press.

But some analysts are warning there are plenty of risks. China could get hit with political upheaval or an economic meltdown. New gambling resorts in Singapore and other parts of Asia could lure away visitors. Or the shoppers, conventioneers and families just might not show up like they did in Las Vegas.

"I think things could get pretty ugly there pretty fast," said Matt Hoult, a portfolio manager at ABN AMRO Asset Management who is predicting a glut in hotel rooms.

Business models that succeed in one part of the world sometimes flop in another. Wal-Mart retreated from South Korea and Germany. Disney struggled in France and its newest park in Hong Kong has been a disappointment. Will Macau be a boom or a bust?

Macau — a peninsula and two islands — was ruled by Portugal for 442 years before it was returned to China as a semiautonomous territory in 1999, becoming the last European settlement in Asia.

It has one of Asia's most intriguing and charming blends of East and West. Street signs are in Portuguese and Chinese. The signature snack is the creamy egg tart on puff pastry. There are still plenty of colonial-style mansions, churches and government buildings painted in pastel yellow, pink and peach. The city center, with streets paved with mosaic tiles, is on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

But Macau's dreary side is easy to find. The beautiful buildings are far outnumbered by drab concrete apartment blocks that often have rusty anti-theft bars and cages over the windows and balconies.

In the old casino district on the peninsula, the streets are lined with small stores illuminated with headache-inducing bright fluorescent lights. Shop windows are crammed with watches, Zippo-like lighters, gaudy jewelry and Buddhas made of gold. Cashiers stare glumly at customers from elevated booths made of bulletproof glass.

Prostitutes cruise the dark, littered side streets. Buxom, bleach-blonde Russian women in tight pants hang out at outdoor cafes behind the Holiday Inn Macau.

Skinny mainland Chinese prostitutes who could pass for tourists in cheap acrylic sweaters and jeans linger in dark corners of closed storefronts. They dart out to greet prospective men, saying, "Massage, massage?" — the code word for "sex" at the rate of $63 an hour. Some hand out flimsy business cards with fake names like "Yang Yang" or "Ling Ling."

Macau was a darker, more dangerous place in the late 1990s when the Portuguese were preparing to leave. Criminal gangs — or triads — led by bosses with nicknames like "Broken Tooth Koi" waged turf wars with frequent drive-by shootings, kidnappings and car bombs that scared away tourists.

In a desperate bid to lure back visitors, one security official famously proclaimed there was nothing to fear in Macau because the triad assassins were professional killers who didn't miss their targets.

The violence mostly ended after 1999 when the Chinese People's Liberation Army marched into Macau. But the biggest change came a day after the handover. The Chinese government announced it was ending the four-decade monopoly on gambling held by Hong Kong tycoon Stanley Ho.

The news created a huge stir in the global gambling world, and more than 20 bidders vied for the three concessions that were offered. One went to Las Vegas mogul Wynn and another went to a partnership between Hong Kong tycoon Lui Che Woo and the Sands' head Adelson, who later split to develop their own projects.

The third concession went to billionaire Ho, now ranked 84th on Forbes' 100 richest people in the world. The balding, lanky 85-year-old mogul is still an avid ballroom dancer and likes to talk trash about his rivals. His favorite facial expression in public seems to be a smile of dazed wonderment, with his mouth partly open as if he's about to laugh.

Ho has long been regarded to be Macau's de facto leader because he owns almost everything in the town: land, hotels, 17 casinos, a helicopter service and the world's largest fleet of high-speed ferries that shuttle gamblers from Hong Kong, just an hour away.

One popular topic of conversation in Hong Kong — where people are obsessed with tycoons — is whether Ho became cozy with the mob during his four decades of controlling the gambling industry.

Ho vigorously denies he has any triad ties and no clear evidence has been produced.

But the issue popped up again recently when a lawyer for Ho's estranged sister Winnie — who has filed corruption lawsuits against her brother — was severely beaten by bat-wielding thugs while eating in a crowded McDonald's in central Hong Kong on a Sunday afternoon. Immediately after the suspected triad attack, Ho issued a statement saying he had nothing to do with it.

He has been losing market share ever since his monopoly ended.

This month, when he opened his new flagship casino, the $384 million Grand Lisboa, the tycoon told reporters his slice of the market has shrunk to 63 percent in 2006.

Losing the monopoly might be one of the best things to happen to him.

Macau was in decline for years, and Ho was unable to single-handedly revitalize the place.

The newcomers from Las Vegas have created a big new buzz that has produced spectacular growth numbers.

Gambling revenue has more than doubled to $6.95 billion since 2002. Visitor arrivals hit a record high 21.99 million last year — a 17 percent increase over 2005.

Much of that extra money and tourist traffic is ending up in Ho's casinos.

When he opened his new Grand Lisboa in February, the river of thousands of shuffling people who flowed into the 500-table casino included Wu Haihua, a 54-year-old machinist from the city of Foshan in southern Guangdong province.

The stocky Wu, who looked like a wrestler with a flattop crew cut, said Macau's casino business was far from being saturated. "We have an expression in Chinese," he said. "When a business is good, the demand gets even bigger when more join in."

Inside the Grand Lisboa, the tables were packed. But the mood was much different from Las Vegas, where Americans like to whoop it up in a more party-like atmosphere. Chinese gamblers are much more serious. They usually don't drink as they hunker over their cards in quiet concentration — interrupted only by sips of green tea or puffs on a cigarette. They prefer table games over slots.

Chinese gamblers also don't stay in town longer than a day; most daytrippers go on marathon casino binges with brief breaks for a bowl of noodles or a massage before heading home. That's got to change if Macau's huge expansion plans are to be successful.

The billionaires investing in Macau say people will stay for three and a half days if there are convention centers, glitzier shows, massive malls and five-star resorts. It worked for Las Vegas, they say.

But Rob Hart, an analyst at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, thinks that Macau will be more like Atlantic City — a casino town surrounded by huge metropolitan areas that feed it with day-tripping gamblers.

"I don't think people will want to stay in Macau for three and half days on average — ever," he said, adding that Macau will shift from being a male-dominated casino spot to one that's friendlier to women and couples.

Macau's unavoidable problem is that it's too small, Hart said.

"If you look at Las Vegas, you have 180 golf courses within a two-hour drive of Las Vegas. You have the Grand Canyon. You have whitewater rafting. You have a bunch of other things that you can do, which you're never going to have in Macau," he said.

Adding to Macau's woes is bad weather, he said. For six months of the year, it's too hot and sticky to be outside. And for the entire year, Hart said, the pollution is bad because Macau is next door to Guangdong province, one of the world's biggest manufacturing centers.

Hart's analysis is disputed by two Las Vegas tycoons who hate each other and rarely agree on anything: Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson. Their feuding continues in Macau, with Wynn calling his rival "Mr. Magoo" and Adelson saying Wynn is an arrogant man who loves to "yackety, yackety, yack."

Wynn said Macau has never had fancy hotels and people will fill them up once they're built. "Macau can absorb the rooms as long as the quality is wonderful," said the developer, who built The Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio themed resorts in Las Vegas.

The sleek 600-room Wynn Macau with a sloping roof is a stark contrast to Stanley Ho's old stodgy casinos that are built up to the sidewalk. Wynn's complex is surrounded by a buffer zone with a lush garden and a huge manmade lake. Outdoor speakers play sultry jazz and Frank Sinatra. The hotel's signature fragrance — a scent like a new leather designer handbag filled with a mild potpourri of wild flowers — can be smelled from the walkway outside the building.

Wynn is fanatical about design details. Two weeks before the Wynn Macau opened, he decided the foot traffic was too loud in the shopping esplanade and had the marble floors replaced.

Skeptics who doubt mainland Chinese tourists will want to step away from the casino tables to shop should visit the Louis Vuitton boutique in the Wynn Macau. It was packed on a recent Sunday night with mainlanders who created a frenzied atmosphere of a vegetable market before dinnertime as they grabbed handbags, belts and shoes off the shelves.

"Miss, miss, come here, come here!" one man yelled at a clerk who was helping two other customers. His friend barked into a cell phone, "Where are you? Why don't you come over here and meet us?"

When asked what the hottest selling item is, the sales staff said without hesitation: "The nansheng bao bao!" or "The man bags!" — square-shaped leather totes with a shoulder strap selling for about US$1,000.

Many mainland gamblers buy a man bag before entering the casino, believing it's good luck to arrive with a new tote with plenty of room inside for money to flow in.

So far, Adelson has been enormously successful in Macau. In 2004, he opened the 740-table Sands Macau, the world's biggest casino by tables. Within a year, the casino earned back all of the $240 million in invested capital, the company said.

Adelson said Macau has big advantages over Las Vegas — a large population nearby that's anxious to come and gamble.

About 100 million people — living in China's wealthiest region — are within a three-hour car ride from Macau. One billion people are within a three-hour flight and 3 billion are just a five-hour flight away.

Adelson brushed off speculation that Macau could be threatened by the possibility the Chinese government will legalize casinos in other parts of the country.

"It's like the threat to my grandfather that my grandmother will develop testicles and then she would be my grandfather," he told the AP.

Adelson is famous for being a visionary who turned Las Vegas into a global capital for conventions and exhibitions. He wants to do the same in Macau, and in mid-2007 he plans to open his Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, with 3,000 suites, a huge casino with 6,000 slot machines, 1.2 million square feet of convention space and a massive mall. Italian gondolas and Chinese sampans will cruise around canals in the complex similar to The Venetian in Las Vegas.

The project's construction site on a piece of reclaimed land called the Cotai Strip is big enough to park 90 Boeing 747 jets, Sands says. Some of the biggest names in the hotel industry will be part of the project: Shangri-la, Sheraton, St. Regis, Hilton, Conrad and Four Seasons, Adelson said. Wynn, Ho and other moguls have projects on the Cotai.

People will want to have trade shows in Macau because it's so close to where most of the world's goods are being made, said William Weidner, president and chief financial officer of Sands Las Vegas.

"We'll create an environment where the Western buyer can be entertained," Weidner told the AP. "They'll be able to have the Las Vegas experience, and we can introduce the Western buyer to the Eastern seller under one roof. That's an explosive combination."

Many of the massive casinos and hotels will be opening on the Cotai Strip in the next three years. That's when it will become clearer whether the aging Las Vegas tycoons are ending their reigns with a burst of brilliance or with colossal acts of hubris.

It is a well-written article by William Foreman. I guess he had researched Macau for some time before you could come up with this article.

Gambling may be outlawed in most of China but the one place the Chinese can go for a wager is a former Portuguese territory in the south of the country.

I cannot quite remember whether it was the Vino Tinto - perhaps you know the sort, slightly gruff and moody but heart-warming nonetheless.

Or maybe it was the outrageously sensuous and fickly-named Serradura, a pudding so seductive it would have broken laws in any other incarnation.

Either way I finished my meal at La Lorcha with the conclusion that if you are looking for an authentic culinary experience that hits every spot in the stomach and still has pretensions to being healthy, it has to be Portuguese.

After supper, I walked through the Avenidas and Estradas past the Dom Pedro V Theatre and the various monasteries while catching, I thought, a slight hint of southern Europe’s perfumed air.

And then I saw the egg - an electronic egg. No, an electronic Faberge egg.

Again - an electronic Faberge egg that was 100 feet tall and still greater in girth.

“Welcome,” it greeted me in tens of millions of flashing pixels, “to the Hotel Lisboa!”

Into the yoke
My reverie ended abruptly - I was not in some gentle paradise on the Algarve.

I was on a peculiar little territory, Macao, which has just overtaken Las Vegas as the world’s number one earner from legal gambling joints.

And the Faberge Hotel Lisboa is the latest in a string of super casinos that have exploded here since communist China reclaimed the peninsula from the former colonial power Portugal in 1999.

Along with thousands of others, I am propelled into the egg’s very yoke.

After a quick security check, I am greeted by extravagant jugglers and a giant caterpillar which performs amusing tricks.

Behind them I see the first tables offering Big Small, a barely comprehensible dice game, Blackjack and a weird form of poker.

In the basement, the slot machines make their first appearance and I pass one man laughing hysterically as his machine vomits thousands of tokens into his awaiting lap.

The atmosphere puts me in mind of the surreal characters in the bar scene from the first Star Wars movie.

The new Hotel Lisboa was the idea of Stanley Ho, the 85-year-old billionaire whose Society of Macau Gaming enjoyed a monopoly from Portugal’s colonial authorities for four decades.

His old Lisboa with its much dingier, smoky atmosphere where brawls were never far away symbolised the seedy crime-ridden life of this small peninsula of southern China.

But that image is changing.
A huge flashing advertisement in English and Chinese - not Portuguese - announced that the American gaming firm MGM Mirage is looking to recruit croupiers, dealers, doormen and entertainers for its new casinos.

Because in 2001, the communist Chinese decided not to close down the gaming industry - as might have happened in times past - but to expand it through liberalisation.

Mr Ho lost his monopoly and it was not long before the fat cigars like MGM arrived on the tiny island from Las Vegas.

Stanley Ho had to move with the times and plans for the Faberge egg were laid.

Macao’s gambling revenue in 2006 weighed in at a massive ?3.6bn - about ?100m more than Las Vegas.

Along with the liberalisation, the boom is being fuelled by the charge of mainland Chinese who can now zip over the border and fritter away their hard won yuan in a night or two of wanton excess.

Unrestrained capitalism
Inside the egg, apart from the Russian “dancers” as they are described on their visas, I was one of about five non-Asians among thousands of people.

This frenzy is not fuelled by Western tour operators but by the region itself.

And when the Chinese gamble, it is not just the occasional flutter - it is industrial.

I am left with a deep sense that this culture of mega-gambling is tasteless
But until now they have had real difficulties finding anywhere legal to indulge their habit.

Macau and communist China’s fanatical commitment to unrestrained capitalism have changed this fundamentally.

It is hard not to sound pompous but I can only lament the steady disappearance of Macau’s unique cultural fusion of the Mediterranean and southern Chinese which exudes a quiet elegance.

Super casinos may be glitzy, they may make stacks of cash for the owners and tax collectors but after an evening wandering around assaulted by lights, bells, buzzers, and various inducements, I am left with a deep sense that this culture of mega-gambling is tasteless, soulless, cheerless and mindless.

Source (http://macau.a2zcasino.eu/macau-casino-news/macaus-gambling-frenzy/)

Macau is set to open its market to internet and telephone wagering firms, the South China Morning Post reported. The Macau Gaming Commission could introduce legislation to regulate “remote gaming” (online and telephone gaming) within the next two years, according to its legal adviser Carlos Lobo.

With the US ban last year on its citizens wagering online, “i-gaming” companies have found a focus on new markets in Asia. The new regulation may affect Macau’s relationship with China, which announced a three-month crackdown on internet gambling that aims to further “purify the cyber environment,” in late February.

Source (http://macau.a2zcasino.eu/macau-casino-news/macau-to-allow-online-gambling/)

Fm HK Standard
Fulton Mak

Monday, March 12, 2007

It is not NECESSARY to be one of the gaming license holders to enjoy the skyrocketing growth in Macau's gaming market, as long as you have a piece of land and good partners willing to develop a casino-resort.

Hong Kong-based eSun Holdings (0571) is about to demonstrate the magic of turning dirt into gold, with fresh synergy derived from the group's entertainment business.
The company, which is primarily engaged in the entertainment industry, including film production and distribution, organizing concerts and artist management, established a foothold in Macau in 2001, when it acquired some reclaimed land at the southern end of Cotai Strip.
eSun originally intended to build a satellite television studio on the site until it realized the land could be put to a much more lucrative use.
So it revised the plans into a two- phased project called "Macau Studio City," which includes a casino and 2,000-room hotel, as well as retail and film studio space.
Last April, eSun sold 40 percent of the project to New Cotai, a group of private US investors, for HK$1.32 billion. In December, a 20 percent stake was sold for HK$658 million to CapitaLand, a Singapore-listed property developer held by the government investment arm, Temasek Holdings.
eSun retained the remaining 40 percent interest in MSC through the newly-formed joint-venture company Cyber One Agents.
The first phase, which started construction in January, will include the hotel as well as 1 million square feet of retail and studio space.
A 200,000-square-foot casino housing 400 gaming tables and 1,000 slot machines will be managed by Nasdaq- listed gaming company Melco PBL Entertainment.
eSun will receive a minimum guaranteed rental from the casino operation under a revenue sharing agreement with Melco PBL.
The first phase of MSC is scheduled for completion in early 2009.
By 2011, the entire finished project will have gross floor area totalling 6 million square feet.
Analysts believe eSun's partnership with New Cotai and CapitaLand should allow MSC to secure financing at competitive rates.
Credit Suisse has chosen eSun as one of its top picks in the Year of the Pig considering the stock is more than just a casino play.
Analyst Gabriel Chan believes synergies can arise between eSun's existing entertainment business and the Macau project.
Goldman Sachs views eSun as a diversified Macau entertainment proxy with leverage to retail, hotel, casino and entertainment.
"Macau needs to offer other elements besides new casinos so as to transform Macau into the Las Vegas of the East." Chan said.
"We believe [eSun] can leverage off its entertainment business by arranging for its Asian pop stars to perform in Macau, which should attract not only mainland Chinese, but also tourists from South-East Asia." In addition, eSun, unlike other Macau gaming companies, will receive an advance positive cash inflow from the formation of Cyber One Agents joint venture before its casino-resort actually opens.
Credit Suisse estimates that with the guaranteed rental income from the casino, plus the total HK$3.5 billion net disposal gain in cash from the two partners, eSun's actual investment cost in the project is only HK$2.6 billion.
Furthermore, eSun's plans to buy out and then privatize its currently 37 percent-owned Singapore-based movie production arm, Media Asia, is seen by Credit Suisse as positive to the company.
eSun is offering S$0.265 (HK$1.36) per share to acquire all outstanding shares of Media Asia, a 39.5 percent premium to the last closing price of S$0.19 February 21.
Meanwhile, eSun shares, which has market capitalization of HK$4.6 billion, closed Friday at HK$5.92, up 5.526 percent.
Goldman Sachs has set a 12-month price target of HK$11 for the stock, while Credit Suisse set its target at HK$10.20, forecasting net earning at HK$866.5 million for fiscal 2006, followed by HK$721.5 million in 2007 and HK$952.8 million in 2008.
JPMorgan maintained its "overweight call," recommending investors buy on the weakness.

Lately, the Treasury Department of the United States of America has designated Banco Delta Asia ("BDA") as a financial institution that has laundered money, to which MSAR Government (the "Government") expresses its deep regret.

In view of the designation of BDA as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern by the U.S. Government on 15 September 2005, the Government, in accordance with provisions of relevant legislation, swiftly adopted a series of measures, and closely mooted on the matter with relevant parties with a view to resolving the incident satisfactorily.

As a consequence of recent development, the Government has decided to extend its intervention regime applicable to BDA with a view to safeguarding the benefit of depositors and maintaining market stability. Simultaneously, the Government will continue to closely moot on the matter with relevant parties so that the incident can be resolved at an earlier date.

On the other hand, the Government will persistently strengthen the enforcement and supervision of measures to combat money laundering and ensure the continued proper functioning and effective risk management of financial institutions. The Government believes that the relevant policy and measures will be supported by all sectors and citizens of our community which will no doubt promote the stability and healthy development of our financial system.

Source (http://macaudailyblog.com/)

For decades, gambling tycoon Stanley Ho controlled all the casinos in this betting haven, which helped him amass one of the world’s larger fortunes even as he battled allegations of connections to underworld figures.

Ho’s monopoly on gambling in Macau now is fading. Macau opened the door to competition five years ago, and big foreign gaming firms are rushing in with new casinos. And just as Las Vegas once cleaned itself up, this former Portuguese colony near Hong Kong on China’s coast has followed suit. It’s beefed up its police, jailed criminal bosses and recast itself as a fun and convention destination.

U.S. gaming regulators have a lingering question, however: Have Stanley Ho and his empire of family businesses also changed their ways?

Ho’s socialite daughter, Pansy, is under scrutiny by Nevada and New Jersey gambling regulators to determine whether she’s a suitable partner for MGM Mirage in a $1.1 billion casino MGM Grand Macau project that’s nearly complete.

Nevada’s Gaming Control Commission will meet later this month to vote on a lesser board’s unanimous decision to give Pansy Ho and MGM Mirage the green light.

There’s much for regulators to mull over, perhaps befitting a family that’s defined Macau’s recent history but has been cleaved by quarrels.

Stanley Ho’s sister battled in court with him over her charges that she was cheated out of casino dividends. Then there’s the matter of her lawyer, who was sitting in a McDonald’s in Hong Kong last August when three men beat him bloody with baseball bats.

The culprits were never found, and it’s still unclear whether the assault was related to the family dispute.

Stanley Ho also operates a casino in Pyongyang, North Korea, where he has long-standing ties, a matter that sparked a New York-based lobby group, Family Focus Coalition Against Casino Gambling Expansion, to fight the Ho-MGM Mirage partnership.

It’s hard to overstate Stanley Ho’s impact on Macau, which reverted to China in 1999. His casino and hotel empire makes up a third of the enclave’s economic activity.

“This room is the Stanley Ho room,” said Jose Rocha Dinis, a newspaper publisher, drawing on a cigar in a lounge of the posh Military Club in the heart of Macau. “The new bridge was paid one-third by Stanley Ho. He paid a lot of money for the airport. He gives money to everybody.”

With a personal fortune estimated at $7 billion, the 85-year-old Ho ranks as the sixth richest person in Asia in a listing by Forbes magazine.

After four marriages, Ho has 17 children, which is also the number of casinos that his Sociedade de Jogos de Macau operates, including the new flagship Grand Lisboa, an elegant gilded structure that opened last month next to the old-style Casino Lisboa.

For most of the last four decades, his casinos were smoky low-ceiling affairs, with prostitutes loitering in the hallways and VIP rooms run by shady brokers.

“He’s never had to operate a decent casino or hotel before. So he’s had to broaden his experience,” said David J. Green of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the global accounting firm, who’s the director of gaming practice in Macau.

Competition has spurred Ho to action. His company has hired veteran Western casino executives and is working with investment bankers to go public and list shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, perhaps later this year.

He’s also set up his daughter Pansy and son Lawrence with companies in his empire that are linked to foreign casino operators, eventual direct competitors of their father’s company.

Pansy Ho, 44, has sought to distance herself from her father.

“Whether there are allegations regarding my father or how he runs his businesses has got absolutely nothing to do with how I conduct this partnership with MGM. I’m a separate entity,” she told Macau Business magazine in February.

She and MGM Mirage declined to talk about their partnership.

U.S. casino companies have a lot riding on Macau, which overtook the Las Vegas Strip in gambling revenues last year. Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts have seen their stock prices soar after opening casinos here, the only gambling destination in greater China, with vast growth potential. Last year, the enclave drew 22 million visitors. Forecasts are for 35 million annually by the end of the decade.

Pansy Ho has no plans for casinos in the United States. But since MGM Mirage partnered with her, U.S. gaming regulators say they must look into her background.

“If anything goes bad in Macau, it could affect their licenses in Vegas,” said Stephen G. Vickers, the head of International Risk, a risk-analysis firm in Hong Kong that’s done extensive background work for the gaming industry.

Allegations of loan-sharking and underworld ties have swirled around Stanley Ho for decades, peaking in 1987, when an aide was hacked to death by machete in a park.

An avid ballroom dancer, Ho has always waltzed away from charges.

Yet the problems have circumscribed how he conducts global deals. Earlier this month, he slid out of a probity investigation by a Singaporean regulator, orchestrating a swapping of stakes by Malaysian and Hong Kong companies in different casino projects in Macau and Singapore. He’s pulled out of other deals to avoid inquiries.

Some scholars say they doubt that the offspring of Asian family-empire founders such as Stanley Ho can move very far from their fathers’ shadows.

“The patriarchs traditionally maintain controls,” said Michael E. DeGolyer, a professor of government at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Indeed, at a 2005 groundbreaking for the 28-story MGM Grand Macau, his daughter’s joint project, Stanley Ho showed up and rubbed elbows with MGM Mirage chief executive Terri Lanni. One local news report said Ho talked about the project as if it were his own.

Source (http://macau.a2zcasino.eu/macau-casino-news/pansey-ho-trying-to-escape-stanley-ho-shadow/)

As we mentioned before, there is too much of a good thing in Macau! A small population of 508,000 with a workforce of 260,000 people, that needs to be 400,000 people by 2010. This is to support all those new casino’s, hotels and resorts that will be sprouting up all over Macau. And we have not even talked about the drop in per table take which since 2002 has been a whopping 300%!
Global gaming and entertainment operators have been doubling down on new casino development in Macao. Yet it could also be heading for a nasty shakeout thanks to a looming casino glut, some analysts warn.

At first glance, the casino development spending spree seems justified. Macao’s gaming revenues are growing an average of nearly 20% per year and were just shy of $7 billion last year, earning the enclave more than the entire Las Vegas strip. Avid Chinese gamblers, who account for 50% of the bettors, up from virtually zero five years ago, arrive in ever growing numbers.

But behind those headline-grabbing numbers a less glittering picture starts to emerge. The average take per table, which peaked at $10,000 per day in 2002 when Hong Kong mogul Stanley Ho still had a monopoly on the gaming industry, has been steadily falling this decade.

In 2006 the average take was just $3,200 because of the rapid overall expansion of gaming tables. It’s going to get worse: As ever more properties come on stream in the next few years, that figure could reach as low as $1,800 by 2010, figures Morgan Stanley gaming analyst Rob Hart. “We’ve been warning investors,” he says.

Indeed, the number of tables is expected to increase fivefold from 2,000 at the beginning of this year to 10,000 by the end of 2010. And the culprit is seemingly nonstop new casino development.

So far this year, Stanley Ho’s Sociedade de Jogos de Macao has opened its $384 million, 300-table Grand Lisboa casino. Even now, there is a massive shortage of croupiers—table dealers who throw dice, spin roulette wheels, and deal cards—on the island. That’s already putting the squeeze on margins, say analysts.

Later this year, Las Vegas Sands will take the wraps off its $2.3 billion Venetian Macau, with 800 tables and 2,000 slot machines, complete with gondolas, a convention center, and 3,000 luxury hotel suites. The MGM Grand Macau will follow this fall with an additional 340 tables.

Before Stanley Ho’s gaming monopoly ended in 2002, Macao was primarily a V.I.P. market, where high rollers accounted for about 74% of gaming revenues. But at the Sands Macao, which has been steadily stealing market share from established operators since it opened in 2004, about 55% of revenues now flow from mass market gamblers.

Ordinary mainland punters obviously spend less, and usually don’t seek out high-end accommodations or spend small fortunes on Prada handbags and Tag Heuer wrist watches. Yet the more frugal gamblers are clearly driving growth now and likely will soon eclipse the big-spending segment.

In fact, Morgan Stanley’s Hart estimates these consumers will overtake the VIP business by 2008.

Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn have argued in the past that their resort complexes, artificial waterfalls, glitzy stage acts, and opulent hotel rooms will keep well-off families and business covention-goers coming back again and help upgrade Macao’s lowbrow image.
Right now, though, Macao is showing all the signs of an overdeveloped pleasure palace that may bring disappointing returns to the world’s biggest gambling entertainment concerns.

Source (http://macaudailyblog.com/cotai-strip/macaus-gambling-problem/) | Business Week

Macau Casino operator Melco PBL Entertainment (Macau) Ltd. has said that its 2006 loss widened, as costs rose ahead of two new casino projects.

Hong Kong-based Melco, which went public on the Nasdaq in December, reported a net loss of US$73.5 million, or 12 cents a share, in 2006, compared with a loss of US$3.3 million in 2005.

Revenue more than doubled to US$36.1 million, due in part to a change in reporting of revenue at its Mocha Clubs unit.

Operating costs for the year rose to US$93.8 million from US$21.1 million in 2005.

The company said it expects to open its Crown Macau Hotel Casino on May 9, while construction is continuing on its City of Dreams located on the Cotai Strip section of Macau, the only place in gambling-mad China where casinos are legal.

Melco’s shares trade at a premium to Wynn Resorts Ltd and Las Vegas Sands Corp, which also operate casinos in Macau, JP Morgan analyst Harry Curtis said in a research note.

However, given the high short interest in the name, if Crown opens well, and the strength looks sustainable, we’d expect upside in the stock from short covering,” he said.

Shares of Melco were up 22 cents, or 1.4 percent, in late trading on Nasdaq.

Melco is a joint venture between Hong Kong’s Melco International Development Ltd and Australia’s Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd.

source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/melco-pbl-2006-losses-widenend/)

Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd’s Asian casino joint venture has played down fears the construction of its $US2.1 billion ($2.6 billion) City of Dreams complex in Macau has got off to a rocky start, after reporting a $US73.5 million full-year loss.

Melco PBL Entertainment warned that its plans to capture a big slice of the world’s largest casino centre could prove more costly, after revealing the costs of the soon to open 36-storey Crown Macau had blown out 13 per cent to $US584 million. The loss was largely a result of the development of its two Macau casinos.

Despite noting the additional costs were a result of “conscious and considered” changes to expand the scope of its projects, the joint venture conceded the higher cost of building materials and construction in Macau could have an effect on future projects.

“We’ve indicated that we’re operating in the context of increasing construction and service costs in Macau and obviously we try to … forecast those and mitigate against inflationary pressure as much as we can,” Melco PBL chief financial officer Simon Dewhurst told a phone hook-up over the weekend.

However, Melco PBL said the growth of gaming revenue and tourism in the former Portuguese enclave could offset any cost blowouts. Mr Dewhurst said the group was already considering possible additions to the City of Dreams project, which will house 450 gaming tables, 1500 gaming machines, an “upscale” shopping mall and a 1600-room five star hotel.

He said the group was looking at a “range of entertainment options”. Crown Casino in Melbourne, by comparison, has 350 gaming tables.

While conceding the project had experienced a hiccup or two, Melco PBL chief executive Lawrence Ho said: “The team is very confident of delivering the City of Dreams at the end of 2008.”

The casino is being constructed by Leighton Holdings, which recently completed the Wynns project in Macau.

“Sadly, it’s true that [the head] design director was transferred back to Melbourne.

“Having said that, this is a personal matter and a confidential one,” said Mr Ho. He declined to say what the problem was but did talk up the merits of the new head designer, who was behind the construction of the Sands Macau project.

“We are very confident that he’s a very capable individual,” he said. “The program is on track.”

Crown Macau is due to open on May 9.

Courtesy (http://macaudailyblog.com/cotai-strip/melco-pbl-faces-city-of-dreams-cost-blowouts/) | SMH

Part of interim report from MPO (Macau Property Oppunities Fund), a fund listed on London's AIM stock market.

11 April 2007
Market Overview

....
The retail sector has also been attracting widespread attention. Focus has been on the mega-brands rapidly filling the six million square feet of retail space estimated to be opening over the next three years. The 1.2 million square feet in the Venetian is believed to be over 80% committed. Once open, these outlets are reported to be collaborating with each other and the Macau government for a widespread campaign promoting Macau to the rapidly growing Chinese consumer market. This is likely to continue to drive retail spending at or beyond the 21% growth rate seen in 2006 and catalyse the long predicted growth in Macau's non-gaming revenues.

On the gaming front, the first quarter was marked by the successful opening of Stanley Ho's visually controversial Grand Lisboa casino, encompassing 240 tables, 484 slot machines and 30 VIP tables. The casino played host to 10,000 visitors on its first day. Chinese New Year was another record for Macau, with tourist arrivals up approximately 20% YoY to over 500,000. Gaming revenues reached almost US$1.5 billion in the first two months of the year, an increase of almost 50% YoY. The continued high quality supply of new casino product combined with announcements of yet further new resorts should continue to drive interest and demand through 2007 and beyond.

Let's wait and see!

The opening of the Zhuhai Lotus Bridge border may help as people don't have to go through the Peninsula and across the bridge to get to the Cotai Strip.

Keep in mind that the Venetian had to lower the rentals and give incentives to get the shop keepers in there. Meanwhile Wynn Macau closed some of their shops!

Arrivals and gaming revenue around Chinese New Year is always up. But my question is will they maintain it and get the daily 500,000 visitors so that they all can survive and will the infrastructure be in place to cope with it!

After Grand Lisboa, Crown Macau, Venetian Macao, MGM Grand, Wynn Macau Phase II, Ponte 16 Casino and possible Galaxy MegaResort (Phase 1) opening this year, the race for the $$$ surely will be on!

What shops closed at Wynn Macau? And do know why they closed? I thought their shops were doing fantastic. I heard their LV store was one of the best in all of Asia.

Let's wait and see!

The opening of the Zhuhai Lotus Bridge border may help as people don't have to go through the Peninsula and across the bridge to get to the Cotai Strip.

Keep in mind that the Venetian had to lower the rentals and give incentives to get the shop keepers in there. Meanwhile Wynn Macau closed some of their shops!

Arrivals and gaming revenue around Chinese New Year is always up. But my question is will they maintain it and get the daily 500,000 visitors so that they all can survive and will the infrastructure be in place to cope with it!

After Grand Lisboa, Crown Macau, Venetian Macao, MGM Grand, Wynn Macau Phase II, Ponte 16 Casino and possible Galaxy MegaResort (Phase 1) opening this year, the race for the $$$ surely will be on!
Yeah, I am really wondering how these hotels will be able to pull enough visitors to fill the 6000? new hotel rooms that are completed in a short period of 3 years. And there may have been too many shops at Wynn or Venetian. I think MGM Macau made a good decision not to have a shopping mall as a main attraction. MGM Macau is connected to One Central Residences where its podium will have a huge upscale shopping center, so people who want to shop can go next door which is only 1 minute away. Less risky for MGM, and I applaud their strategic decision.

What shops closed at Wynn Macau? And do know why they closed? I thought their shops were doing fantastic. I heard their LV store was one of the best in all of Asia.

Some of them are doing okay, but with the new extension being build I heard that some of the non-performing ones were closed. Not sure whether that has to do with the extension, I will try to find out through my source which ones!

Macau Gaming Q-1 Revenue Jumps Up 45%

Macau’s first-quarter gaming revenue surged 44% from a year earlier as casinos opened in the past three years gained more customers.
The Chinese city’s gambling industry reaped 18.1bil patacas (US$2.25bil) of revenue, according to figures posted yesterday on the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau’s website.
That compares with 12.6bil patacas in last year’s firs quarter and 16.6bil patacas in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Macau gaming revenue started to surge in 2004, when Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp and Galaxy Casino SA ended the four-decade monopoly of billionaire Stanley Ho. Seven casinos opened in the city last year, bringing the total to 24.
Foreign investors are staking US$20bil on making the city, a former Portuguese colony, into the gambling capital of Asia.
About 2.2 billion people live within five hours’ flying time of Macau, compared with 410 million in the same radius of Las Vegas, according to CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.
Wynn Resorts opened the US$1.2bil Wynn Macau in September. The Vegas-based company, operated by billionaire Steve Wynn, plans to build a second casino in the city. Kirk Kerkorian’s MGM is also building a new resort in the city.
Macau gaming revenue may reach US$8bil in 2007, mainly driven by the scheduled opening of Las Vegas Sands’ Venetian Macao mid-year, Jonathan Galaviz, a partner at Globalysis Ltd, wrote in a report in August. The Las Vegas-based gaming consulting company estimated 2006 revenue on the Las Vegas Strip at US$6.6bil. — Bloomberg

Three operating Macau gaming concessionaires report their 2006 performance on the Macau Special Administrative Region Gazette today (25 April).

The Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) reported an annual profit of MOP251.2 million, and annual revenue of MOP35.2 billion, an increase of MOP8 million compared to 2005.

In the report, SJM pointed out that they had contriubted MOP12.5 billion of taxes to the Government, plus MOP1.1 billion to the Macao Foundation, city construction and tourism promotion activities.

The Galaxy Casinos recorded a loss of MOP449 million, whilst received a total of MOP75 billion of revenue. It had contributed more than MOP3 billion of taxes to the Government.

The Venetian Macau SA and Subsidaries recorded a profit of MOP2.97 billion, and more than MOP11.2 billion in revenue from casinos. It had contributed MOP522 million of taxes to the Government.

In the Board of Directors' Report, it pointed out that the performance in 2006 'had greatly exceeded from the expected'.

It also revealed that a franchise had been applied to operate ferry services between Macau and Hong Kong at the end of 2006, with plans to expand to other destinations in the future. It promised to provide services 'beyond existing standards'.

Meanwhile, MGM Grand Paradise, whose premises is still under construction, also reported on the Gazette a loss of MOP43 million in 2006. There was no revenue generated last year, according to the extract of the report.

source (http://macau.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/4/25/2903929.html)

Apparently UBS research reports indicate unofficial figures that May gambling revenues up 60%.

Separately, Deutsche bank said that the travel restrictions have not (yet ?) had an impact since some agents claimed that the restrictions may have begun as early as 1 May. Deutsche believed that the restrictions were less likely to affect VIP customers.

Wynn has also slowed its expansion of Wynn Macau, with only a 10% expansion of tables in 3Q 2007. Some believe this is due to extra supply, labour shortage and visa restrictions.

It sounds like Macau really has too many visitors to handle.

Galaxy reported its results following the opening of its StarWorld casino (its first wholly owned project). Revenues rose 25%. Analyst suggest that Galaxy may be the only gaming company in Macau to increase its margins this year.
GalaxyWorld Resort, including its 1500 room hotel tower is on target for completion in 2008. The company has also concluded negotiations on its second tower of pase one, with 1000 rooms and villas. The company says the resort is now fully funded.
According to Galaxy, there has not been any noticeable drop in visitors from China.

Manuel Neves, director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), predicts that the local gaming and betting sector’s annual gross receipts will “very probably” reach 100 billion patacas at the end of the decade, when he expects the number of casinos to reach 34 or 35. Mr. Neves made the forecast in an interview with the latest edition of the Portuguese-language Revista Macau, a quarterly magazine published by Delta Edicoes on behalf of the Government Information Bureau (GCS).

According to the DICJ, the gaming and betting sector’s gross receipts reached a record HK$ 55.88 billion at the end of last year (the DICJ uses a Hong Kong dollar/pataca exchange rate of 1:1 in spite of the fact that the official peg rate stands at 1:1.03). The number of casinos now amounts to 26.

Mr. Neves also said he expected this year’s gaming and betting sector to log 77 billion patacas in gross receipts this year. This would amount to a year-on-year growth of 37.7 per cent per cent. He also said he believed the number of gaming workers would increase from the present 35,000 to between 60,000 and 80,000 “in the medium term.”

Macau’s top gaming inspector also said the government would not grant more casino subconcessions. Currently, the three casino concessionaires have been allowed by the government to grant one subconcession each.

“I believe that Macau will, in fact, be the Las Vegas of the Orient,” Mr. Neves told the magazine, adding he did not believe that new casino developments elsewhere in Asia, such as in Singapore, would jeopardize Macau’s leading position in the region “in the short or medium term.”

Mr. Neves also said that the present situation of gambling-related problems in Macau was “not worrying.” However, he added that this did not mean that problems could arise in the future, because of which the government was taking “preventive measures to minimize this possibility.”

The bureau director also said the government would soon draft “clear rules” on the prohibition of minors’ entry into casinos. While anyone under the age of 18 is currently banned from entering gaming premises, current legislation apparently gives minors the right to claims their winnings even if they illegally gained entry into a casino. Neves claimed that casinos “are not the best place to launder money, contrary to what many people think. In casinos everything is registered and, consequently, it’s easier to detect illegal operations.”

source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/macau-gaming-bureau-forecasts-35-casinos-in-2010/)

I'm not so worried about other locations trying to steal a piece of Macau's gambling glory. After all, Macau is onshore - a part of China and not a long flight away from most large cities - so it's easier to secure travel visas. Hong Kong has a very strong tourism appeal internationally and within China, hence combining Hong Kong and Macau together will definitely be very appealing.

Playboy bunnies to hop into steamy Macau in 2009

MACAU, June 27 (Reuters) - The Playboy bunny is beckoning, and this time it's from Macau.

The entertainment empire founded by Hugh Hefner will look this year for croupiers and other staff to work at the Playboy Mansion Macao when it opens in 2009, joining Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn and local tycoon Stanley Ho in an investment rush into the southern Chinese city.

The envisioned 40,000 sq ft (3,700 sq m) casino-retail complex -- a partial replica of the original in Los Angeles -- will house less than 50 gaming tables.

Guests hoping to emulate Hefner's flamboyant lifestyle will be able to dine, shop, stay in a Hugh Hefner Villa and take a dip in the Playboy pool.

"There will be bunnies at the gaming tables," Chairman and Chief Executive Christie Hefner, Hefner's daughter, told reporters. "The brand really represents lifestyle and entertainment for grown-ups, like Disney represents lifestyle and entertainment for kids."

Playboy is no stranger to Chinese customers: the firm wanted to open an exclusive club in Shanghai in 2004 or 2005 but the city once known as the Whore of the Orient rejected its advances.

Expansion into India could be on the cards for the New York-listed firm, which encompasses TV and video divisions anchored by the long-running Playboy magazine.

"India is certainly a dynamic market," said Hefner. "It's certainly on our radar screens with no specific plans to announce."

Two bunny-eared, white-tailed Playboy bunnies -- flown in for the occasion from Las Vegas -- served champagne at the Wednesday launch ceremony for the casino-cum-mall, which will be housed in the $2 billion Macao Studio City complex.

"Anybody can throw a party," said Macao Studio City co-Chairman and co-Chief Executive David Friedman. "But when Playboy throws a party, that's a party that everyone -- stars and celebrities -- want to go to."

Manuel Neves, director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), predicts that the local gaming and betting sector’s annual gross receipts will “very probably” reach 100 billion patacas at the end of the decade, when he expects the number of casinos to reach 34 or 35. Mr. Neves made the forecast in an interview with the latest edition of the Portuguese-language Revista Macau, a quarterly magazine published by Delta Edicoes on behalf of the Government Information Bureau (GCS).

According to the DICJ, the gaming and betting sector’s gross receipts reached a record HK$ 55.88 billion at the end of last year (the DICJ uses a Hong Kong dollar/pataca exchange rate of 1:1 in spite of the fact that the official peg rate stands at 1:1.03). The number of casinos now amounts to 26.

Mr. Neves also said he expected this year’s gaming and betting sector to log 77 billion patacas in gross receipts this year. This would amount to a year-on-year growth of 37.7 per cent per cent. He also said he believed the number of gaming workers would increase from the present 35,000 to between 60,000 and 80,000 “in the medium term.”

Macau’s top gaming inspector also said the government would not grant more casino subconcessions. Currently, the three casino concessionaires have been allowed by the government to grant one subconcession each.

“I believe that Macau will, in fact, be the Las Vegas of the Orient,” Mr. Neves told the magazine, adding he did not believe that new casino developments elsewhere in Asia, such as in Singapore, would jeopardize Macau’s leading position in the region “in the short or medium term.”

Mr. Neves also said that the present situation of gambling-related problems in Macau was “not worrying.” However, he added that this did not mean that problems could arise in the future, because of which the government was taking “preventive measures to minimize this possibility.”

The bureau director also said the government would soon draft “clear rules” on the prohibition of minors’ entry into casinos. While anyone under the age of 18 is currently banned from entering gaming premises, current legislation apparently gives minors the right to claims their winnings even if they illegally gained entry into a casino. Neves claimed that casinos “are not the best place to launder money, contrary to what many people think. In casinos everything is registered and, consequently, it’s easier to detect illegal operations.”

source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/macau-gaming-bureau-forecasts-35-casinos-in-2010/)

Recent report on the Joint Venture and Business Developments President leaving the firm have been denied by SJM.

Director of SJM Leong On Kei (梁安琪) clarified tonight (23 July) that the report is “purely fictional”.

She stressed that SJM has given McFadden high autonomy in managing its flagship Grand Lisboa, and that McFadden himself thanks SJM for giving him this opportunity to develop himself.

She accused “someone” destroying the relations between the management and the members of staff of the firm, and claimed that there are no problems on the internal communication. The report will also make no effects to this.

According to Macao Daily News report today, McFadden “has left” SJM, with his whereabouts unknown.

The paper claimed that clashes between management models may contribute to McFadden’s “departure”, and quoted “scholars” who said that the chances for him returning to Venetian or going to MGM “cannot be ruled out”.

Frank McFadden joined SJM from Sands Macao last September.


source (http://www.blogmacau.info/blog/?p=1749)

Starwood has announced plans for a new W Hotel in Macau that is scheduled to open in early 2009.

This new-build W hotel will be located within the Macau Studio City complex, situated on Cotai, an area earmarked by the Macau government to become one of the main gaming, entertainment and resort developments in the Special Administrative Region. W Macau Studio City will make its debut offering 563 guest rooms.

W continues to extend beyond the boundaries of everyday travel, offering a magical mix of sexy destinations and sublime design,” said Ross Klein, president of Starwood’s Luxury Brands Group. “W Macau marks our fourth property in China and promises to offer extraordinary experiences at every turn through the brand’s key lifestyle elements of provocative spaces, delightful indulgences and experiential surprises. From the Maldives to Milan, Hoboken to Hong Kong, W Hotels continues to go global as the influential and innovative lifestyle authority and we are proud to make Macau a W destination.”

Starwood has also recently announced it will open a 4,000-room Sheraton Macau Hotel, a 460-room St. Regis Hotel and over 400 St. Regis Residences on the strip in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

W Macau Studio City will feature 563 rooms and suites, all outfitted with the W signature bed, plasma television and wireless Internet access. The W brand’s signature Living Room will offer a lounge-like atmosphere and other facilities will include a signature restaurant, W Cafe’, a Sweat workout facility, approximately 11,000 square feet of meeting space, and an outdoor heated pool.

“Macau Studio City brings together the best hotel partners in the world and we are excited to partner with Starwood to bring the W to Macau,” said Peter Lam, co-chairman of Macau Studio City. “Our vision is to create a must-see, must-stay and must-return destination for leisure and business travelers around the world. Along with other hotel partners — not to mention the arrival of the Playboy Mansion Macau — I firmly believe that Macau Studio City will be an experience that visitors will want to return again and again.”

Courtesy (http://macaudailyblog.com/cotai-strip/w-hotels-to-open-in-macau-studio-city/) : China Hospitality News

Manuel Neves, director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), predicts that the local gaming and betting sector’s annual gross receipts will “very probably” reach 100 billion patacas at the end of the decade, when he expects the number of casinos to reach 34 or 35. Mr. Neves made the forecast in an interview with the latest edition of the Portuguese-language Revista Macau, a quarterly magazine published by Delta Edicoes on behalf of the Government Information Bureau (GCS).

According to the DICJ, the gaming and betting sector’s gross receipts reached a record HK$ 55.88 billion at the end of last year (the DICJ uses a Hong Kong dollar/pataca exchange rate of 1:1 in spite of the fact that the official peg rate stands at 1:1.03). The number of casinos now amounts to 26.

Mr. Neves also said he expected this year’s gaming and betting sector to log 77 billion patacas in gross receipts this year. This would amount to a year-on-year growth of 37.7 per cent per cent. He also said he believed the number of gaming workers would increase from the present 35,000 to between 60,000 and 80,000 “in the medium term.”

Macau’s top gaming inspector also said the government would not grant more casino subconcessions. Currently, the three casino concessionaires have been allowed by the government to grant one subconcession each.

“I believe that Macau will, in fact, be the Las Vegas of the Orient,” Mr. Neves told the magazine, adding he did not believe that new casino developments elsewhere in Asia, such as in Singapore, would jeopardize Macau’s leading position in the region “in the short or medium term.”

Mr. Neves also said that the present situation of gambling-related problems in Macau was “not worrying.” However, he added that this did not mean that problems could arise in the future, because of which the government was taking “preventive measures to minimize this possibility.”

The bureau director also said the government would soon draft “clear rules” on the prohibition of minors’ entry into casinos. While anyone under the age of 18 is currently banned from entering gaming premises, current legislation apparently gives minors the right to claims their winnings even if they illegally gained entry into a casino. Neves claimed that casinos “are not the best place to launder money, contrary to what many people think. In casinos everything is registered and, consequently, it’s easier to detect illegal operations.”

source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/macau-gaming-bureau-forecasts-35-casinos-in-2010/)

This month’s opening of The Venetian Macao hotel-casino in the Chinese gambling enclave is the culmination of three quarters of a century of Las Vegas history built “in one fell swoop,” according to the president of the company behind the transformation.

http://macaudailyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/venetian-macau-280407.jpg

In a conference call with reporters Thursday, William Weidner, president of Las Vegas Sands Corp., said the 3,000-suite casino complex set to open Aug. 28 would help change a gambling den for day-trippers into an elegant resort destination.

“Vegas was really kind of a dusty railway stop from the ’30s into the ’40s,” he said. “It’s like truncating the 76 years of development of Las Vegas into one place under one roof.”

The $2.4 billion (EUR1.8 billion) property is the second for Las Vegas Sands in Macau, after it opened the Sands Macao there in May 2004.

But it is the first of several hotel-casinos the company is developing with partners on what it calls the Cotai Strip, an area of reclaimed land in Macau meant to mimic the heart of the Las Vegas Strip at the footstep of populous Guangdong Province.

The company says The Venetian Macao will have fine restaurants, dazzling shows, luxury shops and 1.2 million square feet (110,000 square meters) of convention space, nearly twice that in all of Hong Kong.

The Sands also is set to open the 400-room Four Seasons next door by the end of the first quarter, followed by hotels under the Sheraton, Shangri-La, St. Regis and Traders brands later next year, Weidner said. Likely in 2009, the company also plans to open hotels under the Hilton, Conrad, Raffles and Fairmont brands.

In all, the company plans to invest up to $12 billion (EUR9 billion) and build 20,000 hotel rooms. All of the properties are being constructed and owned by Las Vegas Sands, with the hotels run under management contracts by the brands.

“The Venetian represents that first massive step in changing Macau from primarily a day-trip market focused on Hong Kong and Guangdong Province to a full-fledged international, multi-day, multifaceted destination resort,” Weidner said.

Other operators also are plowing billions of dollars into casinos in what used to be a seedy den for hard-core gamblers, but which has overtaken the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s most lucrative casino hub. Wynn Resorts Ltd. opened the $1.1 billion (EUR820 million) Wynn Macau last September and MGM Mirage Inc. is set to open its $1.1 billion (EUR820 million) joint venture, the MGM Grand Macau, later this year.

Some analysts have taken a wait-and-see attitude on whether the Las Vegas model of entertainment, dining, shopping and hotels will work in Macau, which had been dominated by gamblers who go for a single purpose and leave the same day.

Weidner said rooms for the first two days of the resort’s opening are expected to be booked to capacity. He said 44 major conventions are scheduled to take place there for the next two years, with convention business expected to fill about one-third of its rooms.

Another third or more of the rooms are expected to be filled by vacationers and about a fifth or more by high-rolling gamblers, who have accounted for much of the Sands’ profit in Macau to date.

“It’s exactly the same business plan that we executed in Las Vegas, repeated in Macau,” Weidner said.

Some observers have said the opening of the massive resort, the largest in Asia, will temporarily draw visitors away from other casinos. Weidner said the company even expected its Sands Macao property to be affected, but it hoped to offset that by opening 380 new suites there in September.

Weidner said the casino boom in Macau will not likely hurt revenues in Las Vegas, where it plans to open the $2.6 billion (EUR1.9 billion) Palazzo resort in December. The company relies on Asians for most of its high-roller business, but growth in Macau is unlikely to sate their appetite for visiting the U.S., he said.

“It’ll never match the critical mass in Las Vegas,” he said. “You’ll have certainly a much better product there in Macau and we’ll do extraordinarily well, but I don’t think it’ll affect Las Vegas at all. It won’t even hiccup.”

Source (http://macaudailyblog.com/hotel-macau/venetian-macao-opening-a-massive-step-for-macau/) : International Herald Tribune

Aristocrat Leisure Ltd., the world’s second-largest maker of slot machines, said first-half profit rose 20 percent on increased sales in Japan, Macau and Europe.

Net income increased to A$126.1 million ($102 million), or 27 cents a share, in the six months ended June 30, from A$105.3 million, or 22 cents, a year earlier, Sydney-based Aristocrat said in a statement today. Sales rose 14 percent to A$566 million.

Chief Executive Officer Paul Oneile is boosting spending on new game development to win sales in Europe and Asian markets, such as Macau, and limit the impact of slowing growth at home. He’s trying to revive sales in Japan with games such as “Kaido-oh” that comply with new regulations after a change in rules led operators to defer purchases.

“I am particularly pleased with our results in emerging markets where we have captured a significant share of new opportunities,” Oneile said in the statement. “This provides us with confidence about the company’s potential given the expansion we anticipate over the next few years.”

Net income was expected to rise to A$123.6 million, according to the median estimate of four analysts Bloomberg News surveyed by telephone and e-mail.

Aristocrat share rose 6 cents, or 0.5 percent, to A$13.39 at 10:02 a.m. in Sydney, paring this year loss to 16 percent.

Oneile expects the second-half to “remain difficult” in the company’s main markets of Australia, Japan and North America while it also battles a higher Australian dollar that lowers the value of overseas earnings brought home.

Exchange Rate

The Australian dollar was an average of 8.8 percent higher in the first half against the U.S. currency compared with the year earlier. Against the yen, it was 23 percent higher, with the Australian dollar’s gain cutting earnings by A$10.7 million.

Aristocrat shares closed yesterday at A$13.33 and have fallen 16 percent this year. The company said today it would buy back about A$100 million of stock annually during the next three to five years.

Earnings before interest and tax from North America, the company’s biggest market, rose 0.2 percent to A$123.4 million as a lack of new gambling jurisdictions curbed growth.

Japan turned to a first half profit of A$3.1 million, from a loss of A$9.6 million a year earlier, as the company began sales of four new regulation games. Machine sales in the half were 11,063, falling short of the Oneile’s 20,000 unit forecast, as the “Danceman” game failed to win over customers.

Australian earnings fell 2.7 percent to A$43 million on lower sales following the introduction of smoking bans. Pubs and clubs spent money creating outdoor smoking areas in their venues rather than buying new slot machines, Aristocrat said.

Earnings from the rest of the world, which includes Macau, Europe and South Africa, almost doubled to A$57.7 million from A$29.6 million. The company, already the biggest slot machine supplier in Macau, is increasing its market share as it supplies casinos including those operated by Las Vegas Sands Inc. and Wynn Resorts Ltd.

Source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/macaus-biggest-slot-machine-supplier-profit-up-by-20/) : Bloomberg

At last the world’s biggest casino opens in Macau today, the most ambitious throw of the dice yet in a $24 billion effort to build a Las Vegas-style “neon alley” in this once-sleazy Chinese gambling enclave.

The hopes of more than a dozen hotel, casino and retail operators building on the “Cotai Strip” — 4 square km (1.5 square miles) of reclaimed land fusing two islands — are pinned on the Venetian Macao, built by U.S. operator Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Gaming revenues in Macau, on the southern tip of China, overtook those of the iconic Las Vegas Strip last year, and if the Venetian succeeds, analysts say it will help double that annual income to $13.7 billion by 2010.

Construction delays, funding problems, infrastructure bottlenecks and the risk of an oversupply of both hotel rooms and baccarat tables could threaten such rosy forecasts for the only place in gambling-mad China where casinos are legal.

But, buoyed by the roaring success in the last couple of years of his first Macau casino, the Sands, Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson told Reuters the $2.4 billion spent on the Venetian would be recouped within three to five years.

“You think I’m spending 12 billion dollars because I’m a wild-eyed, blue-skied craps shooter,” Adelson, the world’s 14th-richest man, said of his firm’s total investment plans for the Cotai Strip.

“I know what I’m doing. We’ve already done this in Vegas. There is no question about this,” he said in an interview on Monday.

Surrounded by the casino’s grand Italian architecture, with marble floors, high arched roofs, frescoes, fountains and gold statues, Adelson said: “All we’re doing is taking the fully matured, completely evolved capital of entertainment called Las Vegas, and picking it up and dropping it here.”

Changing Face
A day before its opening, some of the casino’s 16,000 employees were practicing dealing cards in the echoing halls.

The Venetian boasts 3,000 hotel suites, 1,150 gaming tables, 7,000 slot machines, 350 shops, a 1,800-seat conference centre and a 15,000-seat entertainment arena.

“It’s changing the face of Macau,” said Adelson, the 75-year-old son of a Boston taxi driver.

The Macau government and casino operators hope the Cotai Strip will persuade gamblers, mainly from China, to stay a couple of days and spend more money. Many of the 20 million visitors who visit the former Portuguese colony each year do not book into a hotel, preferring to gamble to dawn or visit massage parlors.

The Cotai Strip has drawn investment from a raft of casino and hotel operators, including Nasdaq-listed Melco PBL Entertainment, MGM Mirage and Macao Studio City — a venture involving ESun Holdings Ltd..

“The Venetian is a very important event because it marks the beginning of the diversification process in Macau,” said David Freeman, chief executive of Macao Studio City.

“It may take time for the full extent of success to kick in, but there’s no doubt in my mind it will be very successful.”

Some analysts think the huge new supply of hotels, shops and gaming tables will cut profit margins in the short-term.

Daily revenue per gaming table in Macau has already dropped to around $12,000 from $22,382 in 2002, when a four-decade monopoly owned by casino mogul Stanley Ho expired and other players, including U.S. operators, were allowed in.

In a sign of concern about mounting competition, Wynn Resorts Ltd. has toned down plans for major expansion in Macau.

The firm run by Steve Wynn, a fierce rival of Adelson, plans to open another 25,000 square foot (2,300 square meter) gaming space at its Wynn Macau casino this year instead of the planned 123,000 square feet.

In the last couple of weeks, the global credit crunch sparked by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis has also raised questions over funding for casino operators. Bankers have said Melco PBL Entertainment will restructure a $2.75 billion loan deal because of problems with a $1.5 billion tranche aimed at U.S. investors.

CLSA gaming analyst Gavin Ho thinks the Venetian’s opening will lift gaming revenues in Macau in the same way the Sands and the Wynn casinos have. But because it is remote from other casinos, and the first on Cotai, it is likely to take market share from incumbents rather than give a spillover boost.

Source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-news/venetian-macau-opens-today/) : Yahoo.com

The Government is considering an introduction of new gambling regulations, which will eventually ban underage gamblers from taking jackpots if they won.

The Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah (何厚鏵) said that despite existing legislations have already banned public administration workers and residents and visitors under the age of 18 to enter into casinos, and that monitoring and surveillance is in place, there can still be loopholes regardless of whether the casino is confined or not.

He said that the Government is considering amending the regulations, so that, apart from the existing provisions on banning underage persons entering casinos to be maintained, they and their accompanying relatives will not be able to receive jackpots if they win.

He believed that the amendment will be discussed at the Executive Council in due course.

source (http://www.blogmacau.info/blog/?p=1783)

Tips received by croupiers working in casino under the former STDM were not part of their wages, ruled the Court of Final Appeal.

The ruling overturned previous rulings by the Courts of First and Second Instances, which ruled the claimant should be compensated MOP546,751 and MOP859,606 respectively.

But under this ultimate ruling, STDM only has to compensate the claimant HKD11,859.45, which is significantly lower.

The ruling pointed out that legal concepts in both Portugal and Macau established that wages paid by employers and tips paid by employees should be distinguished, and that low pay among croupiers cannot be regarded as judiciary evidence.

Nor the Court has the obligation to redistribute revenues or to intervene social matters, said the ruling.

The Court also ruled that croupiers should be double or triple paid if they work at weekends and holidays.

STDM manager Ambrose So (蘇樹輝), who is in Portugal, told Jornal Va Kio that he welcomed the decision.

Legislator Au Kam San (區錦新) said that although he respected the ruling and the Court, the ruling itself is “inappropriate”.

source (http://www.blogmacau.info/blog/?p=1804)

I've heard wages for new croupiers are approx MOP15k/month - does any one have official figures ? Is this after tips ?
Under census bureau, are croupiers under 'retail' staff - in which case, figures (for retail) are low - if they are, I guess the low figure excludes tips ?

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/28/business/AS-FIN-Macau-Las-Vegas-Sands.php

Deloitte recently published a study on the potential of mass market in Macau. You can dowload it on this site:

http://www.hsmai.org/Events/NewsDetail.cfm?id=4032823

Galaxy Entertainment’s CFO, Nigel Morrison, discusses the flagship StarWorld property and the company’s strategy for capitalising on Macau’s booming gaming market.

Nigel Morrison joined Galaxy Entertainment as chief financial officer earlier this year, attracted by the opportunity of a lifetime to be at the forefront of the industry, work with new technology, grow market share and build new businesses.

“Macau is an incredible place to be. There’s an explosion of gaming, of new technology and new properties. It’s a fascinating and challenging environment to be in for people in the gaming industry,” he says.

Morrison spent 18 years in the casino business and was the first CFO of the Crown Casino complex in Melbourne and afterwards became COO. Prior to joining Galaxy, he was the CEO of the Federal Group — the largest private casino and gaming company in Australia.
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Galaxy’s flagship property, the StarWorld Hotel and Casino, opened in October 2006 on peninsula Macau and, on its own, has a market share of 12%. “We are very pleased with its progress as a casino. We think it has great potential. It has an excellent location and we are continuing to invest in it,” says Morrison.

In addition the company owns CityClubs which operates four casinos on a joint-venture basis. Galaxy reported revenue of HK$6.3 billion ($810 million) for the six months ending June 30, of which StarWorld’s VIP rooms accounted for HK$2.63 billion on bets of HK$92.5 billion.

The key to maintaining the profitability of a casino in Macau, Morrison says, is understanding the volatility inherent in baccarat, the most popular table game in Macau among both the high-rollers and the mass market. But it is particularly important to get it right in the VIP rooms where the big bets are made.

“You have to be able to work out that what is happening in the high-roller rooms is within the bounds of normality. It’s mostly statistics — understanding normal distribution and standard deviation,” he says.

The theoretical house advantage for baccarat is just over 1.3%, which means that for every $100 bet, the house should make $1.30. But the problem is that you need to play a lot of hands before arriving at that point. “Along the way you can win or lose 10% which could translate into losses of hundreds of millions a year,” Morrison says.

The outcome depends to a large extent on how the game is structured. Casinos have to decide on the maximum bet whether it be hundreds of thousands of dollars or even as high as one, two or three million dollars. This decision conditions how much business is done at a certain level. While there are always a lot of players willing to play at a lower level there are only a few that play at the level of the maximum bet. But it is a fine call because if the maximum bet is too low the casino can lose the client. But if the maximum bet is set too high and there isn’t enough volume, this can expose the casino to the risk of high losses.

“You really need to understand what your maximum bet is, and the implications of that for your cashflow in the business. So you need to have enough cash to protect yourself if you do have a losing streak.”

The maximum bet at Galaxy, and generally in the high-roller private rooms in Macau, is around HK$1.5 million which can produce some sizable wins.
In Macau baccarat is played by 99% of the high-rollers and 80% of the mass market. In the US, Europe and Australia, blackjack and roulette are the most popular games, though baccarat is gaining in its appeal, largely as a result of Asian demand. Of the three main games it gives the best odds to the gamblers. Blackjack has a house advantage of 1.5-1.8%, while roulette does even better for the house with an advantage of 2.5-2.7%.

Galaxy has a two-pronged strategy for Macau and it is based on the view that there will be two markets. The first, based on peninsula Macau, will comprise the serious gamblers that come from mainland China.

“They are not there to drink fine wine and stay in expensive hotel suites. They are really there to gamble and are serious about winning, and that’s a slightly different psyche from the style of gambler you might see in the US or Australia,” says Morrison.

He reckons that StarWorld which is adjacent to Wynn Macau, MGM, and Grand Lisboa — which are all within walking distance of each other — will form a core destination on peninsula Macau — rather like the Las Vegas strip.

The second market will be based on the Cotai strip, a massive five square kilometre area of reclaimed land between the islands of Taipa and Coloane. It will be a different market, aimed at convention and exhibition delegates, and those looking for upmarket shopping and entertainment.

“We think it is going to take some time for that market to fully develop. Our view is that it is probably a couple of years away.”

Galaxy is developing it in two phases. Its flagship, Galaxy World Resorts, a 2,500-room mega-resort is expected to be completed next year. The development of the Cotai market got underway with the opening of The Venetian at the end of August. It will be watched carefully by other casino operators investing there. Galaxy recently received Macau government approval to expand its development on the Cotai strip. It now aims to build an additional nine hotels, 380,000 square feet of gaming space, 750,000 square feet of convention space and 1.4 million square feet of retail and restaurant space though has not said when it will start work.

For the moment Macau is on a roll. Gross gaming revenue (GGR) increased from $2.3 billion in 2001 to $6.9 billion in 2006 an increase of 44% and exceeded the gambling revenue from the Las Vegas strip, previously the world’s highest. During the same period visitors have doubled rising from 11.5 million to 22.7 million in 2006. GGR per table is also higher in Macau than in the US. In the fourth quarter of last year, GGR per table in Macau was 132% and 282% higher than for the Las Vegas strip and Atlantic City respectively.

While Morrison is confident about the company’s potential in Macau, he recognises the challenges.

“There is tremendous competition so you always have to be looking at your market share, and at your standards of service. You need to ensure that your customers have a good experience, and feel that they are getting good value for money, so that they keep coming back.”

Courtesy : Finance Asia

source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/playing-the-high-stakes-in-macau/)

- edit

Benjamin Scent

The Standard, HK, Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Galaxy Entertainment Group (0027), part owned by mid- sized developer K Wah International Holdings (0173), will bring in a partner as it seeks to be the first Macau casino operator to introduce Japanese games, market sources said yesterday.
The sources said Galaxy aims to be the first Macau casino to break into the market for Japanese high- rollers. The firm, controlled by Lui Che-woo, will introduce the games at its GalaxyWorld Resort on the Cotai Strip.

The Japanese partner will help develop the games and court VIPs.

The Japanese market, supported by a strong yen, is thought to be an untapped source of revenue that could help offset competition among junket operators who focus on mainland VIP gamblers.

The resort will be the second entertainment complex to open on the strip. The Venetian Macao was the first. Phase one of the Galaxy resort is set for completion by the end of next year.

Trading in K Wah shares was suspended yesterday pending an announcement in relation to a "major and connected transaction."

K Wah declined to comment. Galaxy shares have been suspended since 2.30pm last Friday.

Galaxy spokesman Peter Caveny said a "a very significant, newsworthy" announcement would be made this week.

He declined to comment on the talk of a Japanese partner.

"We are approached by various partners all the time," he said. "We have been actively reviewing potential partner opportunities in all parts of the world."

In the first eight months of the year, just 178,245 Japanese residents visited Macau, representing 1.03 percent of all visitor arrivals.

In comparison, 54.74 percent of visitors came from the mainland, 31.28 percent from Hong Kong, 5.52 percent from Taiwan, while 0.83 percent came from South Korea.

Macau Success Ltd said wholly owned unit Golden Sun Profits Ltd has agreed to sell about 10 pct of World Fortune Ltd’s existing issued share capital to Japan’s Maruhan Corp for 208.5 mln hkd.

The sale also includes about 10.2 pct of the interest-free shareholder’s loan of 66.47 mln hkd provided by Golden Sun to World Fortune, which is wholly owned by Macau Success.

http://macaudailyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/ponte-16.jpg
Macau Success said the sale will give the group the opportunity to introduce Maruhan as a strategic investor in World Fortune, which is developing the 3.1 bln hkd Ponte 16 integrated resort complex in Macau. Maruhan is a leading player in Japan’s pachinko gaming industry.

The complex is to comprise of a five-star hotel, casino, shopping arcade and recreational facilities.

http://macaudailyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/ponte-16-macau-010807.jpg
The Ponte 16 project is held 49 pct by World Fortune and 51 pct by SJM Investimentos Limitada, an independent third party.

Macau Success said it intends to use the net proceeds of 207 mln from the sale for general working capital purposes and to finance future business opportunities.

source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/macau-success-raises-capital-for-ponte-16-casino-project/)

MGM Mirage’s announcement of a $5 billion casino development in Atlantic City just happens to come as the company is in a standoff with the city over licenses in Macau.

On Wednesday, the Las Vegas-based casino operator said it plans to use 72 acres of land it owns in the New Jersey gambling mecca to develop a massive resort. The news should be welcome to Atlantic City, which is struggling with declining revenues because of increased competition from nearby Pennsylvania and New York.

But MGM’s development — long expected by casino insiders — also could provide a special benefit to the company. Some industry watchers are wondering whether the timing of the announcement is designed to pressure New Jersey state regulators to speed up the much-delayed approval of the company’s license to operate a casino in Macau, the region of China that is the world’s largest gambling market.

The speculation is that MGM is dangling this $5 billion project in front of regulators as a way of saying, “We better get this Macau license, or we won’t build the new project in Atlantic City,” says one gaming industry source who closely follows the market.

Since MGM operates casinos in the U.S., it must get clearance from local regulators to operate MGM Grand Macau casino. While Nevada and Mississippi have given the green light for the Macau license, New Jersey casino regulators have been investigating MGM and its Asian partners for more than a year.

If New Jersey doesn’t approve the license, MGM could either decide to leave the Atlantic City market or abandon the Macau project.

Investigators are looking into Pansy Ho, MGM’s partner on the Macau casino. She is the daughter of Stanley Ho, the billionaire who held a monopoly on the Macau casino industry for 40 years before China opened up the market to foreign investors.

Over the years, Stanley Ho’s background has been questioned by numerous newspapers and government regulators, who have alleged ties between his casinos and organized crime.

The Division of Gaming Enforcement, which is a division of the New Jersey Attorney General’s office, had promised last year to deliver a report about Pansy Ho and MGM before the end of 2006.

One source close to the investigation says a report is likely to be issued in the next month and a half. At that point, the attorney general will give input, and the New Jersey Casino Control Commission will eventually make a decision on the matter.

Courtesy : The Street

source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/mgm-mirage-is-putting-pressure-on-getting-macau-license/)

The Standard, HK
PeggyChan

Friday, October 12, 2007

Macau casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group (0027) announced yesterday it has agreed to sell about a 20 percent stake to Permira, one of the world's largest private equity firms, for US$840 million (HK$6.55 billion) or HK$8.42 per share.
Galaxy said the proceeds will be used to help complete its Cotai Mega Resort and reduce debt, chairman Lui Che-woo told a press conference.

Under the deal, Permira will pay HK$3.8 billion to acquire 452 million existing ordinary Galaxy shares currently held by K Wah International Holdings (0173), while subscribing to an additional HK$2.7 billion worth of new shares. Meanwhile, the casino operator also plans to raise a further US$163 million through an institutional placement of 150 million new shares at HK$8.42 each, Lui said.

Of the HK$2.7 billion from Permira's new share subscription, Galaxy will apply about HK$1.3 billion towards redeeming half of the existing fixed-rate notes - converting them into 157 million new ordinary Galaxy shares - while injecting the balance of HK$1.4 billion in the company.

Upon completion, Galaxy's cash reserves will be boosted by 41 percent to HK$9.2 billion from HK$6.5 billion, and total outstanding debt will drop 29 percent to HK$6.5 billion from HK$9.2 billion.

The Lui family will retain controlling interest in Galaxy although its stake would be reduced to about 52 percent from 68 percent. K Wah's interest will fall to 4 percent from 18.6 percent.

Permira's contribution will be used for the future development of phases 2, 3 and 4 of Galaxy's resort in Macau's Cotai Strip, which would include a 2,500-room hotel along with the world's second-largest casino.

"We believe that this investment not only endorses our strategy but further enables us to deliver on our mission to be one of Asia's leading gaming and entertainment groups," Lui said. Two non-executive directors of Permira will be appointed to Galaxy's board.

Looks like the next wave of big investment is now coming to Macau following the Venetian... The fund is one of the biggest private equity funds, having raised USD30bn in 1985, including European gaming major Gala Coral Group. The deal was described in SCMP as Macau's largest private equity acquisitions.
This deal follows recent investments in Macau by Harrah's and the entry of Japanese investments in some of the casinos.

Macau's 3Q gaming revenue rises 46 percent to US$2.6 billion

Updated: 11:39 a.m. ET Oct. 18, 2007
HONG KONG - Macau's casino gambling revenue in the third quarter surged 46 percent to 20.34 billion Macau patacas ($2.55 billion) from 13.95 billion patacas a year ago, regulators said Thursday.

The third-quarter figure brings Macau's total casino gambling revenue for the nine months ending Sept. 30 to 58.32 billion patacas ($7.3 billion). That's 47 percent higher than the 39.70 billion patacas recorded for the same period last year and already beats gambling revenues for all of 2006.

The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau didn't elaborate on the figures it posted on its Web site, but analysts said earlier they expected casino operators' winnings from bets by high-rollers to help boost casino gambling revenue in the territory.

The former Portuguese colony is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal.

High-rollers are gamblers who typically spend at least half a million patacas ($62,620) on casino betting on each trip to the territory, according to analysts and casino industry executives.

Macau casino winnings from bets by high-rollers between July and September totaled 13.67 billion patacas ($1.7 billion), making up 67 percent of the city's third-quarter casino gambling revenue.

Analysts also said earlier the opening of new casinos in Macau this year had attracted more gamblers to the territory, increasing casino gambling revenue there.

Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s $2.4 billion Venetian casino resort in the Cotai area, which opened in late August, is among the three major new casinos launched in the past nine months.

Macau ended the 40-year monopoly of casino gambling in the territory held by casino mogul Stanley Ho in early 2002. Since then the territory has granted six casino licenses to several casino operators.

Macau beat the Las Vegas Strip last year as the world's gambling center. The city raked in $6.95 billion in gambling revenue, while the Strip made $6.69 billion, regulators in the cities said.

The former Portuguese enclave reverted to Chinese rule in December 1999.

For comparison with 3Q and 2Q above, latest figures seem disappointing given Venetian opening would contribute over 1 full month, and was the major opening in 3Q. It seems like 3Q had almost no change. Figures seem contradictory to high visitor numbers and hotel occupancy. I guess the high-rollers was the main factor (ie did not increase).
Hopefully, shopping/consumer spending (not known) and high visitor numbers/hotel occupancy/mass market gambling need to be the future driver of Macau's economy then.
Or maybe the high rollers were too busy buying property/shopping in September ?? :)

For comparison above, here's an earlier 2Q report...
Macau says gambling revenue in 2Q jumps 50 percent on year
The Associated Press
Published: July 16, 2007

Hong Kong: Macau's gambling revenue in the second quarter jumped 50 percent to 19.57 billion patacas (US$2.45 billion; €1.8 billion) from the year-earlier period, according to figures available Monday.

In the first half of the year, the enclave's gambling revenue rose 47.5 percent to 37.97 billion (US$4.7 billion; €3.4 billion) patacas from 25.75 billion patacas in the same period last year, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said.

Business of the Palace Casino, more commonly known by the Chinese population as ‘pirate ship’, was suspended from yesterday (26 October).

Sources told Jornal Va Kio that redecoration will be conducted for the ship, but decision is yet to be made on whether it will continue to function as a casino.

SJM staff who were supposed to be on duty at Palace, were arranged to work at other casinos from 07:00 onwards yesterday.

Palace Casino was one of the first casinos in the modern gambling history of Macau.

Once berthed at Ponte No. 12 in the Inner Harbour, it was later relocated to a berth next to Ponte No. 20. It was then further relocated to the berth opposite to the New Yaohan department store.

source (http://www.blogmacau.info/blog/?p=1835)

Entry to Macau’s casinos will be elevated from 18 to 21, in a Government proposal announced by the Chief Executive in his question session with legislators on his Policy Address for 2008.

Ho Hau Wah (何厚鏵) said that a three-year transition period will be in place once the policy is in force, so that existing casino workers between the age of 18 and 21 can keep their jobs.

Further announcements will be made by the Secretary for the Economy and Finance, Tam Pak Yuen (譚伯源) when he outlined the policies for the economy and finance to legislators on 21 and 22 November.

Ho also said that the Government will not allow the gaming sector to expand limitedlessly, as it is fully aware that the corresponding social cost will also increase.

He further pointed out that Macau can refer to experience from others in gaming development and regulation, but Macau’s local factors should also be taken into account.

Subsidies will be given to community organisations so that they can provide more counselling services to gaming addicts.

SJM and Sands Macau refused to comment on the proposal, while Galaxy Casinos told Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao that the move will not affect their business.

The Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Government also said that they will watch closely to the developments of Macau, but at this stage it will be ‘too early’ to introduce similar proposals to betting stations in Hong Kong.

http://www.blogmacau.info/

I think the earnings of casinos won't affact much even after this law is in effect, as most of gamblers are between 30s to 60s.

Fold 'Em
Casinos' incredible streak of Macau-inspired, winning hands just ended. Should you take the bulls' advice and double your bets?
By KOPIN TAN

THE FIRST THING YOU LOSE in Las Vegas is your sense of scale. It begins with the four-mile strip of blinding bling, continues with the grand halls and vast lounges, and builds to a nightly climax, for $350 a pop over at Caesars Palace, with Celine Dion's energetic mauling of the American Songbook. Everything is designed to make your life back home seem small and dull, and persuade you to prolong your pleasurable -- and profitable -- stay.

Macau is trying to do bigger even better than Vegas. Blessed with proximity to China's teeming masses (and their allegedly genetic predilection for baccarat), the tiny offshore enclave is gleefully erecting a shrine to the kind of recreational gambling the Chinese government won't allow on the mainland. In just three years, the number of casino tables has quadrupled to 4,622, while available hotel rooms jumped 11-fold to 8,901.

But frenzied construction all over Macau suggests the boom is just beginning. This summer, for example, Las Vegas Sands (ticker: LVS) opened its newest behemoth there. The Venetian Macao boasts the world's biggest casino, 3,000 suites, 48 gondolas prowling three Grand Canals, a one million square-foot "baroque" mall, a water park, a stadium nearly as big as Madison Square Garden, and a 27-hole rooftop golf course -- all billed, with towering immodesty, as the "eighth wonder of the world."

In such a grandiose context, Wall Street's clamor for U.S. casinos with Macau toeholds can seem almost...restrained. Las Vegas Sands, which opened Sands Macao in 2004 before it upped the bombast with the Venetian, has seen shares surge 173% over the past two years. Wynn Resorts (WYNN), which opened Wynn Macau last year, is up 140% over the same period. Even MGM Mirage (MGM), which has joint ventures there but isn't considered a big Macau play, is up 127%.

Yet the bulls are betting their winning streak will resume after a recent pullback in the shares. After all, Macau's gaming revenue recently overtook Vegas' and is growing at a 50% year-over-year pace, far outstripping the 3% rate in the profitable but mature Vegas market. China won't issue new licenses to build in Macau until at least 2010, and available land is scarce, so those chasing the boom see few options but to lunge at LVS and Wynn.

Macau's rise will continue, since a burgeoning middle class in China desperately needs its licentious outlets. But near term, stock buyers will be disappointed. Over the next three years, the number of Macau tables will double to about 10,000, while hotel rooms will more than triple to 31,017, by Deutsche Bank's count. In fact, the building boom will add 20.2 new rooms a day. Even if pent-up demand keeps revenue rising, the supply onslaught will escalate competition for business. One casualty: the stellar profits that shareholders have come to expect.

"Some investors seem to think high margins are perpetual and are disappointed when they find out otherwise, but you're starting to see margins pressured as supply gets saturated and competition increases," says Wahid Chammas, a senior analyst at Janus Capital. Two years ago, Chammas advocated betting on Macau while the public wavered (see "High Stakes in Macau," Dec. 19, 2005), but he is more circumspect today. "The story has been discovered."

THERE ARE NOW AT LEAST 26 casinos in Macau, with 18 controlled by Hong Kong billionaire and casino-king Stanley Ho, and another five owned by Hong Kong-based Galaxy Entertainment. While Wynn and LVS have upped Macau's wow factor, nearly everyone is building and renovating. Cash-flow margins of around 30% will come under pressure with competition, possible discounting, and as all-important junkets -- which bring tourists to Macau and hence control customers -- lobby for a bigger slice of the take.

On Nov. 1, LVS reported third-quarter adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $128 million, well short of the $180 million forecast. Margins fell short of targets. Surprised investors dumped the stock, which is off 22% from its late-October peak. Wynn, which reported insufficiently spectacular numbers, also lost ground and is off 25%.

But investors tempted to double down right now ought to remember: This pullback may be just the start. Another correction of 25% to 30% would merely take LVS and Wynn to levels they were at in July, and they'd still be richer than their peers on most valuation measures.

Today, even after the recent declines, LVS and Wynn sport enterprise values that are 34 and 22 times their respective 2008 Ebitda. To put that in perspective, Harrah's Entertainment (HET), which has no Macau casinos, is being acquired by buyout firms at a comparable 9.9 times multiple.

"Betting on these stocks is like betting on the winning horse after the race," says David Trainer, president of the independent stock-research firm New Constructs. He thinks LVS and Wynn are overvalued. "Their current market valuations imply huge future cash-flow growth."

CASINOS ARE FAMOUSLY capital-intensive enterprises, and over time they find it difficult to earn returns far exceeding their cost of capital. Early profits from Macau are strong, but forecasts for this to continue fail to consider the impact of over-building and maturation.

Management of LVS and Wynn, which did not return Barron's repeated calls for comment, isn't complaining. Letting others overvalue your hand -- bluffing in poker -- is shrewd business, since a rich stock price helps raise capital to construct the kind of buzz-worthy properties that, in turn, justify a rich stock price.

LVS has made a name building scale-distorting, "market-changing properties," says Jefferies analyst Lawrence Klatzkin. "It's why every time there is a new market, LVS has a good shot at getting the deal." It is one of just two companies given the nod to build in Singapore, and besides its Sands and Venetian properties in both Vegas and Macau, it has a full pipeline. Whenever talk surfaces of another country -- say, Slovenia -- mulling a casino project, LVS shares tend to pop the most.

Wynn's empire is smaller but haughtier. Charismatic leader Stephen Wynn has managed to persuade guests to pay a market-leading $311 a night for his extravagant thread counts in Las Vegas, where the average room goes for $134.33. Besides the Wynn Macau, the company is developing a high-end hotel in Macau slated for 2010, and the Encore in Vegas.

But will Wynn be as successful if the U.S. economy slows? Klatzkin sees the stock as overvalued, given the company's thin two-hotel roster.

Of course, Wynn had created Vegas landmarks like the Mirage and Bellagio before he sold that company, Mirage Resorts, to MGM Grand in 2000. MGM is transforming itself from a casino operator into a high-end hotel developer. A Macau joint venture, MGM Grand Macau, opens Dec. 18, and MGM will develop three hotels in Abu Dhabi that will earn revenue on properties wholly owned (and risks fully borne) by the government there. Its stock, near 87 today, has downside support at 84, given a Dubai state-owned investment group's agreement to buy up to 28 million shares at that price (as the two jointly develop the 76-acre City Center in Vegas).

Yet MGM shares trade at just 31 times 2008 earnings, compared to 48 times for LVS and 40 times for Wynn. That discount persists even though MGM earned more than the other two combined in 2006.

Don't believe that's a sign of a Macau bubble? Then look at Melco PBL Entertainment (MPEL), a casino developer that lost money in 2006 and 2007 but recently opened Crown Macau and is planning the heavily touted "City of Dreams" in 2009. Billed, correctly, as a "pure play on Macau," Melco's Nasdaq-listed American depositary shares fetch 164 times 2008 earnings.

LAS VEGAS, WHICH CONTINUES to drive a big chunk of casino profits, has always been about the triumph of artifice. On land too hot and hostile to grow even a single tomato has sprouted an entire metropolis that will indulge your whim for anything from slots to shot-gun weddings. Today, Vegas is the largest American city born in the 20th century -- a city, says novelist Chuck Palahniuk, that "looks the way you imagine heaven must look at night."

Heaven, of course, has been surpassed by Macau, which has its own artificial foundation. Its hot "Cotai Strip," home to the Venetian Macao, was reclaimed from sea that once separated the tiny Taipa and Coloane islands.

Fantasy-Island Upgrade: Tiny Macau's infrastructure needs work to handle much bigger crowds.

The story of Macau follows three overlapping arcs. Act One, which traces a new market's prodigious growth, drew the investing crowd. Act Two has just begun, as the gathered hordes wise up to the waning margins. Act Three can only commence after the zealous supply growth has slowed enough for margins to stabilize, and that won't occur before 2010 (longer if the building boom extends to neighboring Hengqin Island).

Several catalysts could drive profits if this late-stage golden age does arrive. A potential revaluation of the Chinese yuan could boost the revenue haul of U.S. companies manning Macau casinos. Banking-services growth eventually will allow credit to be granted to Chinese customers who will be able to wager more. "And once all the available land has been built on, the operating properties will become more valuable, which will allow casinos to start monetizing their real estate," says Janus' Chammas.

But that time is years away, and its arrival is hardly guaranteed. So far, Chinese regulators have been a benevolent, encouraging facilitator to American casinos in Macau, and likely will remain so until the spotlight of the 2008 Olympics fades. But the slightest policy tweaks, say, to individual visas governing Macau visits, will have profound impact on casinos, since 86% of visitors come from the mainland or Hong Kong. And there is always a chance the government may want to make changes to address Macau's reputation as a playpen for corrupt government officials.

Other problems exist. Macau -- population 520,400 -- has a limited pool of skilled workers for the high-end construction boom, and cost overruns are increasingly common. Deutsche Bank analyst Bill Lerner is a bull on LVS and Wynn but says his call "hinges on the near-flawless execution of their pipeline projects."

The Macau boom will help LVS and Wynn generate respective free cash flow of $623 million and $476 million in 2008, but big capital expenditures on projects of $4.1 billion and $1.29 billion, respectively, turn net free-cash flow into a negative number, say Bear Stearns estimates.

Infrastructure bottlenecks also make growth lumpy at best. To get to Macau, 55% of all visitors cross the border, 35% take the ferry and the rest land at Macau's small airport or take the Cotai bridge. Macau's current chief executive will step down in 2009, and uncertainty over his successor is affecting the pace of long-term infrastructure building. The administration also faces mounting pressure to contain the social fallout from the gambling boom; just last week the chief executive announced plans to raise the minimum age for gambling to 21 from 18.
With rich stock valuations and an impending supply glut, casino companies in Macau may have little to offer investors, says Barron's Senior Editor Kopin Tan. (Nov. 19)

Not everyone expects demand to quickly soak up the swelling supply. Galaxy Entertainment, which recently sold a 20% stake to U.K. buyout firm Permira, has land in Macau on which it has no current plans to build. "Yes, the pie is getting bigger, but a market is a place where supply and demand meet," Galaxy's deputy chairman Francis Lui told Barron's. "If we see demand we'll start building right away, but we don't want to flood the market."

Time -- and a lot of money -- is needed to build Macau into an entertainment mecca with Vegas' critical mass. It takes a big pot of lucre to lure Beyonce to Macau, or entice retired tennis-champ Pete Sampras to face Roger Federer -- and a likely loss -- in a Nov. 24 exhibition match at the Venetian Macao.

CAN VEGAS' WINNING FORMULA be transplanted easily to Macau? Contrary to public perception, the typical Vegas visitor today is married, 48 years old, and stays 4.6 days and 3.6 nights. Three-quarters spend, on average, $260.68 on food and drinks, $140.86 on shopping, and budget $651.94 for gambling. It's a picture of casual affluence, and Nevada today earns as much from the tourist coddling as it does from gambling.

The average Macau visitor, however, stays just 1.1 days and spends money mostly on the gambling floor. Their favorite game of baccarat has a thinner win percentage for the house than others. "Chinese players are serious gamblers -- when they gamble they won't even drink [alcohol]; they ask for tea," Lui says.

It's anyone's guess how long it will take to build non-gambling revenue. Booming trade with so-called VIPs has helped, but luring high-rollers is expensive, and this highly mobile faction can easily decamp to casino hotspots as they emerge in Singapore, Japan, or Thailand.

"So the big question is when the mass market is going to pick up," says Vance Wells, executive vice president at China Primary Research, which tracks Macau's gaming market. At Sands Macao and Wynn Macau, capacity utilization for mass-market tables has slipped to 30.8% in the third quarter from 37.6% at the end of last year. Demand may not jump "until infrastructure improves enough to get large numbers of tourists into and around Macau," he says.

That's not all. Morgan Stanley analyst Celeste Mellet Brown thinks "the real test to Wynn will be when MGM Macau" -- which targets the same well-heeled set -- "opens next-door on the peninsula." In fact, Macau will witness an endless cycle of such noisy openings over the next three years, with firms rushing to outdo each other as they wait -- and hope -- for demand to keep up.

Just how hot are casinos now? Prime time recently featured not one but two TV shows about Vegas, and its hotels are 91.3% full this year. But even there, supply and infrastructure constraints pose longer-term questions.

By 2012, $30 billion of new development will add 49,565 rooms to Vegas' existing inventory of 132,605, says Deutsche's Lerner. When that happens, some $12 billion in incremental revenue and 22.6 million added visitors will be needed to justify the added capacity. This exceeds the 8.9 million more visitors forecast by 2012, and may prove more than its airport and congested roads can handle.

Sure, sin stocks -- companies pushing tobacco, alcohol, gambling -- are famously non-cyclical, since people can afford to gamble when they're flush, and feel compelled to gamble when they're not. But there are times -- remember the riverboat craze? -- when too many people are betting on certain casinos, and this is one of them.

It's awfully hard not to be taken in by Macau or Vegas, with their skylines of shimmering signs and eagerness to help you delay the dawn. But things often look different in the morning.

The Government will no longer authorise companies to open slot machine parlours and betting stations within communities, and the existing ones will be ordered to move out.

This is part of a drive to ensure a healthy, regulated, sustainable and co-ordinated development of Macau’s gaming sector, said the Secretary for the Economy and Finance Tam Pak Yuen (譚伯源) who attended the Legislative Assembly’s plenary session to debate on the economic and finance policy for 2008.

He told legislators that the Government does not want the development of Macau’s gaming sector affecting the existing moral values of the society, and a balance will be struck between the two.

He pointed out that the proposal to lift the casino entry age from 18 to 21 is not from the employment point of view, but from the healthy development of both the gaming sector and the communities.

He said that internal guideline requirements had been set with casino operators in 2006, and an accreditation system will be set up for croupiers to take up their jobs, including a check on whether they had criminal offences before.

Regarding the doubt about three concessionaires of casino operators becoming six eventually, Tam pointed out that it is legally allowed according to Article 14 of Law 3/90/M, but a conditional clause has been inserted when signing contracts with the winners of the casino operation bid, that they have to apply for Government approval before sub-contracting their concessionaires.

Tam reiterated that the Government’s direction is not to allow casino operators to sub-contract their concessionaires more than once, meanwhile a review of the Law 16/2001 will be conducted to stipulate this principle clearly within it.

http://www.blogmacau.info/

If they do approve this, when will it become effective?

Thursday, 17 January 2008
The gaming sector recorded a gross revenue of 5.5 billion patacas in the first 15 days of the month, which means the total month's revenue record can be beat.

According to figures, the maximum monthly gross revenue in the gaming sector was in September last year, reaching 9.2 billion patacas, but a new record will be set if this months figures continue.

With a gross revenue of 5.5 billion patacas in just 15 days, the month's revenue is estimated at 10 and 11 billion patacas, a rise of 62 per cent or 80 per cent over the same month last year.

The first half of this month is also marked by a new record of revenue obtained in a single day, with a clearance of more than 570 million patacas.

In terms of market share, the Sociedade de Jogos de Macau holds 31 per cent, followed by Las Vegas Sands with 19 percent, Wynn Resorts with about 17 percent, the Melco / PBL with 15 percent, Galaxy Resorts with 10 percent and the consortium between Pansy Ho and MGM Mirage with eight percent.

The gaming sector closed last year with a gross revenue of 83.8 billion patacas, an increase of around 800 million patacas in greyhound and horse racing, lotteries and betting, basketball and soccer.

Although Stanley Ho, who operates 18 casinos in Macau, recorded lower gross revenues than Las Vegas Sands last month, the company still recorded a gross revenue of 40 per cent, against Sands' 20 per cent.

Galaxy Resort sat at number three in terms of overall gross revenue with 18 per cent, followed by North American Wynn Resorts with 16 per cent.

Melco PBL closed last year with only five per cent despite some fluctuations in revenue over the 12 months, while MGM did not manage to rank a percentage in the overall annual revenue.

But on 13 full days which the company was operating last year, after its opening in December, MGM secured a share of about two per cent in a month when the total gaming revenue reached a total of 8.1 billion patacas.

the maximum monthly gross revenue in the gaming sector was in September last year, reaching 9.2 billion patacas, but a new record will be set if this months figures continue.


Note, another report (maybe with more updated figures) state 9.5bn in November as being the highest. I think December has not been updated yet (maybe, must be more ?). If Jan is 10.4bn (ie USD1.3bn), then year total would be (presuming stays same ... ie some dips in quieter months but market growing during year, and olympics), this gives total of USD15.6bn for 2008

Only recently, Lawrence Klatzkin of Jefferies & Co. said in a client note that Macau total market size could exceed $15 billion by the end of 2010.

January figures indicate this may be hit this year, or 2 years early !!! Also note estimate of just over USD10bn for 2007, with figures up approx almost 50% over last year. I'm not sure how they've achieved this... it's said there is a 'squeeze' with the new openings, but obviously VIP figures doing well as visitor numbers are up only 22.7% !

I feel the tourism figures seem a bit disappointing (tho hotel occupancy, ave stay in hotels up a lot), but the figure that will determine investment are the gaming figures (which will indicate GDP growth also hot, likely 25-35% or more again).

Sunday, 09 March 2008
The new year began with a record month for gaming with receipts climbing to more than 10 billion patacas for the first time.
In January gaming receipts rose 27 percent over December’s figures to 10.43 billion patacas. The total was almost 70 percent higher than January of last year.
During the last quarter both the MGM Grand Macau and SJM’s Ponte 16 casino resort opened and an extension to Wynn Macau's casino helped bush up gaming receipts.
January's record take was 12 percent higher than the previous record set in October last year when the mainland celebrated its National Day golden week.
Visitor numbers for the month dropped off compared with December, down almost 10 percent to 2.37 million.

^^Wow... another phenomenal figure...
Figure equivalent to USD1.3bn, or over USD15bn if maintained for year, which means target by above analyst may be hit 2 years early !!! I think this also means Macau will overtake Las Vegas county this year.

Interestingly, highest figure hit DESPITE drop in visitor number of 10%. This means VIP income still growing strongly despite supply. And this means Macau's GDP likely to be near 30% again this year, and keeps property price rises on track.

Drop in visitor numbers disappointing... Likely due to snowstorm in China. I think growth will only be OK this year (maybe due infrastructure problems ?). However, see other article http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=18927412#post18927412 which still predicts despite say a lowish 20% growth in numbers, Macau would STILL be highest tourist growth figures in the world !!!

The second surprise announcement in Macau during past week..(following height restrictions on buildings on Macau Peninsula)

Govt press release...
22 April 2008
No new casino concession, says CE

The number of licenced casino operators will remain the same for a period of time and the Government will not approve new applications for land use filed by gaming companies.

The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, announced this when he attended a plenary session of the Legislative Assembly this afternoon to answer legislators’ inquiries on various issues.

Mr Ho said that the policy to maintain the number of gaming concession, based on a thorough evaluation of the industry, would go through the legislative process shortly. Currently there are three concessionaires and three sub-concessionaires.

Moreover, the Government will not accept land applications by gaming operators and land to be reclaimed in the future will not be used for gaming purposes, the Chief Executive said.

However, gaming projects under construction, approved or under discussion with the Government will not be affected.

He also disclosed that the Government was studying ways to maintain the number of casinos, gaming tables and slot machines. New applications will not be granted before the introduction of these measures, which are aimed at enhancing the administration and diversified development of the industry.

The Government would continue to urge operators to move slot machine parlours away from densely populated districts. In addition, the Government would continue to restrict casino operators from entering other industries, especially direct involvement in public utilities, Mr Ho said.

Moreover, the Government would introduce adequate measures to regulate the share of commissions of gaming promoters, Mr Ho said.

He also disclosed that the Government is studying a licensing scheme for casino management personnel.

At a press conference after the plenary session, the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Francis Tam Pak Yuen, said this was the right time to review the gaming industry after years of rapid development, which put pressure on Macao’s land reserve and human resources.

There are currently 29 casinos with more than 4,200 gaming tables in Macao, he added.

TheStreet.com

Officials in Macau, the world's largest casino market, made a surprise announcement Tuesday that the region will not issue any more gaming licenses and will be freezing land grants for new casinos.

The news is a boost to casino operators already doing business in the region -- including Las Vegas Sands(LVS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Wynn Resorts(WYNN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Melco PBL(MPEL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and MGM Mirage(MGM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr). Macau has granted three casino licenses and three casino sublicenses for the region.

Melco, which I rate own in the Bricks and Mortar mock portfolio, is up 8.6% in early trading to $13.38, while LVS is up 12%; Wynn is up 10%.

Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho made the announcement early today. According to a report in The Australian newspaper, Ho said "the new policies stemmed in part from the wishes of Beijing," amid mounting social tensions on the Chinese island located near Hong Kong.

Analysts familiar with the Macau market confirmed the reports. These sources also added that existing development projects in the region are being grandfathered. These include Melco's City of Dreams project, its Peninsula development and the Studio City casino being built by outside parties, which Melco will manage.

One question is what will happen to the land promised to be granted by the government to Wynn Resorts and MGM on Cotai Strip, which is where Las Vegas Sands opened its massive Venetian casino resort last year. The land has yet to be formerly allocated.

Two analysts familiar with the market suspect the land grants will probably go through. "It's a big controversy now," says one of the analysts.

One loser from today's news is Harrah's Entertainment, the casino giant taken private by TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management this year. Harrah's was hoping to enter the market and must now purchase another casino operator to get involved, because forming new joint ventures appears to be impossible.

One possible target would be Galaxy Entertainment, which is listed on the Hong Kong exchange and owns numerous casinos in Macau. However, a standstill agreement between Galaxy and Las Vegas Sands prevents Galaxy from doing a deal with any U.S. operator. This agreement was struck as part of Sand's casino subconcession with Galaxy.

That means if Harrah's wants to buy a company, then Melco PBL remains the likely target. But Harrah's doesn't have money right now to buy anyone given, its large debt burdens from the LBO. Nonetheless, today's news make Melco's position in the Macau market even more attractive for the long term.

^^^^
So a very big announcement... and looks like gaming table supply will be frozen (some reports suggest smaller casinos closing.. to be given to other newer developments ?).

And Harrah (on Cotai), Virgin etc.. looks like they'll be out for a while.
And also on Cotai, what about Wynn Cotai, MGM, STDM projects (which haven't really been approved yet ???). .

However, stock market reaction has been good for Wynn despite this questionmark about further expansion on Cotai (also good for LVS), with both up over 10% at one stage....
If these Cotai projects are OK, I guess Macau still has plenty of casinos/resorts being built (ie most of Cotai less Harrah's golf course), and that this announcement is a pause/consolidation as the govt sees what current projects underway will do

SO govt seems to be clamping down on both land supply/property development AND casinos in the past week !!! Wonder also if it means that Cotai strip will not allow any condos/serviced apartments on casino land. And how long this review/suspension will take !!

This is proving to be the biggest week for Macau since the awarding of the the licenses to the Las Vegas operators !!

Any comments on how these developments will affect Macau, Macau's growth (incl workforce), and Macau's property market ???

HK Standard
Victor Cheung

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Investors appear to have welcomed measures to control Macau's surging casino growth with gaming company shares rocketing yesterday.
Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah announced on Tuesday that no new land for casino development or new slot machines and gambling tables will be approved "in the foreseeable future."

Analysts agreed the measures would boost sentiment for casino players as they address the market's biggest concern that overcapacity will erode profit margins.

One said there are already some casinos which cannot keep up with sales growth.

Morgan Stanley said Ho's measures are positive for existing operators: "We believe the government has approved most of the concessionaires' announced developments, such as Wynn's Diamond Suites and MGM's project on Cotai, so they will be able to continue to be developed."

Ho said Macau will also tighten control over junket operators that help casinos find high rollers and collect commissions.

Galaxy Entertainment (0027), which operates five casinos, surged as much as 28 percent to HK$6.38 in morning trading, before easing to close at HK$5.64, up 13.3 percent.

A-Max Holdings (0959) rose 17.9 percent to 79 HK cents. Melco International Development (0200) rose 5.49 percent to HK$10.76.

Goldman Sachs analyst Enoch Fung said the government intends to diversify Macau's economy. "Overconcentration of the gaming industry in Macau, and the social issues associated with it, has long been a concern for the government."

There are 4,311 gaming tables in the former Portuguese enclave, 10 times more than five years ago. Twenty-nine casinos generate 10.1 billion patacas (HK$9.8 billion) in gambling tax.

Kowloon Development (0034), which is building two residential projects in Macau, said the property market would benefit from the government's decision

Kowloon Development (0034), which is building two residential projects in Macau, said the property market would benefit from the government's decision

I just wonder why would the property development benefit from the new regulation?

I just wonder why would the property development benefit from the new regulation?

Seems like everyone is saying decision is positive !! (see also Stanley Ho's comments in Jai Alai-Yaohan casino). Many equity analyst say it allows for consolidation...
Some have argued that govt announcement means Macau should become more diversified.. ie more shopping and MICE in particular should be developed.

I'm wondering if the comment was taken out of context ? Maybe it's to do with all the recent govt decisions (esp Height restrictions, but also announcement on tax rebates, public housing etc).

I think I can understand how height restrictions would benefit existing or unaffected projects by reducing supply... but if comment is regarding casinos - agree with you on how this can be good for property.

Seems like everyone is saying decision is positive !! (see also Stanley Ho's comments in Jai Alai-Yaohan casino). Many equity analyst say it allows for consolidation...

Of course it is good for the shareholders of casino. Stanley Ho is used to playing "monopoly" game; I am sure he would be just happy that the oligopoly structure remained and not have to face Harrah, Virgin or any new comer.

Some have argued that govt announcement means Macau should become more diversified.. ie more shopping and MICE in particular should be developed.

I don't think this is the main reason. Sands is already committed to this new areas way before the new regulation is announced. I suspect the policy makers are simply too worry about the inflation figure (at 10%), obviously from an economist's point of view, Macau has overheated from this boom. There is also rumours that Beijing is the hand behind to enforce this rule.

I think I can understand how height restrictions would benefit existing or unaffected projects by reducing supply... but if comment is regarding casinos - agree with you on how this can be good for property.

I think in the short term (2-3 years), it does not make any difference. All the projects have been committed in that time frame, so the demand is there. But now wondering what Harrah's is going to do with that piece of golf course that it just bought not too long ago?

I think I can understand how height restrictions would benefit existing or unaffected projects by reducing supply... but if comment is regarding casinos - agree with you on how this can be good for property.

Probably the Macau gov't, or rather the central gov't, would like to see a slow down in the casinos & property supply for a healthier future for Macau. The last thing they want to see is any bubble to burst, same problem as all the big cities in China. They believe a tighter control would eventually be beneficial to all sectors of Macau, including the property market.

I don't think this is the main reason. Sands is already committed to this new areas way before the new regulation is announced. I suspect the policy makers are simply too worry about the inflation figure (at 10%), obviously from an economist's point of view, Macau has overheated from this boom. There is also rumours that Beijing is the hand behind to enforce this rule.

There's no doubt China was behind this... everyone's saying it. I think this series of announcements came after NPC? meetings where CE Ho met leaders. The first announcement concerned reclaimation in Macau (which needs China's approval) - guess price of reclaimation for infrastructure is this..
Also interesting, before suspension, there were lots of press articles on Macau, to do with problem gambing (esp with young/dealers). That so many young are being drawn into this industry as there aren't alternatives.
Most point to riots of May last year for change - many unionist say they are unlikely to demonstrate this May/Labour day or will have much reduced turnout as they seem to be happy with recent announcements.

There's a lot of unknowns behind casino announcement - eg total tables/slots will be capped. I think Beijing implies there are enough gaming jobs now. It may be a reminder for LVS and others to deliver their promises on MICE/Shopping and not to focus more on gaming for now.

I think in the short term (2-3 years), it does not make any difference. All the projects have been committed in that time frame, so the demand is there. But now wondering what Harrah's is going to do with that piece of golf course that it just bought not too long ago?
I think there is a big difference on property short-term. Dr Ho won on casinos, but lost out on property (I'm guessing he has huge land bank - esp Harbour Mile, Oceanus). The height difference has stopped 7 projects I believe, mostly private residential, esp around Nam Van lake. Most were supposed to be launched this year (C5c6, Harbour Mile, Bel-lago). These developers should be partly compensated (but if land swap... Macau doesn't have much land left?)
Big developers often can wait over 10 years... tho doubt Harrah will wait that long. Wonder if they can sell condos instead ??

FourSeasons: you seem to have great connections.. have you spoken to your agent on effects of this (my agents are crap)? Does anyone know for sure that C5C6, Bel-lago will have to be redesigned to a lower height ??

FourSeasons: you seem to have great connections.. have you spoken to your agent on effects of this (my agents are crap)? Does anyone know for sure that C5C6, Bel-lago will have to be redesigned to a lower height ??

MacauVillager28: Sorry to disappoint you but I don't have much connection at all. I was in Beijing last week when this was announced and have not spoken to any agent. I think we should turn to OneGrantai.....

On my last visit 2 months ago, the agent already told me of the lower height and kept on congratulating me on the One Central that I bought earlier. Kept on saying that once Bel Lago is launced, the price of 1 Central will move up when the buyers realize how cheap 1 Central is.

Maybe I will call him for new info later...

Does anyone know for sure that C5C6, Bel-lago will have to be redesigned to a lower height ??

That's pretty much a certainty as circulated in the Macau circle. That means you guys sitting on ONe Central whould for the forseeable future sit on a development that other people can not outdo quick-should compensate for the possible averse impact (if any) of restricting further Casino investment from parties who are not already in.

It aslo seems that all the talked about projects for Cotai (MGM, Wynn) are within the new rules.

It seems One Cotai is dead (as land bought by the HK business Man Mr Chiu is on what Macanese call Sand Paper title-a bit like those New territory village titles in HK).

Does anyone know for sure that C5C6, Bel-lago will have to be redesigned to a lower height ??

That's pretty much a certainty as circulated in the Macau circle. That means you guys sitting on ONe Central whould for the forseeable future sit on a development that other people can not outdo quick-should compensate for the possible averse impact (if any) of restricting further Casino investment from parties who are not already in.

It aslo seems that all the talked about projects for Cotai (MGM, Wynn) are within the new rules.

It seems One Cotai is dead (as land bought by the HK business Man Mr Chiu is on what Macanese call Sand Paper title-a bit like those New territory village titles in HK).

Tks for update !

By Kelvin Wong and Frank Longid

June 6 (Bloomberg) -- Macau's casino industry, which surpassed the Las Vegas Strip in gaming revenue in 2006, should lure more mass-market tourists instead of relying on high rollers from China, analysts and industry officials said.

The former Portuguese colony, the only place in China where casinos are legal, is in a ``perilous situation'' because companies are chasing ``growth that cannot be sustained,'' Norman MacKillop, the Macau head of gaming industry investigator Spectrum OSO Asia, said in an interview.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. are among those investing at least $25 billion in Macau, where gaming revenue may more than double within three years to more than $20 billion. That's mostly driven by catering to gamblers who spend at least a million patacas ($124,000) each visit. VIP gaming accounted for 67 percent of Macau's total gaming revenue last year, up from 63 percent in 2006, according to the city government.

Investing in ``VIP rooms is actually more risky and less sustainable'' than targeting slot-machine players and tourists who play low-stakes table games, Ricardo Siu, associate professor of gaming management and economics at the University of Macau, said in an interview yesterday. The VIP market's ``profit margin is much smaller than in the mass market.''

Before Las Vegas Sands opened Macau's first foreign-owned casino in 2004, 78 percent of gaming revenue in the city came from high-rolling gamblers taken to the casinos by junket operators, who also lend money.

Higher Margins

Some VIP rooms are run by franchise owners who share the house's winnings with the casino operators and pay junket operators commissions for gaming chips they sell.

The growth fuelled by high rollers, who provide about two- thirds of gaming revenue for MGM Mirage's Macau casino, ``isn't sustainable in percentage terms,'' said Gabe Hunterton, MGM Grand Macau's vice president for casino operations. ``Profit margins in the mass market are much, much higher than in the VIP segment,'' he said in an interview yesterday at the Global Gaming Expo Asia 2008, an industry conference held in Macau.

The Crown Macau, run by Nasdaq-listed Melco PBL Entertainment (Macau) Ltd., last year reached an agreement with A-Max Holdings Ltd. unit AMA International to ferry wealthy gamblers from nearby Hong Kong and China.

Macau's gaming industry ``hasn't been able to get away from the old framework,'' the University of Macau's Siu said. ``For a while it seemed we were moving into a new era of a bigger mass market, but in the past two years it has actually taken a step back.''

Mainland Gamblers

Macau gaming revenue grew 45.7 percent last year to 83.8 billion patacas. That may expand 29 percent in 2008, according to Las Vegas-based gaming research firm Globalysis Ltd. More than half of 23 analysts and casino executives surveyed by the American Gaming Association said the Chinese city will probably maintain its revenue growth for at least a further three years.

Most gamblers in Macau come from mainland China, an economy of 1.3 billion people that's grown at least 10 percent in each of the past nine quarters.

Macau's government said in March the city's economy grew 27.3 percent in 2007 from a year earlier, the fastest pace in three years. Fourth-quarter growth was 22.1 percent.

Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho said in April the city will stop approving land for new casinos and stop granting new licenses. It will also limit the number of gaming tables and slot machines run by existing casino operators.

By Kelvin Wong and Frank Longid

June 6 (Bloomberg) -- Macau's casino industry, which surpassed the Las Vegas Strip in gaming revenue in 2006, should lure more mass-market tourists instead of relying on high rollers from China, analysts and industry officials said.

The former Portuguese colony, the only place in China where casinos are legal, is in a ``perilous situation'' because companies are chasing ``growth that cannot be sustained,'' Norman MacKillop, the Macau head of gaming industry investigator Spectrum OSO Asia, said in an interview.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. are among those investing at least $25 billion in Macau, where gaming revenue may more than double within three years to more than $20 billion. That's mostly driven by catering to gamblers who spend at least a million patacas ($124,000) each visit. VIP gaming accounted for 67 percent of Macau's total gaming revenue last year, up from 63 percent in 2006, according to the city government.

Investing in ``VIP rooms is actually more risky and less sustainable'' than targeting slot-machine players and tourists who play low-stakes table games, Ricardo Siu, associate professor of gaming management and economics at the University of Macau, said in an interview yesterday. The VIP market's ``profit margin is much smaller than in the mass market.''

Before Las Vegas Sands opened Macau's first foreign-owned casino in 2004, 78 percent of gaming revenue in the city came from high-rolling gamblers taken to the casinos by junket operators, who also lend money.

Higher Margins

Some VIP rooms are run by franchise owners who share the house's winnings with the casino operators and pay junket operators commissions for gaming chips they sell.

The growth fuelled by high rollers, who provide about two- thirds of gaming revenue for MGM Mirage's Macau casino, ``isn't sustainable in percentage terms,'' said Gabe Hunterton, MGM Grand Macau's vice president for casino operations. ``Profit margins in the mass market are much, much higher than in the VIP segment,'' he said in an interview yesterday at the Global Gaming Expo Asia 2008, an industry conference held in Macau.

The Crown Macau, run by Nasdaq-listed Melco PBL Entertainment (Macau) Ltd., last year reached an agreement with A-Max Holdings Ltd. unit AMA International to ferry wealthy gamblers from nearby Hong Kong and China.

Macau's gaming industry ``hasn't been able to get away from the old framework,'' the University of Macau's Siu said. ``For a while it seemed we were moving into a new era of a bigger mass market, but in the past two years it has actually taken a step back.''

Mainland Gamblers

Macau gaming revenue grew 45.7 percent last year to 83.8 billion patacas. That may expand 29 percent in 2008, according to Las Vegas-based gaming research firm Globalysis Ltd. More than half of 23 analysts and casino executives surveyed by the American Gaming Association said the Chinese city will probably maintain its revenue growth for at least a further three years.

Most gamblers in Macau come from mainland China, an economy of 1.3 billion people that's grown at least 10 percent in each of the past nine quarters.

Macau's government said in March the city's economy grew 27.3 percent in 2007 from a year earlier, the fastest pace in three years. Fourth-quarter growth was 22.1 percent.

Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho said in April the city will stop approving land for new casinos and stop granting new licenses. It will also limit the number of gaming tables and slot machines run by existing casino operators.

^^
Looks like China wants some policy changes...
It may be that's its Ok for middle classes to spend money there, but for hi-end.. maybe they're complaining about their losses.. and maybe too many officials.
So for the odd trip it's Ok, but hi-end/frequent mainland gamblers... maybe no. This can be seen in various changes recently.

They need to grow all the peripheral services around the gambling scene to promote tourism, such as theme parks, shows, etc.

Article from Macaubusiness.com, fm May, with interview with Mark Brown, President of LVS.

http://www.macaubusiness.com/index.php?id=1183

Interview has some comments, noteably some gripes about VIP business... esp
1. Pace of infrastructure development in Macau
2. Junket competition/commission rates
3. Allowing mainlanders in (in terms of easier access for tourists, and for employment)

In particular, at end of article...
"Why did we come and build these properties if you let anybody have a shack of a casino? I think our chairman looks at that and thinks it's not fair. Maybe I wouldn't spend US$3 billion on a property if I new all I could have built was another Sands here and then offer the most money. Why build shopping and rooms and all the other stuff that comes with it?

I suspect that much of the policy changes in Macau, LVS is happy with and could've been pushing for.. like focus on diversifying away from VIP gaming focus, junket controls, infrastructure (reclamation, second Zhuhai land crossing, HK-Zhuhai-macau bridge). This sentiment can be shown in above quote.

SJM Relaunches IPO; Seeks To Raise US$654M -Term Sheet
23 June 2008

HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd. has revived plans to list in Hong Kong and is seeking to raise up to US$654 million from an initial public offering ahead of a listing July 10, according to a term sheet seen Monday by Dow Jones Newswires.

The listing of Macau tycoon Stanley Ho's casino flagship was put on hold in January after Hong Kong's securities regulator questioned the company over claims brought by Ho's estranged sister Winnie Ho, people familiar with the situation said earlier.

SJM plans to sell 1.25 billion shares, representing 25% of its enlarged share capital, in a range of HK$3.08 to HK$4.08 each, according to the listing document.

The company also has an option to sell an additional 15% of the offering if there is strong demand.

SJM's investor roadshow begins Monday, and subscriptions will close July 2, according to the term sheet.

SJM had originally planned to raise up to US$1.9 billion in an IPO in 2006, but the listing was delayed due to lawsuits filed by Winnie Ho questioning the sale of shares in the company.

She had said Sociedade De Turismo e Diversoes De Macau, which owns 80% of SJM, has no right to sell shares in SJM as its shareholder registry was lost in 1993.

SJM's IPO was relaunched in January, with plans to raise up to US$1 billion, nearly half its original target, before the listing was again put on hold.

It wasn't immediately clear as to why the value of the IPO has again been reduced, but analysts have said that a mix of a weak equities market and fierce competition among Macau casinos are likely contributing factors.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index has fallen 18% since the start of this year to Friday's close.

SJM is one of the three companies granted concessions in 2002 by the Macau government to operate casinos, after the former Portuguese enclave liberalized the industry.

Previously, STDM held Ho's monopoly on operating Macau casinos for 40 years.

SJM couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Deutsche Bank AG (DB) is the sole bookrunner of the deal, according to the term sheet.

SCMP, P1, Bus Section
Thurs 3 July 2008

Macau casino revenue surged 69.78% last month to 9.78bn patacas, the third-largest monthly haul on record, apparently shaking off the effects of new mainland restrictions ontravel to the enclave that were launched in June.
The June Casino revenue, according to unofficial figures reported in the press yesterday, compare with a relatively soft 5.76bn patacas for the same month last year.
However, it represents the fastest year-on-year monthly growth rate in 13 months and came against the launch of new mainland crackdown on trips to the gaming enclave.
The biggest montly take was 10.34bn patacas record in January, followed by 10.12bn in March.
"June was a pretty good set of numbers and up to this point it would appear the restrictions have had no impact at all" a casino executive said.
From June 1, residents of Guangdong and several other provinces have been able to apply for tourist travel premits to Macau only once a month, down from twice a month previously.
Business or multi-entry visas issued by government officials and high rollers had been reduced to three visits a month from 10, analysts and industry sources said.
Casino revenue rose 54 percent to 58.6bn patacas in the first six months, beating the 46.6 percent growth for the whole of last year, unofficial data reported by news agency Lusa shows. Official data wil not be released for another three to four weeks but leaked preliminary figures have proven accurate.
The strong top-line growth contrasts with a broad sell-down in the publicly traded shares of gaming firms, with some stocks falling more than 60 percent in the year to date.
The city's six licensed casino operators were locked in a commission war for most of the first half, during which margins were sacrificed to win or retain the best VIP jucket agents, who bring in high rollers, lend them gambling money and collect their debts.
SJDM maintained its lead with 27 percent of the market by revenue, the report said. LVS with 22% and Wynn with 17%. Melco Crown came in at 16%, Galaxy 10% and MGM Grand Paradise at 8%.
Macau's govt tax receipts from gaming rose 55.18% to 14.63bn in the first four months, accounting for 83.18% of all public revenue.
The growth of casino revenue in Macau would slow and drop to a modest 8.56 percent annual rate by 2012, PriceWaterhouseCoopers said in a report.
Nevertheless, annual gross gaming revenue is expected to average 18.7% over the next five years and more than double to USD24.4bn by 2012.

^^
- Report in contrast to 270 redundancies in gaming staff announced by Galaxy group (tho Galaxy above report does show a very low market share). This included over 40 expat pit managers. Company said they will rehire all staff when HKD10bn mega resort in Cotai opens in a year (original SCMP quote was end of year, but I think everyone expects 2009).
Also another report said gaming staff planning demonstrations over redundancies..
- Also in contrast to above is fall in stocks. LVS now below USD40 from almost USD150 nine months ago !!! As someone noted in SG section, LVS is not-investment grade for debt (ie Junk) at BB-. LVS also reported there as raising USD7bn (of which USD3bn refinancing, and guess remainder for new projects like their most expensive casino in the world in SG).
- On Friday, also reported that Guangdong authorities have tightened restrictions AGAIN so visas now only granted once every TWO months from once a month. However, numerous restrictions over past year have failed to halt huge rise (esp in VIP gaming) as above report shows 70% rise in gaming.

- Also in contrast to above is fall in stocks. LVS now below USD40 from almost USD150 nine months ago !
And fund like the MPO ( Macau Property Opportunity Fund ) - which has invested in more than 1 tower in One Central, is now only at 90p from all time high 136p about a year ago.

RTHK News:
Casino company delays listing (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/20080709/news_20080709_56_504497.htm)

And fund like the MPO ( Macau Property Opportunity Fund ) - which has invested in more than 1 tower in One Central, is now only at 90p from all time high 136p about a year ago.

Let'em all bust I say!
Unfortunately my forecast is proving itself true - the market is exclusively speculation fuelled, there is no real demand for these projects and prices far exceed value.

There are already over 15,000 empty apartments in Macau in projects completed within the past 10 years, with 20,000 to be made available withing the next 3 years... just cruise around at night - depressing towers with one or two lit apartments... I guess the bubble will bust soon.

Let'em all bust I say!
Unfortunately my forecast is proving itself true - the market is exclusively speculation fuelled, there is no real demand for these projects and prices far exceed value.

There are already over 15,000 empty apartments in Macau in projects completed within the past 10 years, with 20,000 to be made available withing the next 3 years... just cruise around at night - depressing towers with one or two lit apartments... I guess the bubble will bust soon.

MPO is an London listed equity fund/company.. and is falling with rest of global equity markets... as such it often trades at a discount compared to physical assets.
It is still sitting on a healthy gain as it came in early (for 90-95% of its assets).

My Macau investment is up 50%. Market needs to drop 1/3 for me to be even. My other property investments elsewhere are up 50% in past 1-2 years period.
If you 'Let them all bust' then I will not be much affected as with many early 'overseas' investor (including MPO). Much more affected will be Macau residents (both in physical property and jobs).

Market is consolidating after big rise, and recent uncertain newsflow. Much of the fundamentals are still good. Gaming up 70% yoy for earlier month, still indicates GDP may be maintained at 30%. Admittedly if most of this is only VIP Baccarat, then you need less people (esp locals) to support this growth. Unemployment is still very low and steady, and projects in Cotai still progressing. Wynn reported in SCMP yesterday as maybe listing USD3bn in HK stock market for new Cotai project. So even more projects going on as usual.

What's happening is definitely not a Macau issue, but a global issue. And Macau is less linked to global economy as it is non-manufacturing hub, driven by China (esp rich mainlanders, not US/Las Vegas), who are likely to stay rich. This is a currently a short-term blip... as even mass market tourism is still healthy (tourism up over 20+%, overtaking HK). This may be less than then 70% in VIP, and maybe not yet enough even new capacity, but this growth figure is still excellent.

Billionaire Stanley Ho's struggles to adapt to new Macau
13 July 2008
Agence France Presse

Casino billionaire Stanley Ho will finally list his company in Hong Kong on Wednesday, but the rocky road to the market has highlighted the 86-year-old's waning dominance of Macau's gaming industry.

The initial public offering of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings (SJM) was rescheduled last week after his estranged sister made a last-ditch legal effort to block the listing.

Her move was dismissed -- although she has since appealed -- but the listing process has demonstrated how new competition has forced Ho to refocus the company that helped make his 7 billion-dollar fortune.

"SJM has got a long history of casino operations. What they are not used to is the external scrutiny and regulation," said David Green, a casino consultant with financial services firm PricewaterhouseCooper in Macau.

Instead of just having to comply with Macau gaming regulations, Green said the listing has forced greater compliance and disclosure for SJM, some of it embarrassing.

As well as the 97 pending labour disputes, four pages of the IPO prospectus were taken up by the unremitting flow of litigation by Ho's sister, Winnie.

She has 33 lawsuits pending in Macau and four in Hong Kong, on issues ranging from the reorganisation of the firm, unpaid debts and even the awkward loss of the shareholders' register.

While the feud feeds the tycoon-obsessed local media, perhaps more telling are the firm's operating figures since Ho lost his gaming monopoly in the southern Chinese city in 2002 when the market was liberalised.

Its share of gaming revenue decreased from 74.7 percent in 2005, when the first foreign-run rival opened, to 62.2 percent in 2006 and 39.9 percent in 2007, according to its IPO prospectus.

Both have begun transforming the territory from the "Sin City" of Ho's heyday, to a gleaming, family-friendly destination.

Their bulging coffers have created resorts and attractions that Ho has struggled to emulate, and they have swiped many of his VIP clients, a crucial, if murky, part of the territory's revenue.

His firm's gaming revenue actually decreased from 34.2 billion Hong Kong dollars in 2006 to 32.1 billion in 2007, the prospectus said, at a time when the city's overall take was skyrocketing to overtake the Las Vegas Strip.

The listing was aimed at solving some of the difficulties.

When it was first mooted in January, SJM hoped to raise 2 billion US dollars. But it will probably raise just a quarter of that because of Hong Kong's volatile market combined with persistent questions on whether SJM can adapt to the new competition.

"It's very difficult to professionalise a traditional gaming business," said Joseph Fan, a finance professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a specialist on tycoons.

"Lots of values are specific to the founder. In this case, the reason why SJM is successful has to do with Stanley Ho, his relationships with the government and other bodies in Macau."

Ho's life history is as colourful as the gleaming towers of his new flagship Grand Lisboa casino.

The nephew of the one of Asia's first tycoons, Stanley made his first fortune smuggling luxury goods across the Chinese border from Macau during World War II, according to Joe Studwell's book Asian Godfathers.

In 1962, he and his business partners won the only gambling licence in the then-Portuguese colony, a goldmine he consolidated by running transport businesses, as well as a racetrack.

Along the way, the keen ballroom dancer has cultivated a playboy lifestyle, taking four wives and fathering at least 17 children, two of whom, Pansy and Lawrence, run rival concessions with overseas partners in Macau.

Pansy's partnership with US operator MGM Mirage recently raised the issue that has dogged Ho through much of his life, despite never facing criminal charges -- is he connected with organised crime?

The alleged link has thwarted efforts to expand operations in Canadian and Australian markets -- he does operate a casino in North Korea -- and his daughter reportedly had to convince US regulators of her independence.

The US State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report in 2007 said that under the old monopoly framework organised crime groups were "and continue to be, associated with the gaming industry" through control of VIP gaming rooms and activities such as "racketeering, loan sharking, and prostitution."

But despite the questions, analysts have welcomed SJM's listing as a positive sign of modernisation.

"It's a going to be a long, bumpy road. But if you do not modernise, it is bound to fail," Fan said.

Do casinos in Macau have restrictions for children to go in the casino floor?

We'll be going to Macau in late October and we will have 2 minors and a baby with us.

Do casinos in Macau have restrictions for children to go in the casino floor?

We'll be going to Macau in late October and we will have 2 minors and a baby with us.

Yes, minors cannot enter the casino floor.

Minors means 17 and under, you come of age at 18 in Macau.

Minors means 17 and under, you come of age at 18 in Macau.

No, depending on the jurisdiction, the definition of 'minor' is different. In Hong Kong, that's 18.

Taubman says tight credit stalls Macau financing

NEW YORK, July 25 (Reuters) - Tighter credit conditions have delayed financing for a massive casino, hotel and retail project planned for the Chinese territory of Macau, the head of project partner Taubman Centers said on Friday.

The $1.3 billion in financing was to have been completed by now. "Given the current capital market conditions, it has taken much longer," Taubman Chairman and CEO Robert Taubman said.

"The credit markets are just terrible," he said in a conference call with analysts a day after the upscale mall owner and operator reported a fall in second-quarter earnings.

Taubman also cut its forecast for the full year, in part because of costs related to the project in Macau.

The company, based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, has partnered with Hong Kong-based eSun Holdings Ltd for the retail portion of Macao Studio City, a casino, hotel, retail and entertainment center.

Plans call for Taubman to acquire a 25 percent interest in The Mall at Studio City and ultimately invest $200 million.

The venture also involves Hong Kong's Lai Sun Development and Singapore's CapitaLand.

"All parties are participating in a 24/7 effort to complete the financing and move forward on the project," Taubman said.

Given the tough conditions, the partners may have to put more equity into the deal, he said.

"Meanwhile, leasing is progressing extremely well," Taubman said. "Over half of the center is committed in one form or another and the majority of tenants have posted deposits."

The company's funds from operations, a performance measure for real estate investment trusts, fell 3.8 percent in the second quarter, mainly because of higher predevelopment costs, including those related to the Macau project.

When the joint venture agreement was struck in February, Taubman put down a $54 million deposit, which is held in escrow until the financing has been completed.

That forced Taubman to expense the interest, which trimmed its bottom line.

Odds no longer with the house for casinos?

NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The odds are not looking good for casinos on either side of the Pacific.

Concerns that the Chinese government may act to curtail visits by mainlanders to Macau, the only place in the country where gambling is legal, have hit the stock prices of casino companies.

The Portuguese news agency Lusa, quoting unnamed sources, reported that Beijing may restrict individual visas to Macau to one visit every six months, instead of the current one visit every two months.

Starting next month, residents of mainland China will no longer be able to enter Macau on a Hong Kong visa.

In the United States, cash-strapped consumers are gambling, but they are spending less at the tables or shifting to cheaper slot machines, according to analysts.

Meanwhile, U.S. gaming companies have about $10.6 billion of loans maturing next year, debt that will have to be repaid or refinanced at a time when banks are tightening standards and charging more to lend.

Harrah's Entertainment, better known as the home of Harrah's and Caesars hotels and casinos, taken private in a $31 billion buyout earlier this year, is now grappling with a softer gaming market, higher debt and a pipeline of projects it needs to fund.

Detroit's Greektown Casino, in the midst of building a permanent casino, filed for bankruptcy protection in May.

Trump Entertainment Resorts, chaired by property mogul Donald Trump, reported a $29.8 million net loss in the second quarter.

But just because the casinos have run into head winds, doesn't mean the odds have changed for their customers.

Macau chief says gaming revenues could fall in 2009
14 August 2008
Agence France Presse

Macau's chief executive has warned that gaming revenues in the casino haven may fall next year due to the global economic slowdown, the South China Morning Post reported Friday.

Edmund Ho told lawmakers the government believes income from sectors including gaming in Macau -- the only place in China where casino gambling is legal -- to slow in 2009.

"We can't be too optimistic about next year's economic development. A lot of unstable factors have emerged in the global markets," the Post quoted him as telling the Legislative Assembly.

"It will not be surprising if income from some sectors, such as the gaming industry, records negative growth next year, as it had grown at a high speed in the past," he said.

Macau has boomed in recent years, mainly on the back of Chinese visitors who have flooded into the city's gleaming casinos. Gaming revenues in 2007 topped 10 billion dollars for the first time, well ahead of the Las Vegas Strip.

But restrictions on visits by mainland Chinese and a moratorium on new casinos have begun to cool the spectacular growth.

On Thursday, Ho told the assembly that the government would strike a balance to ensure the construction industry was not hit too hard.

"We will not permit overheated development but we will not call a halt to investment either. Otherwise it will bring a large blow to the construction industry," he said.

Casino companies with operations in Macau mostly fall on August revenue results
2 September 2008

NEW YORK (AP) - Casino companies with operations in the Chinese enclave of Macau mostly declined on Tuesday, as any positive effect from a local news report showing a 44 percent jump in gambling revenues in August was tempered by analysts' cautions that government restrictions may slow future gains.

The Macao Daily cited estimates that gambling revenue totaled $1.2 billion during the month.

Goldman Sachs analyst Simon Cheung said the results beat his expectations, saying in a report to investors that some Chinese residents may have used visas approved several months earlier to visit Macau in recent weeks.

Deutsche Bank analyst Karen Tang said the growth beat July's 42 percent gain and her initial expectations of a 25 to 30 percent increase. She noted, however, that new visa restrictions have slowed growth from the year-to-date trend of 52 percent.

Tang said in a note she believed the rest of the year could slow down further "as the effects of the series of government measures accumulate."

Tang said the Chinese government appears to be sending a strong message that it is determined to control the growth of Macau's gambling industry.

Cheung said he is maintaining a cautious stance on the near-term outlook of Macau's gaming sector due, in part, to the Chinese government's policies.

Here is a look at how casino operators with operations in Macau fared on Tuesday:

Wynn Resorts Ltd., down 18 cents to $95.24.

Las Vegas Sands Corp., down 58 cents to $46.83.

MGM Mirage, down 71 cents, or 2 percent, to $34.48.

Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd., down 13 cents to $6.47.

Sands scraps loan plan for Macau expansion: report
19 October 2008
Agence France Presse

The global banking crisis has forced US gaming firm Las Vegas Sands to pull plans to raise 5.25 billion US dollars in loans to fund its aggressive expansion strategy in Macau, a report said Monday.

The firm -- which operates the giant Venetian casino in the southern Chinese city -- has dropped the scheme following weak appetite among lenders, the South China Morning Post said, citing unnamed sources.

"Right now it is a pulled deal. It will come back when they cook up a new shape and new price," a source said, according to the report.

The report said the deal could resurface in January.

"It's as dead as a dodo right now, but will be back at the right time," said a source with knowledge of the transaction, according to the Post.

Sands, headed by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, proposed the move to raise 7 billion dollars six months ago, but after a cool response from potential lenders dropped the target to 5.25 billion, the report said.

"It was still too large and the banks were offering to lend with only limited creditability. Any kid on the street knew they did not have the balance sheets," said a banker who walked away from the loan, according to the report.

The banks who were instructed to arrange the loan included Lehman Brothers, which went bust last month, and Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, who have both faced liquidity issues.

Sands wanted the cash to complete the construction of a massive 6,400-room casino resort complex across the street from the Venetian, along a piece of reclaimed land called the Cotai Strip.

The project would include a new Sheraton, Shangri-La, Traders and St Regis hotels as well as serviced apartments.

Macau's gaming sector, which has boomed since the market was liberalised in 2002, has showed its first signs of slowdown in recent months, mainly due to increased restrictions on visitors from the mainland.

^^^^
See partial denial published later in Wall Street journal.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=100437&page=8

Todays job pages in SCMP has section on Macau...
Headline: Labour Demeand Outweights Supply
But employers are in no rush to expand their workforce as economy and visit restrictions take their toll.

...Meanwhile the contruction sector in Macau has been dealt a double blow by the slowing down of project approvals by the Macau govt and the tightening of the liquidity market.
"Both investors and business operators are more comfortable with 'slowing things down' rather than rushing in" Mr Chan (of Links Recruitment) said. "There's a confidence issue regarding the city's development".
The current contraction of the gaming and hospitality industries in Macau is expected to be temporary. "I believe the situation will improve in six months" Mr Chan said. "There is still only one true fully integrated resort on the Cotai Strip and one ferry ..A".
Mr Siu said the slated openings of more casinos such as City of Dreams next year would help create thousands of employment opportunities in the gaming industry.
For example, Tower One of Galaxy Mega Resort is expected to begin operating by the third quarter of next year. Tower two of the project is likely up by the end of next year, according to Anita Ao, pr manager of galaxy Entertainment. The Galaxy Mega Resort has 2,500 rooms.

- City of Dreams advertising for jobs for Hotel and F&B operations.
"Join The Dream Team:
City of Dreams will be a must-see integrated urban entertainment resort in Macau. Combining electrifying entertainment, an amazing array of accomodation, international and regional dining, stylish nightclubs and world class shopping. City of Dreams will usher in a new ear of gaming when it opens in the first half of 2009."
- Starwood/St Regis Hotel.
"Reach for the Stars at Starwood -
A rewarding career with the Worlds Most Exciting Hotel Gorup. Joining Sheraton Macao Hotel or The St. Regis Macao in Asia's Las Vegas on the Cotai Strip is your gateway to a dynamic global company with 900 hotels worldwide.
Opening in 2009, the 4000-room Sheraton Macao Hotel will be Starwood's largest hotel globally. The St. Regis Macao will be 'the' luxury address on Cotai."

^^
Posted above to partially confirm opening dates. Looks like 3 resort opening next year are still confirmed, with more than double rooms of the exisiting Ventian.

Fancy footwork

Macau Business
Posted: 2008 Oct 01 - 20:20
• A land-lease row over The Venetian’s plans for their Four Seasons development on the Cotai Strip looks set to heat up after lawmaker Au Kam San stumbled upon some ‘confidential ‘ paperwork. The Venetian, however, sees things differently


Macau’s answer to the world-famous strip in Las Vegas - that hive of construction activity that we call The Cotai Strip - was never intended for the development of residential properties.
So, when a document stamped “confidential’’ fell into the hands of democratic lawmaker Au Kam San about the Venetian Cotai Limited’s plan to “sell’’ 300 luxury serviced apartments at Four Seasons - scheduled for completion in the third quarter of next year - he immediately thought he had a scandal on his hands.
In his latest move, the directly-elected lawmaker has submitted a written question to the government demanding answers about the Venetian’s plans for Four Seasons.
The casino giant, however, has made no secret of its plans. Infact, Las Vegas Sands’ boss Sheldon Adelson describes the the availability of contested units as simply “selling reasons for people to visit’’.

Hospitality

A land lease dated April last year granted the Venetian a 405,658 square metre site on the Cotai Strip to develop the Four Seasons Hotel, and in return the government asked for a land premium of about MOP2.59 billion.
The document clearly states that the site is to be used solely for the development of gaming and hospitality projects - this being the main reason for the government’s imposition of such a low premium on such a prime site.
In other words, strata-title sales of apartments are prohibited under the terms of the land lease.
Lawmaker Au has his own - disputed it must be said - conclusion: “The Venetian acquired this piece of land at an almost negligible cost. If it is allowed to go ahead with the sale of serviced apartments, which will definitely command good prices, it would be a flagrant example of profiteering,’’ he claims.
The issue of the Venetian’s serviced apartments at the Four Seasons development - which also includes 400 hotel rooms - has been brewing for some time.
In October last year, a senior executive at the Venetian Macau, Stephen Weaver, announced publicly that the firm had planned to sell serviced apartments at the luxury resort to buyers who would use them as holiday homes. This proposal is similar to the concept of a condominium hotel in which each apartment is like a condo with full hotel amenities – a popular product in the US.

Secret documents

Sources close to the public works authorities confirm that the Venetian has been lobbying the government to lift the ban on the sale of serviced apartments on the Cotai Strip before the signing of the land lease.
According to the sources, the US gaming giant approached the government on several occasions to ask for relaxation of the zoning rules to allow such sales, but to no avail. Now, the government is particularly reluctant to relax the rules after the emergence of the corruption scandal involving the former public works chief Ao Man Long.
However, it seems the Venetian is not ready to give up its grand plan even after an official rebuff.
Secret documents obtained by legislator Au Kam San, which are tagged “private and confidential for authorised internal circulation only”, show that the firm has begun inviting expressions of interest (EOI) for the purchase of the 300 serviced apartments at Four Seasons.
In the EOI document, potential buyers are asked to express interest in “purchasing the exclusive right to an apartment in the Four Seasons Private Apartments” and are asked to pay a refundable initial deposit.
The Four Seasons serviced apartments are also a hot topic on a popular expatriate discussion forum in Macau – skyscrapercity.com. One post claims the asking price for the apartments starts at HK$13,000 per square foot. Another post claims the Venetian has already received dozens of EOIs.

Sale or no sale?

The Venetian denies it is selling serviced apartments at Four Seasons. It also says that the land premium for the project “was calculated in accordance with the applicable regulations in force in the Macao SAR”, adding that the serviced apartments “will be owned by corporate entities, in accordance with the existing land grant contract, whose shares will be available for purchase by investors”.
A lawyer who declined to be named claims the Venetian is essentially dressing up the sale of apartments as an equity transfer.
“What they are doing is exploiting some grey areas in the law. The land lease prohibits any residential sale, and this means any buyer of the apartments at Four Seasons can’t have their ownership titles registered. But the firm can still give buyers the right to their apartments by transforming the apartment purchase into a shares purchase,” the lawyer says.
Other legal experts note that since few investors will doubt the credibility of such a big brand as the Four Seasons, prospective buyers will not worry about whether they can get their ownership titles registered in a conventional residential transaction.
Meanwhile although these buyers will most probably not be able to secure mortgage loans and may need to apply for project financing that usually charges higher interest rates, their buying appetite will not be dampened because anyone planning to own a Four Seasons apartment no doubt already has a fat wallet.

Concerns

Au is worried that if the Venetian proceeds with their Four Seasons sale, other developers on the Cotai Strip may be tempted to follow suit, triggering a flood of serviced apartments onto the market.
Au adds the following to his concerns: “In January this year, two plots of residential land on the Macau peninsula were auctioned for around 300,000 patacas per square metre.
“However, the Venetian only had to pay 6,391 patacas per square metre for the site of Four Seasons and now they can turn part of it into a luxury residential project and make big money. This is simply beyond the pale,” Au claims.
For the Venetian it seems the issue is a simple one of doing the best for their business.
In a recent conference call with investors, which is publicly available, Adelson said: “The primary issue we’re having there in Macau is having those that have a vested interest in real estate to understand we are not selling residences here. We are selling what we call vacation suites.
“We don’t want to just sell real estate and pick up dollars, although that’s a nice thing to do, we want to sell reasons for people to visit. We want our cake and eat it too.’’

by Alan Tso

^^^^
Always thought we were the leading investment forum for Macau :) :)

Not first time been quoted..so no big deal...
Anyway for all forummers, contributors, etc.... here's a big...
BIG
BIG
:cheers:

And of course... our info was right (confirmed by press release by LVS).

Proof of pudding....

SCMP Business Section, p3, 23 October
Bloomberg in NY

Las Vegas Sands Corp, the second-biggest casino operator by market value, will sell its Four Seasons apartment-hotel in Macau as a co-operative and seek to monetise cash flow from the atached shopping centre.
Macau's government approved a legal separation of the Four Seasons from the rest of Sand's developments, allowing the hotel apartments to be sold like NY co-ops, the company said yesterday.
It will "monetise the cash flow" from the 200,00 sq ft Shoppes at Four Seasons to pay fown debt and help fund expansion.
About two-thrids of non-rental apartments in Manhattan are co-ops, where residents buy shares in a corportation that owns the building and leases individual units.
Casino cash flow is dwindling amid an economic slump, just as Sands undertakes its biggest expansion. The Las Vegas-based company is building a USD12bn, 20,000-room complex of hotels and casinos in Macau, the USD4bn Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the USD800m Sands Bethworks in Pennsylvania.
Sixty-five units, or 22 per cent of the Four Seasons apartments, had been reserved at prices averaging more than USD1,700 psf (HKD13,260 psf), chief executive Sheldon Adelson said in a statement. About two-thirds of the buyers are from outside the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.
Mr Adelson last month invested USD475m in his casino company to strengthen its capital and avoid tripping loan covenants. Las Vegas Sands' stock has tumbled 88 per cent this year.
Sands is seeking smaller-scale financing for its projects and "has the option of stepping up planned sales of assets, including shopping malls", spokesman Ron Reese said.
Las Vegas Strip gambling revenue dropped 6.7 per cent this year through August.
Competion has also intensified in Macau. As more casinos and hotels are developed, authorities are limiting visits by mainland gamblers to Macau, which overtook Las Vegas Strip as the world's biggest gambling hub in 2006.

Macau Daily Times
Monday, 03 November 2008

City of Dreams, Crown's development project in the Cotai which will include four hotels as well as serviced apartments, and an underwater-themed casino, is expected to be “the tourist destination's hottest selling point at next year's travel fair.”
The over two billion US dollar complex going up right across the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on the Cotai Strip will open in May next year, said May Chow, group director for hotel sales and marketing for Melco Crown Entertainment, at the Taipei International Travel Fair on Saturday, the Taiwan News reported.
The report added that if visitors are talking about Cirque do Solei's performance this year at the Venetian, “they will be taken up by the spectacular permanent Dragone show in a state-of-the-art theatre at the City of Dreams” next year.
Franco Dragone was behind the Disney Cinema Parade at Disneyland Resort Paris and Celine Dion's Las Vegas show "A New Day."
Meanwhile special effects artists are also creating "the bubble," a 10-minute first-in-the-world visual extravaganza incorporating projected HD-digital content, a customised musical score, thousands of theatre lights and a variety of sensory effects, the report said.
The “must-see” integrated urban entertainment resort, which is a joint venture of Melco Crown Entertainment and Melco Crown Gaming (Macau) Limited, has been designed to make guests who go in see no need to go out during their stay in Macau, Chow was quoted as saying.
City of Dreams with the Crown Tower, the Hard Rock Hotel, the corporate condominium hotel plus the Twin Towers of the Grand Hyatt are expected to add a total of 2,200 rooms to Macau, according to the report.
Chow was also quoted as saying that the hiring and training of the 50,000 personnel needed to run City of Dreams have already begun.
The project will have half a million square feet of casino space, according to Lawrence Teo, director of casino marketing for Melco Crown Gaming (Macau) Ltd, who added there will be 450 gaming tables and 1,700 slot machines.
The project also includes a total of 175,000 square feet of retail space, and over 20 million visitors are expected in the company's first year of operation, the report added.

I wonder would gambling in Macau be that opportunistic in 2009, as the Chinese Central Gov't already tighten the free travelers and Sands is in trouble now. :ohno:

Bloomberg News:
Las Vegas Sands Chief Holds Talks in Singapore, Macau (Update3) (http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aC3wR7P6wCEo)

Nice Pics...

This is the right time for Macau to slow down the economy, it is good to slow down a bit so the economy can continue to be healthy.

ANALYSIS-Boom to gloom: Macau casinos see other side of coin

HONG KONG, Nov 13 (Reuters) - When multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson unveiled a gleaming model of casinos and plush hotels in a dimmed Macau room nearly four years ago, he promised a $15 billion Asian "neon alley" to rival Las Vegas.

But the vision Adelson said came to him in a dream could remain largely idle reclaimed land for a few years longer as the financial crisis and slowing gaming revenue puts him billions of dollars short of the funding he needs to complete the project.

Left in the dust of Macau's Cotai Strip are the hopes of some of the world's biggest hotel chains, such as Starwood Hotels and Intercontinental Hotels , which imagined a bustling centre of fun and conferences.

"It's all doom and gloom," said a construction executive at a rival casino project in Macau, who asked not to be identified in making comments about a competitor.

"There are going to be some mass cullings on building sites."

Hampered by steep construction costs, frustrated by Chinese visa restrictions and squeezed by tour operators asking high commissions to ship in gamblers, Macau casinos have had a tough time in the last year.

Now Adelson's Las Vegas Sands is struggling to fund projects because falling revenue from Las Vegas means it risks breaching U.S. loan covenants, which tie debt levels to earnings. Banks could demand early repayment.

So having already dipped into Adelson's pockets for extra capital in October, the company is looking to its chairman for funds again as it tries to raise $2 billion in equity.

About $1 billion will come from a public share offering priced on Tuesday at $5.50 each for shares that were trading at $122 in December. The stock slide meant Adelson, the son of a taxi driver, lost $4 billion of wealth in September, Forbes says.

Las Vegas Sands, stretched by a casino project in Singapore which is part of the island-state's grand tourism plans, said this week it would put its Macau growth on hold, although it is talking to Chinese banks in the hope of securing new loans.

Even after its capital-raising, the firm will fall $3 billion short of the $7 billion cash and debt needed to complete all projects under construction, according to Bank of America.

"The plan to develop the Cotai Strip in three years time was overly aggressive," said Credit Suisse analyst Gabriel Chan. "But it's not a demand problem, more a financing problem."

Macau is forecast to notch up nearly $14 billion in gaming revenue this year, a gain by nearly a third on 2007, despite a recent slowdown as China cut back on visa approvals.

Beijing has become nervous about the territory's impact on society and its use by corrupt officials to launder money, analysts say.

DREAM BIG

Adelson was encouraged to dream big by a 2002 move to end a four-decade casino monopoly held by tycoon Stanley Ho and welcome U.S. operators such as Wynn Resorts and MGM .

Beijing then eased rules on travel, unleashing a flood of gamblers into the only place in China where casinos are legal.

Hordes thronged Adelson's first casino in the former Portuguese enclave, the Sands, when it flung open its doors in 2004. Last year he opened the world's biggest casino, the Venetian, months after Macau overtook Las Vegas as the most lucrative gaming market.

The plan was to build a huge complex on the Cotai Strip that would draw not just hard-core gamblers but families and the convention crowd, who would shop and watch shows.

But Macau could now fail to reach a critical mass of attractions, with Las Vegas Sands halting construction of an 850,000 sq ft shopping centre and hotels run by the likes of Starwood Hotels , Hilton and Intercontinental.

Many in the industry say Macau needs a breather from frenetic building, with growth in gaming tables likely to drop to 12 percent annually over three years, from the planned 35 percent.

"In any other market people would be cheering this growth, people got spoiled by Macau numbers," said Steve Rosen, senior vice president at Macao Studio City, which has delayed building a casino, retail and film studio because of the credit crunch.

STOMACH ACHE

While all casinos are keen for Macau to draw the masses, some could enjoy the respite from a pause by Las Vegas Sands.

Adelson's arch nemesis, Steve Wynn, has opened one casino in Macau but held off on building on its land on the Cotai Strip. And Melco PBL , a joint venture by the sons of Australian tycoon Kerry Packer and Stanley Ho, has the funding in place to finish its City of Dreams casino next year.

But Galaxy Entertainment Group could find it tough to get the funding to finish its Cotai Mega Resort, analysts say.

"Those who have the money to complete projects next year will be the big winners," Credit Suisse's Chan said. "The City of Dreams might be the only opening on Cotai in 2009."

The finished Cotai Strip could be put off for as long as seven years, Chan said. But few in the industry doubt Adelson, now aged 75, is determined to make his dream reality, even if he needs to spend more of his own money.

"He's got the vision, he believes in it," said Rosen.

"And five years down the road people will look at the Cotai Strip say it was a visionary project," he added.

"This is a hiccup, a major one. Actually, it's more like a stomach ache."

Macau's Venetian sacks further 500 staff as credit crunch bites
22 December 2008
Agence France Presse

Macau's giant Venetian casino owned by troubled Las Vegas Sands has sacked 500 staff, the company said in a statement, the latest sign of the firms's struggles to deal with the global credit crunch.

The Venetian, a massive hotel and casino complex billed as the cornerstone of a new Las Vegas-style strip, has cut the weekly working week for its casino workers, and laid off 500 staff, the firm said in a statement.

"The company has adopted a series of measures to control operating cost in all business areas, including letting go approximately 500 employees across all levels who are not Macau residents," a Venetian spokesman said.

"(These include) about 100 management-grade expatriate employees in gaming operations," the statement, released late Monday said.

It said many of the workers would be offered alternative employment at the firm's new casino project in Singapore.

Last month, the US-based firm said it was firing up to 11,000 mainly construction staff as it halted work at a new 6,400-room resort close to the Venetian.

The firm said it was delaying the development until it could secure additional funds for the 3.7 billion US dollar project.

Reports said William Weidner, Sands global president, also blamed the Chinese government's decision to reduce the number of visitors to Macau for the delay.

Las Vegas Sands' US-listed share price has collapsed from around 148 dollars last October to less than six dollars on worries about its heavy debt levels.

Macao's gambling boom hits a rough patch, with no end in sight
26 December 2008
International Herald Tribune

MACAO -- Things have gone so snake-eyed in Macao, the tiny gambling mecca on the southern coast of China, that the Venetian resort laid off half its gondoliers two weeks ago. And only 2 of its 51 custom-made gondolas are now needed to ferry tourists along the Venetian's indoor ''Grand Canal.''

''They called us all in for a meeting, gave people two days' notice and handed them a plane ticket home,'' said one of the surviving gondoliers, an American, who asked not be identified lest he lose his job.

''It was brutal.''

It got more brutal Tuesday. The Venetian's parent company, Las Vegas Sands, laid off 500 workers at the casino - the world's largest - and moved to cut the hours of 1,000 other employees. Sands, based in Las Vegas, said the layoffs amounted to 2 percent of its Macao work force.

Things have gone badly for Sands in recent months and for almost everyone else in Macao, the former Portuguese colony that was handed back to China in December 1999. Gambling, illegal on the mainland, is allowed here under China's ''one country, two systems'' approach to recently reclaimed territories.

Gambling revenues in Macao were up 45 percent for the first nine months of the year, compared with the same period in 2007, but overall revenues for 2008 are now expected to be flat.

The stock prices for the six Macao casino concessionaires are down an average of 80 percent on the year. Share prices in Las Vegas Sands, part of the empire of Sheldon Adelson, the American billionaire, are off 95 percent from their highs of a year ago.

''What really keeps me awake at night is that we haven't reached the bottom,'' said Antoine Chahwan, the general manager of the Four Seasons Hotel in Macao. ''Every day there's something new, some new bad news.

''There's a lack of confidence all across the board. That's my angst.''

Big hotel and casino construction projects stand half-finished, most notably along the Cotai Strip, a stretch of reclaimed land that was supposed to be Macao's answer to the Las Vegas Strip.

One large site on the Cotai Strip belongs to Adelson, and it includes the would-be Shangri-La, St. Regis, Sheraton and Traders hotels. Construction there has halted so thoroughly that 11,000 hard-hat workers were laid off and sent home last month, most of them to Hong Kong and mainland China. Anil Daswani, a Citigroup analyst who follows the gambling industry, calls the now-empty site a ghost town.

The Venetian Macao, Adelson's $2.4 billion project that boasts 3,000 hotel suites, opened in August 2007 with the Macanese economy roaring along on a five-year winning streak. But the skeleton crews of normally upbeat gondoliers at the Venetian are not finding much to sing about these days. There just are not enough visitors willing to pay $13.80 for the 14-minute ride along the faux canals of ''Venice.''

Sands has also stopped construction on a $600 million condominium tower in Las Vegas and has struggled to finance the completion of Marina Bay Sands, its $4 billion resort and casino project in Singapore.

Macao remains the biggest gambling market in the world, and its gambling revenues are higher than those of the Las Vegas Strip and Atlantic City combined. Last year, gambling revenues here were $10.4 billion, according to the Macao government, and the overall economy grew 27 percent from 2006.

But as the title of a recent Citigroup report put it, using the city's alternative spelling: ''Macau - the fat lady is losing her voice.''

Evidence of gloom and desperation is not just found in the revenue and share-price numbers. Hundreds of dealers (who by law must be Macao natives), cashiers, croupiers and expatriate pit bosses have been sacked.

High-bling shops and central streets are mostly deserted. Taxis are plentiful, and there is no waiting for a table at the top restaurants. A weekend tee time at the country club? No problem.

The global economic downturn has not helped, of course, but Macao's hoteliers, casino operators and industry experts say the real culprit is the visa controls being imposed by China.

Two-thirds of Macao's gamblers come from mainland China - principally from neighboring Guangdong Province, with its population, including migrants, of more than 110 million. The new regulations limit mainlanders to one visit every three months.

Most experts see the regulations as Beijing's putting the brakes on a white-hot economy that was stressing the territory's infrastructure, sending property prices soaring and causing social problems and labor unrest.

''The government is saying Macao is going too fast and we need to cool it down,'' said Davis Fong, a business professor and director of the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming at the University of Macao.

He cited a freeze on new projects and tighter regulations on the territory's 31 casinos.

For Daswani, the Citigroup analyst, one important indicator of Macao's recent bust is a precipitous drop in revenues from high rollers, the players who are brought in from the mainland to gamble, mostly at baccarat, in the so-called VIP rooms.

VIP gambling traditionally accounts for 70 percent of the overall gambling revenues. ''That's what really worries me - the VIP gaming revenues are coming off,'' Daswani said.

The VIP rooms are usually not run by the casinos where they are located. Instead, private contractors essentially lease the rooms and bring in their own gamblers. To a casual visitor, or to a Westerner just looking to sit in for a few hands of high-stakes baccarat, these rooms are unwelcoming and off limits.

The contractors hire agents known as junket operators to identify and bring in mainland gamblers - family members, friends, businesspeople, government officials, anybody with access to cash.

The junket operators - some legitimate, some not - sell their recruits discounted chips that can be used only in a particular VIP room.

The rooms are quiet, uncrowded and smoke-filled, and the gambling is more like business and less like entertainment, according to people who have been in the rooms. Alcohol is uncommon and drunkenness rare. Hot tea is the drink of choice.

And baccarat is the game of choice. The game has relatively good margins for gamblers, but because casinos are still something of a novelty for them, many Chinese patrons are unaware that the casino has a statistical edge in every game.

When a gambler in a VIP room runs out of his prepurchased chips, the room manager is usually willing to extend credit - often on the strength of a handshake or a scribbled IOU. If the gambler fails to make good on his debts, mainland thugs known as dai yi loan, or ''big-eared men,'' are sent to do the heavy-handed collecting.

Last week, as reported in the Chinese-language Ta Kung Pao newspaper in Hong Kong, four big-eared men appeared at the apartment of a Hong Kong man who had run up $12,000 in gambling debts in Macao. While his mother pleaded with the men in the family living room, her son leaped to his death from a bedroom window.

Sometimes, mere loss of face is enough to make someone pay. Loan sharks have been known to spray-paint the front of a gambler's house or apartment with the words ''owes money.''

Great pics

is there any official source for the height of "the Venetian" in macau?

SCMP 20 January 2009

All leading HK gaming-related stocks decflined yesterday after the release of Macau gaming figures for last year and analysts' expectations of a shaky outlook this year.....

..According to Macau's Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau, although the city's gaming revenue grew 31 per cent to 108.77bn patacas last year, its fourth-quarter take fell 7.3 per cent from the previous quarter to 24.08 bn patacas, the third consecutive quarter of decline.
"Normally the fourth quarter is the high season. A decline in the fourth quarter is not good for Macau's gaming sector" said Credit Suisse analyst Gabriel Chan.

Mr Chan expects a 4 percent drop in gaming revenue this year, while Deutsche Bank analyst Karen Tang sees an even worse 14 percent drop, followed by a 6 percent fall next year.
...
For this year, Mr Chan forecasts a 15 percent drop in Macau's VIP gaming revenue and a 10 percent rise in mass gaming revenue, while Ms Tang forecasts a 25 percent drop in VIP revenues and a 5 percent rise in mass revenue.
"The drop in VIP gaming is mainly due to the credit crunch. VIP operators don't have enough liquidity to supply to high rollers" Mr Chan said.
....

Revenue 2008:
Q1: MOP29.823bn
Q2: MOP28.885bn
Q3: MOP25.987bn
Q4: MOP24.078bn

Total
2008: MOP108.772bn
2007: MOP83.022bn
2006: MOP56.623bn
2005: MOP46.047bn
2004: MOP41.378bn
2003: MOP28.672bn

Macau came out of nowhere and took the casino industry by storm a few years ago. They quickly became the casino gambling capital of the world, surpassing Las Vegas.
Now, they have fallen from grace almost as quickly as they rose. New laws regulating the amount of visits residents from mainland China can make to Macau have hurt the casino industry badly.
This week, casino stocks rebounded on the idea that the visa laws would soon be lifted by the Chinese government. "We expect the mainland Chinese visa restrictions to be lifted by mid-next year, which will drive a rebound in visitation into Macau once again. With this in mind, we still believe that the longer term fundamentals for Macau's gaming sector remain sound," said Macquarlie gaming analyst, Gary Pinge.
In addition to the visa restrictions, Macau has also been hurt by the growing worldwide credit crisis. A couple of Las Vegas casino companies have put plans of expansion in Macau on hold because of the crisis.

Thu 26 Feb 2009 7:55 AM SGT

LOS ANGELES, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Bernstein Research on Wednesday initiated coverage of casino operators Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS - news) and Wynn Resorts Ltd (WYNN - news) at "outperform," but rated MGM Mirage (MGM - news) at "under-perform," citing its dependence on Las Vegas and financing needs.

The brokerage rated Sands as its top gaming pick, with a price target of $8.

"There is clearly risk as the company skates at the edge of bank covenants, but we believe the company will find its way out of its liquidity bind and emerge with a stellar portfolio of assets centered in Asia and including a crown jewel in Singapore," analyst Janet Brasheer said in a research note to clients.

Sands is slated to open its new Bethlehem, Pennsylvania property in late May, followed by Singapore's Marina Bay Sands in early 2010.

Bernstein, which set a $27 price target for Wynn, said Steve Wynn's company "is well positioned with brand new assets, manageable debt levels, and financial stability sufficient to withstand lower returns in 2009."

Brasheer said she was "less sanguine" about near-term prospects for MGM Mirage, which is heavily debt-laden from its CityCenter development and heavily dependent on Las Vegas for cash flow.

"We believe that early 2009 guidance has captured the market impact on travel and pulled down sector valuations," Brasheer said. "Upward momentum for the sector is not imminent .... What remains is a period of volatility where the companies best positioned to weather the storm will typically outperform."

(Reporting by Deena Beasley; editing by Richard Chang)

NEW YORK (AP) -- Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s stock price doesn't give the casino operator enough credit that it can weather the storm and survive its current troubles, a Bernstein Research analyst said Friday.

The company, led by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, had $10.47 billion of outstanding debt at the end of last year, but said earlier this week that it has no plans of hiring a restructuring firm to help deal with the situation.

The casino operator also parted ways with President and Chief Operating Officer William Weidner, with speculation swirling that other executives may leave the business as Adelson said at a New York investors' forum on Tuesday that "nobody's indispensable."

Janet Brashear of Bernstein Research said Las Vegas Sands can sell minority equity interest in some of its core assets as well as sell properties in Macau to help shore up its finances.

The Las Vegas-based company is also poised to capitalize on the launch of Sands of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania during the second quarter as well as the 2010 opening of the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, which Brashear views as a "significant home-run."

"Singapore, in particular, is well positioned in a strong market with significant upside potential," the analyst wrote in a client note.

The anticipated success in Singapore will likely be helped by improving conditions in Macau and Las Vegas, which Brashear forecasts will stabilize by the end of the year.

"If you believe that (Las Vegas Sands) lasts the next two years, the stock should significantly outperform," she said.

Brashear maintained an "Outperform" rating and $8 price target.

Shares of Las Vegas Sands gained 42 cents, or 23.7 percent, to $2.19 in midday trading. Over the past year, the stock has lost more than two-thirds of its value, falling as low as $1.38. It has traded as high as $84.29 in the past 52 weeks.

Number of gaming employees in Macao down 2 pct in Q4 2008

MACAO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The total number of paid employees in Macao's gaming industry fell two percent year-on-year to 43,835 in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the results of an official survey released on Thursday.

The survey was conducted by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government.

Analyzed by occupations that are directly related to betting services, the survey results showed that 18,196 of the total were casino dealers, down by 6.5 percent year-on-year, while 11,874 were engaged in positions such as hard and soft count clerks, cage cashiers, pit bosses, casino floorpersons, betting service operators, etc., up by 7.7 percent year-on-year. Another 5,059 were working as casino and slot machine attendants/hosts, security and surveillance workers, etc., down by 5.3 percent from a year earlier.

As for job vacancies in the period, local gaming industry reported 258 vacant posts, a substantial decrease of 3,153 or 92.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the DSEC survey results.

Meanwhile, average earnings, excluding bonuses and allowances, for full-time employees in the gaming industry rose by 4.9 percent year-on-year to 15,626 patacas (1,978 U.S. dollars).

Average earnings for dealers, the posts of which the SAR government restricts to locals only, grew by six percent over December 2007 to 13,947 patacas (1,765 dollars), and that for employees in positions such as hard and soft count clerks, cage cashiers, pit bosses, casino floorpersons, betting service operators, etc. stood at 19,520 patacas (2,471 dollars), up by 6.6 percent.

The average earnings for casino and slot machine attendants/ hosts, security and surveillance workers, etc. reported a year-on-year increase of six percent to 9,604 patacas (1,216 dollars).

Let's post some news about Macau's Casino wars that are not contaminated with Hong Kong poison.



Sheldon Adelson and Stanley Ho break the ice?

Macau's two biggest gaming moguls Stanley Ho and Sheldon Adelson held a secret lunch in a private ballroom at the Venetian today, macaubusiness.com can confirm.

The bitter rivals, who in the past have exchanged strong accusations, had a 'social lunch with no particular business agenda', a Las Vegas Sands (LVS) source told macaubusiness.com.

However we understand the two men had plenty to chew over as they sat down for the meal.

Both tycoons want the Macau Government to grant a gaming tax reduction and recently joined forces in the newly created association of six gaming operators. Both men also want lower commissions to be paid to junket operators. However, Stanley Ho has been targeting some LVS operations in Cotai, for example, CotaiJets and has publicly criticized land deals the American operator has done with the government.

Recently, the SJM managing director also said he would be interested in buying part of LVS business in Cotai. Adelson's company has been in trouble after a sharp fall in its stock price and difficulties in raising cash to continue building in Macau, forcing LVS to stop construction on two Cotai parcels of land and concentrate on its Singapore integrated resort.

LVS has also seen a raft of changes at the top of the company in recent months, some of them acrimonious.

Adelson arrived in Macau yesterday and had a closed-door lunch with directors from the Chinese, Portuguese and English media.

The two-and-a-half hour long lunch was 'off-the-record' since the NYSE listed company is in a 'quite period' in the United States.

in http://www.macaubusiness.com/



Seems Mr Adelson came to Macau in peace. That's good! It was time for that. Paying dinners to Macau press is a good start to slow them a bit. Hope the lunch with Uncle Ho was that good...

Hope the lunch with Uncle Ho was that good...

Sound fishy to me!!!

Sound to me that both want to strengthen the oligopoly structure of the industry, so most likely to stop the price war so as to maintain their profit margin.

It is in their common interest to see more tourist arrival, more revenue, less tax, no more new competitor, united against the junkets.

After those objectives, they can compete with each other for the pie. Adelson probably tell Uncle Ho:"let's have 30% market share each and let's not compete in price anymore. You happy, I happy!!!"

By Beth Jinks

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson met with gambling tycoon Stanley Ho in Macau for more than two hours this week, a sign relations between the rivals may be thawing.

Adelson and Ho, chairman of SJM Holdings Ltd., Macau’s largest casino operator, had a “warm and friendly” private lunch April 14 at the Sands’ Venetian Macao casino, said Ron Reese, a spokesman for the Las Vegas-based company.

The billionaires and their executives have criticized each other publicly on occasion since 2002, when Ho lost his 40-year casino monopoly in Macau. The government has granted concessions in the only place in China where casinos are legal to Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts Ltd. Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., MGM Mirage and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. also have licenses.

Adelson, the Sands’ founder, is in Macau most of this week “for a variety of business discussions and meetings” and will attend a meeting with a new coalition of Macau’s six casino concession holders today, Reese said in a phone interview. He declined to provide details of any business discussions.

The casino operators formed the group to address issues including Chinese visa restrictions and their impact on tourism, Macau’s infrastructure and limits on commissions paid to junket operators who bring high-rolling players.

Las Vegas Sands is trying to sell two shopping malls within its Macau project, the company has said.

Adelson said last month he’s in talks with four groups of potential investors in the Sands’ Macau developments, including two construction companies that have expressed interest in investing to finish building phases five and six of the company’s stalled $12 billion project. The development, which includes Shangri-La and St. Regis hotels, apartments, a casino and mall, was mothballed in November amid frozen credit markets.

The Las Vegas-based company is talking with a group and an investor who have separately expressed interest in buying into the Sands’ operating Macau casino resorts, Adelson said in March.

To contact the reporter on this story: Beth Jinks in New York at bjinks1@bloomberg.net

Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson met with gambling tycoon Stanley Ho in Macau for more than two hours this week, a sign relations between the rivals may be thawing.


No enemies are forever.....

If Mr Adelson starts to be a little bit more humble may he receives a bit of care from Mr Ho. He is a foreigner in Macau so a bit of respect for local people is welcome.

Uncle Ho is hardly a local of Macau, mate, just ask him where all his wifes live!

If Mr Adelson starts to be a little bit more humble may he receives a bit of care from Mr Ho. He is a foreigner in Macau so a bit of respect for local people is welcome.

My Hong Kong friend said that they even gave each other a hug in public. Is that true?

I can say one thing though: Grand Lisboa is fucking win :cheers::)

Especially their buffet (which is the BEST BUFFET in Macau and perhaps one of the best in Greater China) :)

I love Casino Lisboa.

It's so colorful.


http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/8746/casinolisboa.jpg (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=casinolisboa.jpg)

Vibrant Casino Lisboa

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/9728/casinolisboa2.jpg (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=casinolisboa2.jpg)

Wow!

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/6282/grandlisboa.jpg (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=grandlisboa.jpg)

West Side of The Venetian

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/4777/venetianwestside.jpg (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=venetianwestside.jpg)

Taking photograph is strictly prohibited in the gambling area. I managed to take one picture just at the centre of the casino by pretending taking picture of the ceiling. I love mobile phone cameras!


http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/9696/gambling.jpg (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gambling.jpg)

By Theresa Tang

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Melco International Development Ltd., controlled by the son of billionaire Stanley Ho, and other Hong Kong-listed gambling stocks rose after Las Vegas Sands Corp. reported an unexpected first-quarter profit.

Melco climbed as much as 19 percent to HK$5.45, the biggest increase since April 2, and traded at HK$5.33 at 2:36 p.m. Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., controlled by billionaire Lui Che-woo, gained 15 percent to HK$2.33. SJM Holdings Ltd., Ho’s casino holding company, advanced 14 percent to HK$2.77. The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 1 percent.

Las Vegas Sands, the casino company controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, today reported an unexpected first quarter profit on a rise in Macau visitors and a reduction of costs. The company reported adjusted profit of $8.9 million, or 1 cent a share, beating the 2.5-cent average loss projected by 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Macau’s casino revenue fell 8.5 percent in April from a year earlier, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported yesterday, citing data collected from the gaming operators. Gross revenue dropped to about 8.3 billion patacas ($1 billion), according to Lusa.

To contact the reporter on this story: Theresa Tang in Hong Kong at ttang3@bloomberg.net

By Beth Jinks

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino company controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, reported an unexpected first quarter profit, excluding some items on a rise in Macau visitors and a reduction of costs.

The company reported adjusted profit of $8.9 million, or 1 cent a share, beating the 2.5-cent average loss projected by 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Melco International Development Ltd., controlled by the son of billionaire Stanley Ho, led Hong Kong-listed casino stocks higher today.

Chief Executive Officer Adelson has targeted $470 million in annual savings as Las Vegas works through the worst slump on record. MGM Mirage, the largest casino operator on the Strip, said yesterday that convention cancellations had slowed and occupancy recovered in April. Wynn Resorts Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Stephen Wynn said he saw improving booking trends and stronger weekends.

Macau casino operators’ “fundamentals are getting better, gaming revenue is improving, tourism arrivals are OK,:banana: and there are some hopes visa restrictions may be removed,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Billy Ng said in a phone interview today. People from mainland China, the biggest source of tourists for Macau, need a visa to enter the city, the only place in the country where casino gambling is legal.

Melco, SJM, Galaxy

Melco International climbed 12 percent to HK$5.12, the highes highest since Aug. 19. The stock has doubled in value since the start of the year.

Stanley Ho’s SJM Holdings Ltd. gained 12 percent, the most in almost five months, to HK$2.71. Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., controlled by billionaire Lui Che-woo, surged 16 percent to HK$2.35, the biggest jump in four months..

“We have had a sequential increase, and the trend upward has been established,” Adelson said yesterday on a conference call, referring to month-on-month Las Vegas performance. “We hope it accelerates starting after the summertime.”

Las Vegas table-gaming trends “improved notably in March,” Las Vegas Sands said yesterday.

Convention booking rates “look pretty good” from the fall, and clients aren’t seeking substantial discounts, Adelson said.

Las Vegas Sands, MGM Mirage and Wynn Resorts Ltd. surged yesterday in regular trading on optimism the worst slump on record in Nevada may be easing.

Job Cuts

Las Vegas Sands has cut worker hours and jobs to trim costs after skirting potential defaults last year. Adelson shelved a condominium development on the Las Vegas Strip and stopped construction in Macau in November as the recession, credit freeze and Chinese visa curbs hit gambling revenue.

The net loss was $34.6 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with a loss of $11.2 million, or 3 cents, a year earlier, the company said. On an adjusted basis, year-ago profit was $23.6 million, or 7 cents a share.

Visits to Sands’ Venetian Macao jumped 14 percent to more than 6 million in the first quarter from a year ago. Gambling revenue at the casino rose 7.8 percent in the quarter. Adjusted Ebitdar rose 10 percent to $121.5 million. Revpar fell 8.7 percent to $167.

At the Sands Macao, adjusted Ebitdar fell 23 percent to $50.4 million.

The company’s makes more than twice as much revenue in Macau than it does in Las Vegas.

Potential Investors

Adelson yesterday repeated he’s in talks with potential minority investors in Sands’ Macau casinos. The casino operator is also evaluating bids for two shopping malls within its Macau project.

Discussions continue with construction companies that have expressed interest in investing to finish building phases five and six of the company’s stalled $12 billion Macau project. Adelson “hopes” to resume work this year on the development, which includes Shangri-La and St. Regis hotels, apartments, a casino and mall. It was mothballed in November amid frozen credit markets.

In Las Vegas, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and rent, or Ebitdar, fell 27 percent in the quarter to $89.8 million from a year earlier.

Las Vegas slot-machine gambling revenue dropped 14 percent to $705.9 million in the first quarter from a year ago. Table- game betting fell 2.7 percent to $444.4 million, while the casino “hold,” or the amount the casino won, fell to 21 percent of the amount gambled, from 26 percent.

The revenue Sands gets for each available room at Venetian Las Vegas, a measure of rates and occupancy called Revpar, fell 25 percent in the quarter, to $187. Neighboring Palazzo, which opened in December 2007, had Revpar of $204, a 5.7 percent increase from last year.

Las Vegas Strip casino gambling revenue tumbled 23 percent in February, and 15 percent in January, extending last year’s 11 percent drop, the worst annual decline on record. Passenger traffic at Las Vegas’ McCarran airport fell 14 percent in the three months through March.

To contact the reporter on this story: Beth Jinks in New York at bjinks1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 6, 2009 05:45 EDT

HK gamblers losing billions in Macau's VIP rooms
4 May 2009
South China Morning Post

A confidential report commissioned by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to assess the impact of VIP gambling junkets to Macau has estimated that between 4,000 and 8,000 Hongkongers make 10 to 25 such trips to the city each year.

The report, by US consulting firm Spectrum Gaming Group, estimates that Hong Kong people lost about HK$13.5 billion in Macau's private VIP gambling rooms in 2007.

Macau's VIP junketing boom in recent years has meant negative fallout for Hong Kong in areas such as gambling addiction, loanshark activities and the growth of organised crime locally and, more significant, on the mainland.

"At the minimum there is a relationship between the junkets and triads related to moving money and the collection of gaming debts," the report says.

"The lack of an effective legal process for recovering gaming debt in China has led to an extrajudicial system where debt is collected via intimidation, threats, disruption of business, kidnapping of family members and other strong-arm tactics," it says.

A copy of the 52-page report - commissioned by the Jockey Club to highlight the growing threat of competition from Macau and completed by Spectrum in April last year - was recently acquired by the South China Morning Post.

"We did commission a confidential report last year on casino junkets to assess their impact on the Hong Kong community," said a spokesman for the Jockey Club, who declined to confirm whether the document in question was the Spectrum report.

"We do commission and conduct various gaming-related researches from time to time, and share key findings with the relevant government authorities."

A Bangkok-based director at Spectrum's Asia unit said: "We never comment on specific assignments."

The Jockey Club, which monopolises local betting on horse racing, soccer and the Mark Six lottery, has in recent years expressed growing unease at the explosion of casino gaming in Macau.

The Spectrum report refers to this: "The trend of casinos and horse racing competing against each other has not boded well for the horse-racing industry over the years in the United States, Canada and Australia."

In many US states, horse racecourses have been transformed into "racinos" via the introduction of slot machines or similar electronic gambling machines in an effort to compete with the growth of nearby casino-style gaming.

The Jockey Club is unlikely to offer slot machines. Instead, the Spectrum report is believed to have been circulated among members of government and the Home Affairs Bureau's Betting and Lotteries Commission in advance of last week's public consultation on adding five more race meetings to Hong Kong's annual horse-racing calendar.

The Spectrum report cites data from a Home Affairs Bureau survey estimating that about 80 per cent of Hong Kong people engaged in some form of gambling.

In its description of junket operators in Macau, the report refers to a number of publicly listed Hong Kong companies, including Dore Holdings, A-Max Holdings, Neptune Group and Golden Resorts.

However, the report goes on to say that its descriptions of illegal practices during junkets are "not otherwise intended to suggest, infer or imply that all junket operators or their employees or agents engage or participate in such activities".

LVS sees a pick up. Venetian Macao welcomed 6 million visitors during the first quarter - a 14% increase YoY. This was despite overall tourist arrivals falling 10% during the quarter on a YoY basis, and a 3% decline vs 4Q08. Results for the Venetian Macao were strong with revenues up 8%; adjusted Ebitdar rising 10% and operating income up 18%. This compares to overall gaming revenues in Macau which were down 12% during 1Q. On a QoQ basis, momentum was also positive with revenues up 9% and Ebitda rising 8%. Revenue benefited from a strong hold rate of 3.16% (versus 2.96% in the comparable period) in VIP and 21.9% (vs. 19.5%) for mass market. Cost savings also supported the 90bps increase in the Ebitda margin YoY or a 120bps increase on a QoQ basis.


Improving financial position. The company remains focused on improving its financial position and will benefit from the US$470m cost savings plan (US$270m in Macau, up from US$120m per annum in Macau) plus the opening of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Singapore.

Asian IPO more likely. LVS is still looking to realise cash through the asset disposals. Ideally, the company would be able to execute on its plans to dispose of non-core assets such as the Grand Canal Shoppes in Macau. We believe it will be hard to find a buyer at an agreeable price. There was also talk in the press of a sale and leaseback deal of the Sands Macao. We believe it will be more likely that the company disposes of a minority stake of the entire Macau operation or even the Asian business (including Singapore) in the form of an IPO on one the Asian exchanges. We believe it will be easier to agree on a price between the company’s existing shareholders and prospective buyers/investors if all assets (performing and non-performing) are bunched together.

i would like to visit Macau, soon...

I would like to visit Macau. Is there a charter flight available ??

I would like to visit Macau. Is there a charter flight available ??

Where are you now?

Where are you now?

Las Vegas.

The runner up ... :)

If you were a whale, you can always charter a direct private jet form Vegas to Macau, if not, you should fly LA-HK, then a ferry directly from the HK airport across to Macau.

MACAO, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Casinos in Macao raked in over 10.6 billion patacas (1.34 billion U.S. dollars) in August this year, the highest monthly gaming revenue ever recorded in the city, :) local broadcaster TDM reported on Tuesday, which has been viewed by local experts as a sign of recovery after a period of negative growth.

Before August, the peak of monthly gaming revenue was recorded in January last year, when the figure stood at 10.4 billion patacas (1.32 billion U.S. dollars), according to Macao's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). Local gaming revenues reached 9.7 billion patacas (1.2 billion dollars) in August last year.

The gaming growth came as Macao's lackluster economy sustained in the second quarter this year with many principal economic indicators sliding down. Local GDP contracted 13.7 percent in real terms in the period, which was the worst decrease since the compilation of the quarterly GDP.

Gross gaming revenue (excluding gratuities) and total visitor spending (excluding gaming expenses) went down by 12.2 percent and 20.6 percent year-on-year respectively in the second quarter, while gross fixed capital formation and merchandise exports shrank by 27.4 percent and 58.3 percent.

Despite the economic downturn in previous quarters, last month's significant growth of revenues generated by the city's gaming sector, the pillar of local economy, still showed that Macao's gaming market is yet to be saturated since gaming operators continued to unveil new casinos in the island this year, which further expanded the market, said Zeng Zhonglu, an economic professor at the Macao Plytechnic Institute.

City of Dreams, a large casino hotel complex run by Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd, and Hotel Lan Kwai Fung Macau with a gaming floor were opened respectively on June and August, bringing the city's total number of casinos to over 30 so far. Another casino hotel run by local gaming operator SJM was scheduled to be opened in coming months.

The growth of local gaming revenues will continue in the near future given the broadening economic pick-up in the Chinese mainland, Macao's major source market, and the dwindling impact of the global financial crisis, Tsang also said.

However, the government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) has previously predicted a 10-percent drop in gross gaming revenues for the whole of this year.

With the improving economic environment, local gaming operators also decided to slow down their cutback on personnel. Las Vegas Sands, which runs three casino complex in Macao including the largest Venetian Macao casino resort, has informed local labor authorities that it has decided to suspend its earlier plan to layoff 4,000 employees by this autumn.

Local gaming operators began laying off casino employees, most of whom were imported workers, at the end of last year when local gaming sector was hit by the combined impact of global financial crisis and Chinese mainland's visa restriction. Venetian Macao, LVSands' Macao subsidiary, has by far laid off no more than 1,000 employees, said Shuen Ka Hung, director of Macao's Labor Affairs Bureau, in a previous occasion.

Macao's gaming and tourism industries heavily rely on the mainland market, since most of the city's tourists come from the mainland, especially neighboring Guandong province. DSEC figures indicated that visitor arrivals from the mainland, accounting for 48.6 percent of the total in the second quarter of this year, decreased by 19.2 percent year-on-year to just 852,167.

Local media quoted travel agencies in Guangdong as saying that the visa restrictions that limit mainland residents' trips to Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), the only place in China where gambling is legal, will be relaxed in coming months.

The relaxing of visa restrictions will boost the diversification of Macao's gaming and tourism industries, as most of the tourists tend to gamble in the main floor of casinos instead of the VIP halls catering to the high-roller gamblers, said Fong Ka Chio, director of Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming at the University of Macao.

He also said that once the gross profit margin from casino's main floor increases, gaming operators will have more funds to invest in non-gaming entertainment facilities, thus diversifying local gaming sector.

Unlike Las Vegas, a large part of gaming revenues of Macao come from VIP or high-roller gambling. As an effort to enhance the city's image and economic structure, local government has been striving to diversify Macao's gaming-centered economy by subsidizing non-gaming industries and encouraging local casinos to develop non-gaming operations.

However, Fong also pointed out that mainland's constantly-changing visa policy may affect investor's long-term plan in Macao, especially the gaming sector, and the city's diversification effort will suffer as a result.

As a gauge of investment, Macao's gross fixed capital formation shrank by 27.4 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, with private investment contracting by 30.6 percent upon suspension or slowdown of some major constructions.

Las Vegas Sands has already stopped its 12-billion-dollar Cotai Strip project on an area of reclaimed land in Macao, which is slated to build 11 resorts with a total of 20,000 hotel rooms and a number of casinos and shopping malls, when the global financial crisis made it hard for the company to seek funds to finance its projects. Similar move was also taken by another licensed gaming operator Galaxy Entertainment as it has put off the opening of its mega casino complex until 2010.　

^^^^
Great News !!!

However, SCMP report today indicates figure even better. Plus JPM, Citi very positive on Macau. Also saw CLSA buying lots a few days ago. Great day for my Macau shares !!! (Melco up almost 10%, Galaxy almost 8%). Sense breakthru for Galaxy (stuck at 2.5 on previous 3/4 peaks).

Pleased didn't sell my shares (actually, sold 1/3, then bought back at 10% lower), with shares up 20-30% in past 2 weeks !

Also, tons of calls from agents re One Central today.... think IPO (LVS/Wynn), gaming, visa, CE election, HK property run up, LVS beginning to get financing (and complete Sheraton/Shangri-La), economic recovery etc all positive drivers yet to come.... :)


DJ MARKET TALK: HSI +0.3%; Most Blue Chips Up But Volume Thin
2009-9-3 10:42:00 a.m. HKT, DJ


1029 [Dow Jones] HSI +0.3% at 19,574.20, getting some lift from A-shares' continued rebound with Shanghai Composite now +1.4%, though perhaps too early to conclude HSI correction has ended. Celestial Securities tips 19,000 as strong HSI support; if index falls to that level, it would give investors "an opportunity to start accumulating quality stocks." Most blue chips higher but upside limited; Chalco (2600.HK) +1.5% at HK$8.28, already best-performing, Cosco Pacific (1199.HK) down 2.0% at HK$11.50, already worst performer. Still, Macau plays sharply higher amid quiet trade, with Galaxy (0027.HK), Melco (0200.HK), SJM (0880.HK), Shun Tak (0242.HK) each up at least 4%, boosted by SCMP report casino revenue there +17.2% at MOP11.27 billion in August. Market volume tepid at HK$6.50 billion, suggesting many investor holding wait-and-see attitude. (RLI)

well done! make lots, lots, and lots of money, be a capitalist, celebrate it,embrace it, love it.

If you were a whale, you can always charter a direct private jet form Vegas to Macau, if not, you should fly LA-HK, then a ferry directly from the HK airport across to Macau.

Thank you.:cheers:

The runner up ... :)

You know it !! The economy is going down the tubes. :lol:

Macau Plans To Beat Las Vegas To Gambling Upswing After Recession

May 27, 2009
Posted By April Gardner
Macau had already started to be thought of as the leader in the casino gambling industry before the global recession began. They had passed Las Vegas as the gambling capital of the world, and it was not even really a close battle.

Then two things happened that gave Vegas hope that they would once again climb to the top of the casino mountain. First, the Chinese government slowed the influx of Chinese residents from the mainland to Macau, and second, the global economy crashed.

"When the Chinese government started tightening the restrictions for residents to go to Macau, it became apparent that Macau was not going to keep up their torrid revenue pace," said observer Barry Grubel, "but now, it looks like the economy in the US will keep Macau on top for a while."

Both gambling destinations have experienced drops in revenue in recent months, but Macau casinos have not fallen as hard. They still have the Chinese visitors to keep revenue figures afloat.

Las Vegas, however, is in some financial trouble. The casino there have been having a hard time finding people in the US that can spend freely on gambling trips. The Chinese visitors that used to be prevalent in Las Vegas, now go to Macau.

"We've seen better than expected performance in the overall gaming market in Macau," said Gabriel Chan, an analyst for Credit Suisse, "Vegas is still suffering and will take a longer time to recover, but in Macau, we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel."

The Macau market is hoping that Chinese travel restrictions will once again be loosened. If that happens, the Chinese residents will be free to spend some of the $586 billion stimulus package that has been approved.

wasn't macau always in front of las vegas in gambling revenue ?
http://flagcounter.com/count/Nsu/bg=F5F5FF/txt=F5F5FF/border=F5F5FF/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=1/ (http://flagcounter.com/more/Nsu)

Since 2006-2007 I guess. Easy win.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China has quietly begun relaxing restrictions for its citizens from Guangdong province traveling to Macau, leading to a strong showing for casinos so far this month and big hopes for October, two industry sources said on Monday.

Alarmed that some residents of Guangdong were gambling too much in neighboring Macau, China last year imposed a new rule limiting them to two trips per year to the former Portuguese enclave.

But the authorities began easing up on the rule as early as two months ago, and noticeably loosened the restriction at the start of this month, said top executives at two of the market's six casino licensees, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

"The latest version is (they can travel to Macau) once a month out of Guangdong," said one of the executives. "Gaming revenues for the first two weeks of the month have been good."

The other executive forecast that October -- a high travel season for Chinese because of the Oct 1 Golden Week holiday at the beginning of the month -- could see monthly casino revenues soar to a record high, in part due to the relaxing visa rules.

Macau's six casino operators include U.S. casino giants Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts, along with homegrown players Galaxy Entertainment and SJM Holdings and joint ventures Melco Crown and a casino jointly operated by MGM Mirage.

"We're seeing repeat customers coming back more regularly than previously," said an executive at one of the six operators. "It's been occurring for two and a half months, but they probably lightened up even more since the first of September."

Macau has rocketed onto the global gambling stage in recent years, following reforms earlier this decade that saw an end to a previous monopoly and awarding of licenses to multiple players, boosting competition.

The Macau market generated HK$105.6 billion ($13.5 billion) in gross gaming revenues in 2008, more than double the HK$46.7 billion generated by the Las Vegas Strip during the same period, according to a prospectus from Wynn Macau, the Macau assets of Wynn Resorts, which is preparing an IPO in Hong Kong.

Macau reported HK$64,678.1 daily gross win per gaming table in 2008, about three times the HK$21,531.4 reported for the Las Vegas Strip in the same period, the prospectus added.

The return of Chinese tourists with the relaxation of visa restrictions and an improving economy helped Macau to post record casino revenue in August, following a 12.5 percent decline in the first half of the year at the height of the global downturn.

One of the executives said September is unlikely to notch a new monthly record as many Chinese -- who account for more than half of all gambling revenue -- may delay their trips to coincide with the long holiday that begins Oct 1.

"September will be very good but not a record," he said. "October will be the highest because of the eight-day Golden Week."

Shares of Galaxy Entertainment were up 1.16 percent in the morning session in Hong Kong, while SJM shares were up 1.63 percent, leading a 0.21 percent for the broader market. (Reporting by Doug Young; Editing by Chris Lewis and Jonathan Hopfner)

Extracts from todays SCMP

- Macau casino revenues up 60% year on year after first 20 days and on pace to repeat last month's record....
- Revenues up to 20 Sep at MOP7.445bn, up 60.1%, according to CLSA client note yesterday
- Casino executives generally regard Sep as a soft month, but based on first 20 days, month within striking distance of last months haul of MOP11.27bn
- Strong figures due to Beijing visa relaxation, increased average spend per gambler and low base last yaer
- Margins could be boosted by 5 to 27 percent following commission cap, according to Morgan Stanley
- For first 20 days, SJM led with improved market share (31.8%), LVS 18.5%, Melco Crown 17.4%, Wynn 13.6%, Galaxy 11.5%, MGM 7.3% according to CLSA.

^^
Remarkable turnaround .....

Me wondering why Melco shares not doing as well as Galaxy... Melco figures should ramp up more, plus opening of Grand Hyatt 29 Sep, and maybe even overtaking LVS market share !!! That would be remarkable (tho maybe... CoD newer so attracting more crowds ?). But given outlay/scale smaller than Venetian/Sands for their 2 casinos, seems impressive share.

Admittedly, Galaxy produced profit while Melco loss worsened (caused by opening expenses). But Galaxy had big gain from debt buy back (this was why, until past month, me only buying Galaxy).
For most of year til past month, Galaxy share price half Melco (200), now Galaxy price only 1/3. I suspect this to go back to half level at some point. Galaxy market cap now double Melco, tho Melco only owns something like 37% of Macau projects (other parts Crown, and US listing), and Galaxy yet to open its Cotai project (Cotai land area bigger than Melco).

(tho this could be sour grapes on my part for not sticking with Galaxy for longer). This is not recommendation to buy/sell stock...Macau plays highly speculative... just wondering if Melco catches up soon (tho it could be both fall back).

As a person who is very much concern about our economic status, I always find ways to keep updates about it. So, thank you for letting me know about this. I am looking forward to hearing more from you regarding this important matters.

The 'Beijing water-cube' in Macao?!?!?!?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2574/4141161652_d5ee8a2664.jpg

Only this time, this place isn't a swimming pool but is actually a fully-functional casino facility. :D

P.S.
Even I was shocked myself (never saw this building at all during my last visit April 2009)

The building was there already, it was the former Yaohan shopping mall... they just renovated the inside and added the outer layer.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board – Clean it Up or Disband It!
By admin | March 6, 2007



The Bear Growls: The Nevada Gaming Control Board – Clean it Up or Disband It!

The Nevada Gaming Control Board is little more than a training ground for future casino employees. The last two chairmen crossed the line and went to work for the casino industry after their “public service” ended. Excerpts from my recent column:

… What should be frightening and infuriating to Nevadans is that the outrageous activity by casinos is tolerated by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. If there was to be a vote for least effective public agency, the Gaming Control Board would win easily. It appears to be corrupt from top to bottom, operating as a de facto arm of the casino industry, instead of protecting the public from casino wrongdoing.The Gaming Control Board is little more than a training ground for future casino employees. The last two chairmen crossed the line and went to work for the casino industry after their “public service” ended. Will present Chairman Dennis Neilander be far behind? The current Board is a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil trio of two undistinguished career bureaucrats and a casino-industry attorney who cater to every whim of the casino bosses, and do little or nothing to protect the public.

Publicized cases of casino cheating underscore the mentality of the Board. The Venetian was caught rigging drawings. The Board fined it a million dollars, which is a petty slap on the wrist for the Venetian. The casino’s license should have been suspended for at least thirty days, the casino closed during that time, and the Venetian ordered to pay its employees during the closure. The crooked employees should have been referred to the District Attorney’s Office for criminal prosecution. Not only was that not done, the Board didn’t even see fit to revoke the privileged licenses of the crooks. To its credit, the Venetian fired all four scoundrels involved in the sordid affair. But at least three subsequently went to work in executive positions at other casinos, one right here in Las Vegas.

In a more recent case, the Golden Nugget attempted to cheat a patron who won $48,600 on a sports bet. The Golden Nugget said it simply would not pay the winner, though it would refund the $2700 bet. The Gaming Control Board ordered the Golden Nugget to pay the victim, but assessed an absurdly small monetary penalty of less than $30,000. Again, no casino employee was prosecuted for trying to cheat a patron, and the fine, actually imposed for failure to notify the Board of a “patron dispute,” was so small as to be ridiculous. It is comical to call an outright attempt to cheat a patron a “patron dispute.” It should have been called what it was, an attempt to cheat a patron.

There are many cases of corrupt Gaming Control Board agents threatening winning casino patrons with phony charges and arrests in attempts to extort the patrons to give back to the casino their honest, legal winnings. The Board has never publicly disclosed if these corrupt agents have been fired, prosecuted, or even disciplined.

The Board had to be sued before it agreed to take action to stop casino cheating at blackjack, through a computerized table that uses marked cards. Incredibly, the Board has permitted the continued use of the marked cards, but has made it less easy, though not impossible, for casinos to use the device to cheat patrons. The Board refuses to publicly disclose a copy of the anti-cheating orders it claims to have issued. Without the embarrassment of being sued for refusing to do its job, the Board would likely have continued to do nothing while the cheating went on unabated.Unfortunately, the Board has the ability to operate largely in secret. A few ill-conceived statutes allow it more secrecy than a regular police department. Most of its files are not considered public records, and are not available for public inspection. Most of its business is conducted via secret deals with casino bosses. Of course, the secret sweetheart-deal making works to the advantage of the Board, its employees and the casino bosses, and to the detriment of the public.

The present Gaming Control Board is an out-of-control, corrupt government agency operating in virtual secrecy. Legislation is needed to force it to open its files and records to the sunshine of public scrutiny. If after public examination of its practices, it is determined to unsalvageable, it should be disbanded, its employees fired from the public payroll.

Nevada does not need another cheating scandal or another abuse-of-patrons scandal in its casinos. There have been far too many already, with no meaningful action ever taken against the wrongdoers. Nevada is competing with many other gaming and vacation destinations. The other states take casino cheating and other wrongdoing seriously. Nevada needs to start doing the same, before it is too late. Once we get a national or worldwide reputation for not having legitimate, effective government oversight of casinos, many of the tourists — the lifeblood of our economy — will stop taking the risk of visiting Nevada.

Marcus K. Dalton
Las Vegas Tribune

Aug. 12, 2005

In a recent open letter to the Review Journal, Las Vegas attorney Robert Nersesian wrote: "Nevada's casino industry continues to act as if it is above the law. Time and again, patrons legally playing ... suffer imprisonment and even beatings at the hands of casino security personnel. It's well past time that something be done to stop these incidents."

Abuse of casino patrons' rights in Southern Nevada is actually more widespread than is commonly acknowledged.

Consider the case of Richard Chen. On March 9, 2000, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled 3-1 that the Monte Carlo Casino had to give Richard Chen the $40,400 he won by counting cards at blackjack. From the objective view of the law, if there is such a thing, card counters are merely players who have enough skill to beat casinos at their own game.

A close look at the Chen decision shows how precarious the legal rights of casino patrons actually are. Chen initially obtained $44,000 in chips as he was losing during the course of his initial days of play. Then the pendulum swung the other way and be gan to win. By the time he had accumulated a total of $84,400, it was discovered that he was a known card counter. So, the Monte Carlo refused to pay. Chen, having won money legitimately nevertheless had to go to the State's highest court to collect.

Not isolated events

Think that Chen's case is a remote or isolated occurrence in the Southern Nevada casinos, including those owned by the MGM consortium? Think again.

Last Month a player won $8,600 at blackjack at the MGM Grand but when he attempted to redeem his chips he was denied his winnings and even his initial buy-in. The player, who wishes to remain nameless, holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and works at an ivy league university on the east coast.

"After playing at the MGM Grand without being rated, and winning a large amount, the cage then refused to cash my chips, and gave me a receipt for them instead, on the grounds that because I was not known to them, having played without a comp rating, they have no record of my play. From what the shift manager said to me when he told me the decision, it is obvious that they know who I am, know I am a skilled blackjack player, and are acting on the premise that strong players are fair game for being cheated and harassed by their casino," said the Stanford Ph.D.

The Tribune spoke with gaming legal experts Al Rogers and Bob Nersesian, and both told us that they know of several other cases in which the MGM Grand did this to exceptionally strong blackjack players. In previous cases, after filing complaints with the Gaming Control Board, the victims eventually got their money, but the MGM Grand was not penalized in any way which obviously gives the MGM Grand no incentive to discontinue this abuse.

Several Las Vegas lawyers say there is an emerging pattern of intimidation and excessive force, with casino security, state gaming officers and the Metropolitan Police Department often working in concert to trample constitutional rights, civil liberties and gaming regulations to deter advantage gamblers from playing at local properties.

The problem has been emerging from the backrooms of casinos into wider

public view through a bevy of legal cases in Las Vegas in which advantage gamblers have sued casino-hotels, Gaming Control Board agents, and even Metro officers after they have had their winnings confiscated or been detained and roughed up by security and police officers and even charged with unrelated minor offenses.

One who understands this is Las Vegas attorney Bob Nersesian, who represents several advantage players who charge that their civil rights have been violated in casinos in recent years.

In a November 2004 article entitled "Bringing Down The House, Las Vegas Mercury author Bob Shemeligian quotes Nersesian and reviews some of the attorney's cases against casino abuse:

"The casino is at war with everybody - every single player," Nersesian says. "Every day, the casino wins the war against the average casino patron. They do this by winning from the patron. But when it comes to their war against advantage players, I would suggest the casino uses tactics not approved by the Geneva Convention."

And don't think that the smaller "local" establishments and regular "non-advantaged" patrons are immune to this obnoxious and illegal behavior. Recently the Tribune learned of allegations of several violations involving the Tuscany Suites Casino on Flamingo Road.

Last month Mary Miller checked into the Tuscany Hotel and then proceeded to the bar where she played video poker. According to Miller, she began to pile up winnings in the machine, "several hundred dollars, very lucky," she said. "As my winnings accumulated the security guard became increasingly interested and then finally told me I had to leave."

Miller claims she was not drunk or belligerent, but she was incredulous towards the Tuscany security guard, not understanding why she would be asked to leave when winning.

Ultimately, Miller was handcuffed and detained, her winnings were confiscated without a receipt, and then she was packed out and ejected from the property without even a refund of the hotel fare she had paid only two hours earlier. When her attorney requested a copy of the security report and the video surveillance, none was forthcoming.

The Tribune has learned that Miller's Tuscany experience is not uncommon to that property. According to Tribune sources earlier this year a craps player who was ahead several thousand dollars had an almost identical experience to Miller's. Further Tribune has witnessed, first hand, illegal table-game sidebets being blatantly promoted at Tuscany.

Gaming Control enabled?

In a July 22nd Tribune commentary, noted gaming expert L.V. Bear wrote: "What should be frightening and infuriating to Nevadans is that the outrageous activity by casinos is tolerated by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. If there was to be a vote for least effective public agency, the Gaming Control Board would win easily. It appears to be corrupt from top to bottom, operating as a de facto arm of the casino industry, instead of protecting the public from casino wrongdoing. The Gaming Control Board is little more than a training ground for future casino employees. The current Board is a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil trio of two undistinguished career bureaucrats and a casino-industry attorney who cater to every whim of the casino bosses, and do little or nothing to protect the public."

Publicized cases of casino cheating underscore an apparent mentality of the Nevada Gaming Control Board itself. When the Venetian was caught rigging promotional drawings for the benefit of certain Asian high-rollers, Gaming Control fined it a million dollars, which is a petty slap on the wrist for the Venetian. The crooked employees should have been referred to the District Attorney's Office for criminal prosecution. Not only was that not done, the Gaming Control didn't even see fit to revoke the gaming licenses of the perpetrators.

In a more recent case, the Golden Nugget refused to pay $48,600 on a winning sports bet. The Golden Nugget said it simply would not pay the winner, though it would refund the $2700 bet. The Gaming Control Board ordered the Golden Nugget to pay the victim, but assessed an absurdly small monetary penalty of less than $30,000. Again, no casino employee was prosecuted for trying to cheat a patron, and the fine, actually imposed for failure to notify the Board of a "patron dispute," was so small as to be ridiculous. And, the outright attempt to cheat a patron of his winnings was labeled a "patron dispute."

L.V. Bear lays the blame thoroughly at the feet of Gaming Control, noting the case of a computerized tracking device that the Eldorado Casino was utilizing to illicitly improve their profits (i.e., cheat) at blackjack: "The Board had to be sued before it agreed to take action to stop [the Eldorado's] cheating at blackjack, through a computerized table that uses marked cards. Incredibly, the Board has permitted the continued use of the marked cards, but has made it less easy, though not impossible, for casinos to use the device to cheat patrons. The Board refuses to publicly disclose a copy of the anti-cheating orders it claims to have issued. Without the embarrassment of being sued for refusing to do its job, the Board would likely have continued to do nothing while the cheating went on unabated."

Unfortunately, Gaming Control has the ability to operate largely in secret. A few ill-conceived statutes allow it more secrecy than a regular police department. Most of its files are not considered public records, and are not available for public inspection. Most of its business is conducted via secret deals with casino bosses. Of course, the secret sweetheart-deal making works to the advantage of the Board, its employees and the casino bosses, and to the detriment of the public.

"The present Gaming Control Board is an out-of-control, corrupt government agency operating in virtual secrecy. Legislation is needed to force it to open its files and records to the sunshine of public scrutiny. If after public examination of its practices, it is determined to unsalvageable, it should be disbanded, its employees fired from the public payroll, and a new agency created," says Bear.

"Nevada does not need another cheating scandal or another abuse-of-patrons scandal in its casinos. There have been far too many already, with no meaningful action ever taken against the wrongdoers. Nevada is competing with many other gaming and vacation destinations. The other states take casino cheating and other wrongdoing seriously. Nevada needs to start doing the same, before it is too late. Once we get a national or worldwide reputation for not having legitimate, effective government oversight of casinos, many of the tourists -- the lifeblood of our economy -- will stop taking the risk of visiting Nevada," concludes Bear.

http://www.lasvegastribune.com/20050812/headline1.html

Photo from Singapore upcoming casino, how do you guys think?

http://patokallio.name/photo/travel/Singapore/ResortsWorld/Casino_GroundLevelEntrance.JPG

http://patokallio.name/photo/travel/Singapore/ResortsWorld/Casino_Escalators.JPG

http://patokallio.name/photo/travel/Singapore/ResortsWorld/Casino_Underground.JPG

http://patokallio.name/photo/travel/Singapore/ResortsWorld/Casino_EntranceGates.JPG

现在到四月的旅店已经满了。

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs142.snc3/16962_1316588347312_1008831681_1004763_2746895_n.jpg

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs142.snc3/16962_1316587347287_1008831681_1004742_6514245_n.jpg

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs142.snc3/16962_1316587387288_1008831681_1004743_3035196_n.jpg

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs122.snc3/16962_1316587707296_1008831681_1004750_207247_n.jpg

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs142.snc3/16962_1316588067305_1008831681_1004756_3825828_n.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs122.snc3/16962_1316586347262_1008831681_1004718_7698819_n.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs122.snc3/16962_1316586627269_1008831681_1004724_6252451_n.jpg

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs142.snc3/16962_1316587027279_1008831681_1004734_1034479_n.jpg

very red, is it Santosas, or Sand?

^^

that's Genting's Resorts World @ Sentosa

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Q-3zgNSqvYfYQM

If China can impose travel restrictions on an onshore SAR like Macau, then I think Singapore shouldn't get too optimistic about a tourism boom from China after their casinos open.

If China can impose travel restrictions on an onshore SAR like Macau, then I think Singapore shouldn't get too optimistic about a tourism boom from China after their casinos open.
how is the restriction is like? 1 entry to macau per year for mainlander?
resort world has 500 gambling table, marina bay sands has 1000, i dont think this 1500 manage to hurt macau. how many gambling tables in macau? how many does sands has?

singapore casino will not focus alone to china, but india, australia, and south east asia.

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs191.snc3/19831_302904405700_600525700_5209463_7698637_n.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs171.snc3/19831_302904415700_600525700_5209464_1302544_n.jpg

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs271.ash1/19831_302904425700_600525700_5209465_1078232_n.jpg

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs271.ash1/19831_302904640700_600525700_5209486_8166468_n.jpg

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs191.snc3/19831_302904905700_600525700_5209504_2115161_n.jpg

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs171.snc3/19831_302904680700_600525700_5209490_2628955_n.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs171.snc3/19831_302904690700_600525700_5209491_3344432_n.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs126.snc3/17370_284587464689_86862329689_3463894_3783460_n.jpg

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs126.snc3/17370_284587469689_86862329689_3463895_4319792_n.jpg

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs126.snc3/17370_284587474689_86862329689_3463896_2110577_n.jpg

how is the restriction is like? 1 entry to macau per year for mainlander?
resort world has 500 gambling table, marina bay sands has 1000, i dont think this 1500 manage to hurt macau. how many gambling tables in macau? how many does sands has?

singapore casino will not focus alone to china, but india, australia, and south east asia.
Mainland Chinese residents will be capped maximum # of visits over a period of time. This raised some nerves among the casino builders in Macau, although the central government in Beijing did commit to Macau's long-term growth.

http://flagcounter.com/count/Nsu/bg=F5F5FF/txt=F5F5FF/border=F5F5FF/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=1/
so is that good or bad news for macau??

http://flagcounter.com/count/Nsu/bg=F5F5FF/txt=F5F5FF/border=F5F5FF/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=1/
so is that good or bad news for macau??

Macau's growth is unprecedented, and these controls are meant to slow the rapid growth. That doesn't mean Macau will suddenly see a crisis, but a more sustained rise in gambling revenues.

Mr. Ye was staying at the Venetian until authorities raided his Mexico home in March where they found more than 200 million dollars in cash.

Authorities then served search warrants on his room at the Venetian and several other spots in Las Vegas. They confiscated, among other things, a Rolls Royce and a Lamborghini the casino gave him.

Mr. Ye reportedly lost $125 million at the Venetian and at a couple other Las Vegas casinos. Mr. Ye has said he was holding $150 million of the seized cash for corrupt Mexican government officials.

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=6833063

The Nevada Gaming Control Board – Clean it Up or Disband It!

By admin

The Nevada Gaming Control Board – Clean it Up or Disband It!

The Nevada Gaming Control Board is little more than a training ground for future casino employees. The last two chairmen crossed the line and went to work for the casino industry after their “public service” ended. Excerpts from my recent column:

… What should be frightening and infuriating to Nevadans is that the outrageous activity by casinos is tolerated by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. If there was to be a vote for least effective public agency, the Gaming Control Board would win easily. It appears to be corrupt from top to bottom, operating as a de facto arm of the casino industry, instead of protecting the public from casino wrongdoing.The Gaming Control Board is little more than a training ground for future casino employees. The last two chairmen crossed the line and went to work for the casino industry after their “public service” ended. Will present Chairman Dennis Neilander be far behind? The current Board is a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil trio of two undistinguished career bureaucrats and a casino-industry attorney who cater to every whim of the casino bosses, and do little or nothing to protect the public.

Publicized cases of casino cheating underscore the mentality of the Board. The Venetian was caught rigging drawings. The Board fined it a million dollars, which is a petty slap on the wrist for the Venetian. The casino’s license should have been suspended for at least thirty days, the casino closed during that time, and the Venetian ordered to pay its employees during the closure. The crooked employees should have been referred to the District Attorney’s Office for criminal prosecution. Not only was that not done, the Board didn’t even see fit to revoke the privileged licenses of the crooks. To its credit, the Venetian fired all four scoundrels involved in the sordid affair. But at least three subsequently went to work in executive positions at other casinos, one right here in Las Vegas.

In a more recent case, the Golden Nugget attempted to cheat a patron who won $48,600 on a sports bet. The Golden Nugget said it simply would not pay the winner, though it would refund the $2700 bet. The Gaming Control Board ordered the Golden Nugget to pay the victim, but assessed an absurdly small monetary penalty of less than $30,000. Again, no casino employee was prosecuted for trying to cheat a patron, and the fine, actually imposed for failure to notify the Board of a “patron dispute,” was so small as to be ridiculous. It is comical to call an outright attempt to cheat a patron a “patron dispute.” It should have been called what it was, an attempt to cheat a patron.

There are many cases of corrupt Gaming Control Board agents threatening winning casino patrons with phony charges and arrests in attempts to extort the patrons to give back to the casino their honest, legal winnings. The Board has never publicly disclosed if these corrupt agents have been fired, prosecuted, or even disciplined.

The Board had to be sued before it agreed to take action to stop casino cheating at blackjack, through a computerized table that uses marked cards. Incredibly, the Board has permitted the continued use of the marked cards, but has made it less easy, though not impossible, for casinos to use the device to cheat patrons. The Board refuses to publicly disclose a copy of the anti-cheating orders it claims to have issued. Without the embarrassment of being sued for refusing to do its job, the Board would likely have continued to do nothing while the cheating went on unabated.Unfortunately, the Board has the ability to operate largely in secret. A few ill-conceived statutes allow it more secrecy than a regular police department. Most of its files are not considered public records, and are not available for public inspection. Most of its business is conducted via secret deals with casino bosses. Of course, the secret sweetheart-deal making works to the advantage of the Board, its employees and the casino bosses, and to the detriment of the public.

The present Gaming Control Board is an out-of-control, corrupt government agency operating in virtual secrecy. Legislation is needed to force it to open its files and records to the sunshine of public scrutiny. If after public examination of its practices, it is determined to unsalvageable, it should be disbanded, its employees fired from the public payroll.

Nevada does not need another cheating scandal or another abuse-of-patrons scandal in its casinos. There have been far too many already, with no meaningful action ever taken against the wrongdoers. Nevada is competing with many other gaming and vacation destinations. The other states take casino cheating and other wrongdoing seriously. Nevada needs to start doing the same, before it is too late. Once we get a national or worldwide reputation for not having legitimate, effective government oversight of casinos, many of the tourists — the lifeblood of our economy — will stop taking the risk of visiting Nevada.

ast October, Sheldon Adelson, the gaming multibillionaire, accompanied a group of Republican donors to the White House to meet with George W. Bush. They wanted to talk to the President about Israel. http://Louis-J-Sheehan.deSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice was organizing a major conference in the United States, in an effort to re-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and her initiative had provoked consternation among many rightward-leaning American Jews and their Christian evangelical allies. Most had seen Bush as a reliable friend of Israel, and one who had not pressured Israel to pursue the peace process. Adelson, who is seventy-four, owns two of Las Vegas’s giant casino resorts, the Venetian and the Palazzo, and is the third-richest person in the United States, according to Forbes. He is fiercely opposed to a two-state solution; and he had contributed so generously to Bush’s reëlection campaign that he qualified as a Bush Pioneer. A short, rotund man, with sparse reddish hair and a pale countenance that colors when he is angered, Adelson protested to Bush that Rice was thinking of her legacy, not the President’s, and that she would ruin him if she continued to pursue this disastrous course. Then, as Adelson later told an acquaintance, Bush put one arm around his shoulder and another around that of his wife, Miriam, who was born in Israel, and said to her, “You tell your Prime Minister that I need to know what’s right for your people—because at the end of the day it’s going to be my policy, not Condi’s. But I can’t be more Catholic than the Pope.” (The White House denies this account.)
Perhaps this exchange contributed to a growing resolve on Adelson’s part to try to force the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, out of office. Adelson and Olmert had been friendly since the nineteen-nineties, when Olmert was a member of the hard-line Likud Party. Olmert became Prime Minister in January, 2006, following Ariel Sharon’s stroke. He, like Sharon, came to recognize the inexorability of Jewish-Arab demographic trends. Olmert declared that a two-state solution was the only way of preserving Israel as a democratic state with a Jewish majority, and he said that he was ready to negotiate with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Adelson saw Olmert’s actions as a betrayal of principle. He had long wanted to see the Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu returned as Prime Minister, but a revived peace process gave that goal new urgency.

Adelson opposed both Olmert and the peace conference, which was held in Annapolis in late November. The Zionist Organization of America, to which Adelson is a major contributor, ran a full-page ad in the Times, headlined, “SECRETARY RICE: DON’T PROMOTE A STATE FOR PALESTINIANS WHILE THEIR 10 COMMANDMENTS PROMOTE TERRORISM AND ISRAEL’S DESTRUCTION.” The “10 Commandments” referred to the constitution of Fatah, Abbas’s party. “Osama Bin-Laden and Hamas would be proud of Abbas’ Fatah Constitution,” the ad stated. Two weeks before the start of the conference, a Washington, D.C., think tank that shares office space and several board members with the Republican Jewish Coalition—another organization to which Adelson makes significant contributions—circulated an article on its Listserve which asserted, “Olmert is now chasing peace with the Palestinians at all costs, in a desperate attempt to secure his place in world history.”

In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service, Adelson was even more disparaging about Olmert’s motivation. Olmert has faced several corruption investigations, all focussed on the period before he became Prime Minister; Adelson suggested that Olmert was trying to divert public attention from them, and was making concessions to the Palestinians in order “to stay out of jail.” (The most recent investigation of Olmert, which became public in early May, seems to have increased Adelson’s chances of achieving his objective. Olmert has admitted accepting donations, mostly in cash, from an American businessman for his election campaigns since the nineteen-nineties, but he insisted that he did not take any money for his personal use, and denied allegations that he had accepted bribes. He has said that he will resign if he is indicted.)

In early November, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, who is widely respected in Washington, was scheduled to appear with Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, at the opening of the Saban Forum, an event in Jerusalem organized by the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Adelson phoned the event’s chair, Haim Saban, an Israeli-American businessman, and asked him to contribute to a campaign that he was organizing against the Olmert government; Saban declined. Adelson then asked if he would sign an ad; again, Saban refused. Whereupon, Adelson accused him of funding anti-Israel research at the Saban Center. Saban was surprised, but suggested that when the center’s director, Martin Indyk, was next in Las Vegas he and Adelson could talk. Not long afterward, Indyk met with Adelson at his office at the Venetian, on the Las Vegas Strip. According to a person familiar with what happened at the meeting, Adelson berated Indyk for hosting “terrorists” like Fayyad, who he said was a founder of Fatah. Indyk is said to have replied that Fayyad was never involved in terrorism and was not a member of Fatah, and that Adelson’s problem was really with Olmert, because he dealt with Fayyad. Adelson stood his ground, and declared that the Olmert government was an illegitimate government and should be thrown out. (Indyk declined to comment on what he said was a private conversation. Saban confirmed his exchange with Adelson.)

Historically, most mainstream American Jewish organizations don’t publicly oppose the government of Israel, but in the weeks before and after the Annapolis conference a number of groups were strongly critical. Among them was One Jerusalem, founded in 2000 to protest any peace accord that would include Israeli concessions on Jerusalem. One Jerusalem has received contributions from Adelson. http://Louis-J-Sheehan.deA week before the Annapolis conference, One Jerusalem’s chairman, Natan Sharansky—the former Russian dissident, who has moved to the right on the political spectrum since immigrating to Israel—announced a major campaign against any division of Jerusalem, and against the peace initiative. One Jerusalem referred to Annapolis as “the Munich Conference of the 21st century.” After Olmert asserted Israel’s right as a sovereign state to make decisions regarding its national security, One Jerusalem posted an article on its Web site, headlined, “OLMERT TO WORLD JEWRY: SHUT UP.” Later, as Olmert’s negotiations with Abbas continued, another piece announced, “OLMERT DECLARES WAR ON ISRAEL.”

Adelson has long preferred a low profile in many of his political activities. But one of his maneuvers did appear in the press. He has been a generous donor to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the dominant lobby of American Jewry regarding U.S. policy toward Israel. Since the nineties, Adelson has helped underwrite many congressional trips to Israel, sponsored by an AIPAC educational affiliate. (Adelson pays only for Republican members.) Last year, he contributed funds for a lavish new office building in Washington, D.C., for the organization. In November, shortly before the summit, he learned that AIPAC was supporting a congressional letter, signed by more than a hundred and thirty members of the House of Representatives, that urged the Bush Administration to increase economic aid to the Palestinians, an initiative that the government of Israel also supported. Adelson was furious.

AIPAC is not accustomed to being attacked publicly from the right; its critics generally charge that its conservative policies toward Israel favor the status quo over a peace accord. But AIPAC has traditionally insisted that it seeks to further a close American-Israeli relationship, whether the government of Israel is left, right, or center. http://Louis-J-Sheehan.deIn an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Adelson said of AIPAC’s support of aid for the Palestinians, “I don’t continue to support organizations that help friends committing suicide just because they want to jump.” AIPAC has not made any policy shifts, and it is not clear whether Adelson will continue to contribute to the organization.

When Adelson was merely rich, he wrote checks for causes that he favored and for politicians whom he supported. Occasionally, he demanded to be heard. But he did not expect to play a significant role in U.S. foreign policy, or in Israel’s strategic decisions, or in the fate of a sitting Israeli Prime Minister. That was before he acquired many billions of dollars. (He has assets of twenty-six billion dollars, according to a Forbes list published in March.) His political expenditures and his expectations have increased proportionately. Not long after Bush’s encounter with Adelson last October, an Israeli government representative said that Bush, describing it to another Israeli official, had remarked wryly, “I had this crazy Jewish billionaire, yelling at me.” (The Israeli official does not recall the conversation; the White House said that it had no comment.)



GAMBLING ON MACAO


In July, 2001, Adelson met with a Vice-Premier of China, Qian Qichen, in the historic Purple Light Pavilion, in Zhongnanhai, where foreign dignitaries are often received. Adelson was impressed, recalling later in trial testimony that it was “a very regal looking environment.” He was accompanied by Bill Weidner, the president of his company, Las Vegas Sands, and Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman with connections to top Chinese officials, who was a friend of Adelson’s brother Lenny. Suen had helped arrange the meeting, after asking Adelson the previous summer whether he might be interested in obtaining a gaming license in Macao. According to Suen, Adelson told him that such a license would be like getting “the brass ring,” and described himself as “a man with a grand vision and a big pair of brass monkeys,” who “would like to leave a visible footprint in history.”

Macao had an enormous geographic advantage as a gaming destination. Gambling flourished in China until 1949, when the Communists took over and banned it as a capitalistic vice. But the Chinese remained avid gamblers, and gambling continued in Macao, a Portuguese colony an hour by ferry from Hong Kong. For nearly forty years, Stanley Ho, a controversial businessman, had enjoyed a gambling monopoly, but Macao was plagued by prostitution and violent crime, and dominated by triads, or Chinese mafia. In late 1999, soon after Macao was turned over to the People’s Republic of China as a special administrative region, rumors began to circulate that Ho’s monopoly was coming to an end; a limited number of new gaming licenses would be issued.

In the 2001 meeting, Qian, who was well briefed on Adelson, pointed out that during the Second World War China had accepted more than twenty thousand Jewish refugees in Shanghai. Adelson had been warned by Suen that Chinese officials find the subject of gaming distasteful, so he should not broach it. (As Suen wrote to Adelson, the Communists had banned gambling not only because it was against party principles but because “it has been a curse to my people way back in history like opium. It destroyed thousands of families from the bad old days to now.”) Adelson spoke, instead, about his experience in the hotel and convention business. In 1979, he had launched a computer trade show, Comdex (for Computer Dealers Exposition), and over the next decade it became one of the largest in the world. In 1989, he had bought Las Vegas’s old Sands Hotel, and built the biggest privately owned convention center in the country. http://Louis-J-Sheehan.deAnd in 1997 he broke ground on the Venetian, to cater to a growing number of business travellers, among others. Qian told Adelson that he wanted to do much the same in Macao.

Then, unexpectedly, Qian introduced the subject of casinos. He asked how many hotel rooms Adelson might build in Macao. “I don’t know,” Adelson, who recalled the meeting in his trial testimony, responded. “How many you want me to build?” “Well, how many can you?” “I said, ‘Well, that all depends how many people can come there.’ ” (China’s 1.3 billion nationals need a special permit to go to Macao, so China controls the flow of visitors.) “He said, ‘How many do you want?’ And I said, ‘Wow.’ Of course, I didn’t say, ‘Wow,’ right in front of him, but—I mean, when I left there I said to Bill . . . ‘Did you hear what I heard? . . . Do you think there’s a possibility . . . that he can open the gates to Macao?’ ”

In May, 2004, the first gamblers entered the Sands Macao. Its construction costs were two hundred and sixty-five million dollars, and Adelson made back his initial investment in a year. In December, 2004, Adelson took Las Vegas Sands public (according to Forbes, he owns sixty-nine per cent of the stock) and became a multibillionaire, overnight. The following year, Macao drew 10.5 million mainland Chinese visitors, a hundred and forty-seven per cent more than three years earlier—reflecting an easing of travel restrictions and an increase in the number of newly wealthy Chinese. By the end of 2006, Macao had become the top gambling center in the world, with gaming revenues exceeding $6.9 billion, a quarter of a billion dollars more than those on the Las Vegas Strip. In 2007, revenues climbed to $10.3 billion. That year, Adelson opened the $2.4-billion Venetian Macao—with canals and stripe-shirted gondoliers, as well as an extensive shopping mall and a five-hundred-and-forty-six-thousand-square-foot casino, which is the largest in the world. Since the Sands Macao opened, his personal wealth has multiplied more than fourteen times, and, according to the Times, in the two years after his company went public he earned roughly a million dollars an hour.

Now Las Vegas Sands plans to create “the Las Vegas Strip of Asia” on Cotai—an area of reclaimed land between two small islands, connected by bridges to Macao’s peninsula—spending an additional ten billion dollars to build a dozen new hotels, with twenty thousand rooms, and adjacent casinos. The hotels will include some of the world’s most famous brands, including the Four Seasons; all the casinos will be owned and operated by Las Vegas Sands. At a groundbreaking ceremony, in March, 2007, Adelson said that many members of Congress criticize China for its human-rights record, but he added that he liked the way the Chinese run their country. “People seem to be living a good life in China,” he said. “Look at the incredible progress China has made. How can someone say they’re doing the wrong thing?” He added that those who don’t approve of the way China is governed need not go to the country. “I don’t think the U.S. should be the policeman of the whole world,” he said.

Suen has yet to profit from the role he played, and in 2004 he filed a lawsuit against Adelson and his company in Clark County District Court, in Las Vegas. He alleged, essentially, that Adelson and Las Vegas Sands had an agreement with him to help obtain the Macao license and then reneged after it was won. A letter signed by Weidner, shortly after the July, 2001, trip to China, details an arrangement whereby Suen would receive five million dollars as a “success fee upon opening of the resort” and an “ongoing 2% of the net profit to the resort.” (Las Vegas Sands maintains that no formal contract existed and that Suen’s role in procuring the license was negligible. “We’re not deadbeats,” Adelson said in testimony.

On the morning of April 17, 2008, Adelson arrived at the Clark County courthouse in a Maybach limousine, accompanied by his wife and a bodyguard, and followed by a second vehicle, with additional bodyguards. Since 2001, Adelson has suffered from a condition known as peripheral neuropathy, which makes it difficult for him to walk. With his bodyguards in tow, he maneuvered an electric scooter along the courthouse corridor; when he arrived at the courtroom, he declared, “I brought my own chair,” and, standing with the help of his wife, glared at a half-dozen reporters assembled there. Adelson’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin—he recently represented Roger Clemens on Capitol Hill, defending him against accusations of steroid use—had argued that “confidential, private or trade secret information” in the case made “media access to the trial . . . impractical and prejudicial.” That request had been denied. (Adelson occasionally grants an interview to the business press, if the story is narrowly focussed, but he will not coöperate if the aim is a more comprehensive portrait. As he told me, explaining his refusal of my repeated requests to interview him, he admires the way that Kirk Kerkorian, the ninety-one-year-old majority shareholder of Nevada’s largest gaming company, MGM Mirage, conducts himself—“and Kirk never talks to the press.” Adelson added, “Someday, I’ll write my own book.”)

Testimony in the Suen case proposes an answer to a subject of enduring conjecture in Las Vegas: how Las Vegas Sands triumphed over Strip rivals—such as MGM Mirage and, in a joint venture, Park Place Entertainment and Mandalay Bay Resort—that were also seeking a Macao license. At the time, Las Vegas Sands was smaller and financially weaker.

In July, 2001, after arriving in Beijing, Adelson and Weidner saw Olympic banners flying along the streets. They soon learned that the country was waiting to find out whether it would be selected as the site for the 2008 Summer Games. In addition to seeing the Vice-Premier, Adelson and Weidner met with the mayor of Beijing, who asked Adelson for help with a matter pending in the U.S. House of Representatives, which he believed was threatening China’s chance to host the Olympics. (In the United States, China was widely perceived as the frontrunner, and it is not clear that Congress’s position would have had any impact on its chances.) Adelson said in court that he immediately made calls on his cell phone to Republican friends in Congress—including Tom DeLay, then the majority whip—who had received generous support from Adelson. DeLay told him that there was indeed a resolution pending about China and the Olympics. (Representative Tom Lantos, then the highest-ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, had introduced a resolution opposing China’s Olympic bid, saying, “China’s abominable human rights record violates the spirit of the games and should disqualify Beijing from consideration.”)

Weidner, in his deposition, described the relationship between DeLay—“a very religious guy”—and Adelson. “The link between Sheldon Adelson and right-wing religious Christians is the commonality of a strong Israel,” he said. “So it just happens to be Sheldon has taken Tom DeLay to Israel and he’s a friend.” DeLay told Adelson that he supported the resolution because of his concern about China’s record on human rights but added that he would be discussing the legislative agenda shortly. “Sheldon folds his cell phone up and says to the mayor of Beijing, ‘I’m going to do my best,’ ” Weidner said. “About three hours later DeLay calls and he tells Sheldon, ‘You’re in luck,’ ” he continued, “ ‘because we’ve got a military-spending bill. . . . We’re not going to be able to move the bill, so you tell your mayor that he can be assured that this bill will never see the light of day.’ So Sheldon goes and he goes to the mayor and he says, ‘The bill will never see the light of day, Mr. Mayor. Don’t worry about it.’ ” Weidner also instructed the Sands’s lobbyists in Washington, Patton Boggs, to suggest to the Chinese Embassy that Adelson and Las Vegas Sands were involved in the process that stalled the bill. (According to DeLay’s spokeswoman, DeLay does not recall the conversation and had no role in blocking the bill. Representative Lantos died last February.)

In their trial testimony, both Adelson and Weidner portrayed the bill’s demise as having resulted from the press of other legislation, rather than as a deliberate move by DeLay to help his benefactor. Six days after Adelson’s conversation with DeLay, Lantos called for a vote on the resolution, saying, “I am asking the Speaker and the majority leader no longer to bottle up our legislation and to allow the representatives of the American people to speak their minds on this issue. . . . Mr. Speaker, allow us a vote.” Three days later, the International Olympics Committee voted in China’s favor.

The only other American casino magnate to win a license in Macao in early 2002 was Steve Wynn, but he did not move as quickly as Adelson: the Wynn Macau opened two years after the Sands Macao. In 2004, however, MGM Mirage—which had lost out in the 2002 Macao bidding process—announced that it had obtained a license through a joint venture with Pansy Ho, Stanley Ho’s daughter, and that it would build a casino in Macao. It would be a formidable rival to the Sands.

For MGM Mirage, the opportunity to enter Macao with Pansy Ho was at once alluring and treacherous. Stanley Ho has for many years fought allegations that organized-crime triads are involved in his Macao casinos. American regulators would have to be satisfied that Pansy Ho was independent of her father, and MGM would have to institute certain protections in the joint-venture agreement. MGM executives concluded that these goals were challenging but doable. Several months after MGM’s announcement of the deal with Pansy Ho, an adviser to MGM Mirage told me, they began hearing rumors that a report was being circulated, accusing Stanley Ho and his daughter of having criminal ties, among other allegations, and that it had been commissioned by Las Vegas Sands. Around this time, the adviser continued, Adelson visited Kerkorian in Los Angeles and told him that he would have problems with Pansy Ho and suggested that MGM Mirage become partners with Las Vegas Sands instead. Kerkorian declined, the adviser said. In 2007, an article in the Newark Star-Ledger revealed that a report that had circulated among journalists, regulators, and government officials around the world about Pansy Ho and her father had been commissioned by Las Vegas Sands. When the story broke, Adelson’s spokesman said that the company executives had no idea how copies of the report were leaked, and noted that the report had been commissioned to learn more about the Hos. “We’re in the midst of a twelve-billion development in Macao,” the spokesman said. “Certainly there’s been a lot of rumor and speculation about the Ho family and its business activities. . . . It was only prudent for us to get the lay of the land.”

When I asked MGM Mirage’s chairman and chief executive officer, J. Terence Lanni, about Adelson’s visit to Kerkorian, he said that Adelson had not offered a true partnership. “But we wouldn’t have done it even if there were a possibility of a partnership, because they’re not good partnership material,” he said.

After Kerkorian’s refusal, Las Vegas Sands executives flew to Mississippi to see the governor, Haley Barbour. “Haley called, and he said that when he heard these Las Vegas Sands executives were coming to see him he was excited,” Lanni, who has been a friend of Barbour’s since the nineties, when Barbour chaired the Republican National Committee, recalled. “He thought they wanted to make a major investment in Mississippi.” After the executives arrived, they discussed the report with Barbour, and said that the Mississippi Gaming Commission should not approve the application from MGM Mirage to enter into gaming in Macao. (Because MGM Mirage has resort casinos in Mississippi, state regulators must grant approval of the gaming company’s foreign operations.) “Haley said, ‘I realized after a few minutes that those guys don’t like competition,’ ” Lanni continued. (Barbour’s office confirmed the meeting but declined to discuss the conversation. Adelson declined to comment on this, as he did on all aspects of the piece.) The Mississippi Gaming Commission waived its requirement to approve the deal, allowing MGM to go forward in Macao.

“Sheldon is a very determined person,” Lanni said. “When he wants something, it’s a fixation, it’s 24/7. What he did here was his right to do,” Lanni continued, adding, “I wouldn’t do it.”

A Clark County District Court jury ordered Las Vegas Sands Corp. to pay Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen $43.8 million for helping the casino company win a lucrative gaming license in Macau.

The verdict, reached Saturday morning, followed a six-week civil trial before District Judge Michelle Leavitt. The jury of five women and three men deliberated for about nine hours Friday and a little more than an hour Saturday before reaching their decision.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/19245874.html

Macao chief vows to regulate gaming development in policy address
MACAO, March 17 (PNA/Xinhua) -- Although competition in the Asian gaming market was heating up, Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Chui Sai On still said Tuesday that his government would continue to carry out its existing policy toward the local gaming sector, preventing it from ever expanding.

Chui made the remark Tuesday while delivering his first policy address at a plenum of the Macao SAR's Legislative Assembly since he took office Dec. 20, 2009.

He said in the policy address that he would fine-tune the development of the local gaming industry in terms of its size and pace, while striving to enhance the industry's competitiveness and spreading its economic effect onto other industries.

He explained that the SAR government will strictly control the number of local casinos, gaming tables and slot machines, and take measures to prevent gaming operators from breaching the rules.

As part of its effort to strengthen its regulation over the gaming industry, the pillar of the local economy, the Macao SAR government last month expanded the Gaming Committee, which overlooks the industry's development, from six members to eight members. The members are all top government officials from various departments.

Chui also said at the press conference after presenting his policy address Tuesday afternoon that his government would stick to the policy announced by his predecessor Ho Hau Wah in 2008.

According to the industry policy firstly introduced by Ho, the Macao SAR government no longer issues new gaming licenses aside from the current six ones, and halts the construction of new casinos unless it has been sanctioned by the authorities before.

The Macao SAR's new lands created by reclamation will never be used for developing the gaming industry, Chui also stressed.

There were currently a total of 33 casinos, and over 4,700 gaming tables in the tiny island city with a population of just over 540,000.

For the whole of last year, the island city's gaming sector raked in 119.4 billion patacas (14.9 billion U.S. dollars) in gross revenues, an increase of 9.6 percent over the previous year, according to the figures from the Macao SAR's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.

Regarding lands that have long been granted to gaming operators to develop casino projects but left lying idle for years, the chief executive clarified at the press conference that the Macao SAR government will handle the issue of idle lands in accordance with the law, and will reclaim the lands once the developers in question are found to be breaching the contracts signed with the government.

He added that the government will soon release the statistics concerning these idle lands, and the government was considering building public residential buildings on the lands that might be recovered, while auditioning off the others.

Hit by the global financial crisis, some large casino resort projects in Macao, including the Las Vegas Sands' casino complex on the Cotai Strip, were halted due to financing troubles. But Sands has said that it will restart the project's construction this year.

In addition, Chui's policy address also included measures to fight against casino money laundering, and to raise casino goers' age requirements and to remove slot machine halls from local neighborhoods.

He said the government will continue to monitor whether the six licensed gaming operators implement their internal monitoring procedures and will initiate the first-round of auditing work at these gaming companies at the end of this year. (PNA/xinhua)
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=4&sid=&nid=4&rid=264731

Macau's curb on casinos may unsettle investors: analyst
Macau's move to limit the growth of its gaming sector will create uncertainties and discourage investment in the Asian gambling hub, an analyst said Friday. The government said earlier this week it would not approve any new casino projects and would allow only about 700 additional gambling tables in the next three years, as part of its effort to diversify the economy of the former Portuguese enclave. Macau's Economy and Finance Secretary Francis Tam said projects which had not yet been approved had already been halted to promote "healthy" development of the gaming industry, which accounted for 70 percent of the city's revenues. However, gaming analyst Sean Monaghan said casinos were part-and-parcel of the overall development of the leisure and entertainment sector and should not be singled out. "You can't have this sort of caps unless you don't want the mega projects to be built," Monaghan, managing director of AG Leisure Partners, told AFP. He added there was still a lot of room for growth in the sector, considering the potential of the mainland Chinese market. He said the new policy was very confusing and unsettling for potential investors in Macau, which has overtaken Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined in terms of casino revenues since it opened up the gaming sector in 2002. Macau, the only Chinese city where casino gambling is legal, has about 4,770 gaming tables and six licensed casino operators, some of which still have projects under construction. The Chinese government has urged Macau's leaders to cool the city's gambling industry growth after gaming revenues skyrocketed 66 percent in the first two months of this year, according to reports. Concerns were that Macau would not be able to develop the non-gaming sectors and that mainland Chinese visitors would gamble away all their savings if casinos were allowed to continue to expand. But brokerage CLSA remained upbeat about the sector, giving a forecast of 30 percent growth in revenues for 2010. "With supply expanding very slowly, we expect the industry to deliver above average returns for the next few years," said Aaron Fischer, CLSA's analyst for Macau and Singapore. Fischer believed that the potential contraction in liquidity growth in China would not affect consumer lending, which is the segment that is making its way into Macau. http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/100326/1/4t4n0.html

The judge in last year's murder-for-hire case, Madame Verina Bokhary, said in passing sentence that, "I bear in mind of course that, behind the scenes, there is a person or are persons even more blameworthy than any of them."

Clearly, the judge is implying SANDS China and Adelson. A rare gambler wins Big, and they put a contract Hit on his life.

Harrah's Entertainment: Macau Remains Top Priority For Firm
8 June 2010

MACAU (Dow Jones)--Harrah's Entertainment Inc. (HET) Asia president Michael Chen said Tuesday Macau remains a top priority for the Las Vegas-based casino operator, even though the company doesn't have a presence in the Chinese gambling enclave's gaming market and the territory's government isn't ready to license any new casino operators yet.

Chen said on the sidelines of Global Gaming Expo Asia, a regional gambling trade show and conference in Macau, that the company's entry strategy to Macau is "patience."

"Currently in Macau the legal framework doesn't allow for any new entrants," said Chen, who has been trying to establish a foothold in the Chinese territory for Harrah's. "The government will make it clear when they want new entrants," he said.

Speculation has been rife in Macau about whether the stalled Macau Studio City casino resort project, which is being developed by eSun Holdings Ltd. (0571.HK) but has been trapped in legal deadlock, could provide an opportunity for a new player to enter Macau's gambling scene.

Chen declined to comment on whether Harrah's had held discussions with the Macau government about taking part in the Studio City project.

Harrah's, which operates a golf course in Macau, is one of the top casino operators in Las Vegas along with Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN), and MGM Mirage (MGM), but is the only company among the four that doesn't own a casino in the Chinese territory. The other three companies are among the six casino license holders in Macau.

9,600 unemployed, 22,000 needed
labor market policies will cause a sudden surges in imported labor increasing rents, wages, etc........
are the govs short term labor protection policies coming back to haunt them
out of the 9600 how many are suitable for the 22000

Sands, Galaxy to hire 22,000
16/07/2010 02:03:00 Vítor Quintã

Galaxy’s senior vice president for human resources is confident of finding 7,000 new employees for the Galaxy Macau resort, due to open in Cotai by March 2011 (photo by Manuel Cardoso)
The opening of the Galaxy Macau and the Sands China parcels 5 and 6 in Cotai will require 22,000 more workers, according to MSS Recruitment’s Macau Job Market 2010 overview, released last week. Both companies admitted that recruiting locally might not be enough.
Sands China senior vice president of human resources, António Ramirez, said in the survey that the new properties on parcels 5 and 6 would create 15,000 jobs. “As we ramp up our operation effort, the estimated number of positions available at its peak will be approximately 15,000,” a Sands China spokesperson confirmed to Macau Daily Times.
António Ramirez admitted that recruiting locally might not be enough when the resort opens its doors in the third quarter of 2011. “Even though these projects offer more job openings to the local population, it does not necessarily mean that everyone will be suitable,” the executive stressed.
On one hand, “the positions may not be considered desirable by local candidates,” and on the other, “the local workforce may not have the required skills and knowledge,” he said. “We need a lot of front-line people,” Ramirez emphasised. “Non-residents will play a crucial role in transferring their expertise and knowledge to local talents,” the Sands China vice president acknowledged.
The hiring process has begun and “there will be a mixture of positions available at different stages, from now till opening,” the company spokesperson said. The 15,000 jobs will be in conventions and exhibitions, retail, transportation, hotel operations, entertainment, security, facilities and gaming.

‘Encourage locals’

Galaxy’s senior vice president for human resources and administration, Trevor Martin, told MSS Recruitment he is confident that his company will be able to find 7,000 new employees for the Galaxy Macau resort, due to open in Cotai by March 2011, in “the most dynamic labour market” he’s ever seen.
Trevor Martin assured the vast majority of the Galaxy Macau personnel would be locals, found through local initiatives and educational sources. “We have a relationship with all the training institutions in town,” he pointed out. A company spokesperson clarified to MDT: “We will strongly encourage local candidates.” However, “ultimately the number of locals and approved foreign talent will be determined by how many suitable candidates we can attract,” she admitted.
The hiring process for these staff, who will join the 5,000 existing Galaxy workers, has already begun. “We are now focusing on senior management and management positions, then we will move to recruit supervisors and other positions,” the spokesperson said. The recruitment for the integrated resort will include gaming, hotel, food and beverage, human resources, information technology, marketing, entertainment, engineering, financing, retail and leisure sectors, she added.

‘Pretty tight’ market

The opening of two more resorts in Cotai means “more job opportunities” for local workers, the MSS Recruitment managing director, Jiji Tu, told MDT. However, she stressed that Macau already has a “pretty tight” job market, with only 9,600 unemployed. The main question is, she said, “do these people have the right skills to match the job openings?”
Asked if the increased demand would lead to more instability for companies, with qualified and experienced workers moving to the new resorts, Tu said the turnover would be less than in the past. “After the financial tsunami, I think local residents are less attracted to an immediate salary increase and more interested in long-term career growth,” she explained.
The Government Human Resources Office did not confirm if Sands or Galaxy had already presented a request for non-resident workers for the new resorts. In a Chinese-language reply to MDT, the bureau said, “Non-local employees will only be considered as a temporary supplement to the local labour force when there are no suitable or sufficient human resources in Macau.”
“The prerequisite of labour importation is that local workers can be ensured priority in employment and their rights and interests will not be harmed,” Human Resources Office said. “We believe that with this regulation [to authorise the hiring of non-resident workers] and the imported labour law, local workers’ employment, rights and interests can be safeguarded further,” it added.


SME worry over labour shortage

With this new wave of hiring, “a large number of employees will transfer from SME [Small and Medium Enterprises] to casino operators,” worsening this sector’s human resource shortage.
According to the Macau Small and Medium Enterprises Association, most of the 9,600 unemployed have “low education and skills, and some are out of work construction workers.” As such, they “don’t fit the needs of the casino operators” and “will not benefit” from the 22,000 job vacancies, a reply to MDT said.
When it comes to local human resources, casinos are “the main competitors” of SME, the association said. But it’s an uphill battle, because SME cannot compete with the wages being paid at casinos and “the training and promotion opportunities are also fewer,” the statement explained.
“Because the local workers are pursuing high salaries and good jobs, the turnover rate is high. So it is very difficult for SME to re-hire other local workers,” the association explained. Yet, the Human Resources Office only grants non-resident workers quotas if SME already have a certain number of local staff. Consequently, the companies end up losing part or all of its imported labour quotas, it said.
Furthermore, the new law “makes the cost of hiring non-resident workers higher and puts more pressure on the SME human resource,” the association warned.

The prerequisite of labour importation is that local workers can be ensured priority in employment and their rights and interests will not be harmed

Never in my whole life if have seen a country that protects its workers as much as in Macau. A good thing? overprotection will lead to complacency, decrease in skills, etc......everything the gov does not want.
Macau workers will eventually be absorbed by hard working, competitive mainland Chinese upon further intergration of the PRD.
Foxconn, Toyota in Guangdong are examples on the other side of spectrum. Even in Europe Polish people can compete in England for a job.

'Non-local employees will only be considered as a temporary supplement to the local labour force when there are no suitable or sufficient human resources in Macau'

very respectfull.....in other words.......attrackt foreign labor , then kick them out any time you like

9,600 unemployed, 22,000 needed
labor market policies will cause a sudden surges in imported labor increasing rents, wages, etc........
are the govs short term labor protection policies coming back to haunt them
out of the 9600 how many are suitable for the 22000


Based on just these two projects, Macau will need at least (22,000 - 9,600= 12,400) of new employees from outside moving to Macau. Let's say one residential unit will occupy 3 to 4 new immigrant, that means at least 3,100 to 4,200 of residential units of new accommodation will be needed. Look like rental market may face a bottleneck next year.

Macau workers will eventually be absorbed by hard working, competitive mainland Chinese upon further intergration of the PRD.


"One country, two system" may last another 30+ years so this is actually a good idea.

there are still alot of vacanies in the current job market which gives an indication that many of the 9,600 unemployed will not apply for the 22000 new jobs

Based on just these two projects, Macau will need at least (22,000 - 9,600= 12,400) of new employees from outside moving to Macau. Let's say one residential unit will occupy 3 to 4 new immigrant, that means at least 3,100 to 4,200 of residential units of new accommodation will be needed. Look like rental market may face a bottleneck next year.

Taipa might be a good bet as it is closest to the action

New resorts to use majority local labour is ‘unrealistic’
17/07/2010 01:14:00 Vítor Quintã

The hiring of 22,000 people for the new Cotai resorts would increase the competition for workers, creating ‘a challenge to local SME’
Galaxy’s claim that the vast majority of the 7,000 Galaxy Macau workers will be locals “is unrealistic,” economist Henry Lei has told Macau Daily Times (MDT). The University of Macau professor also warned that the hiring of 22,000 people for the new Cotai resorts would increase the competition for workers, creating “a challenge to local SME [Small and Medium Enterprises].”

‘The local labour market may not be able to supply this number of workers, nor supplying this number at a reasonable wage’According to MSS Recruitment’s Macau Job Market 2010 overview, released last week, the opening of the Galaxy Macau and the Sands China parcels 5 and 6 in Cotai will require 22,000 more workers. “I doubt that these operators would actually hire 22,000 people,” Lei said.
Either way, the program coordinator and assistant professor of Economics believes “the local labour market may not be able to supply this number of workers, nor supplying this number at a ‘reasonable’ wage.” After all, he recalled, the unemployment rate “has returned to the pre-financial crisis level” and is now at 2.9 percent.
Galaxy’s senior vice president for human resources and administration, Trevor Martin, told MSS Recruitment the vast majority of the Galaxy Macau personnel would be locals. However, Henry Lei stresses that “some” of the around 9,600 unemployed “do not have the skills to work in casinos.” “The operators may eventually need to hire imported workers to fill up the gap between labour demand and supply,” he said.

Hiring will affect imported ratio

“From the point of view of businessmen,” Lei stated, “they do prefer an easy, convenient and low cost source of external labour force.” In fact, he added, that is one reason why the gaming companies sometimes complain about the bureaucracy in applying for non-resident workers – “this is a kind of pressure by the casino operators on the Government.”
With 22,000 more job openings, the labour demand will spike, “increasing the extent of competition between gaming and non-gaming sector for workers,” the economist said. This new round of recruitment will be “a challenge to local SME,” he confirmed. The Macau Small and Medium Enterprises Association told MDT on Thursday that “a large number of employees will transfer from SME to casino operators,” worsening this sector’s human resource shortage.
Furthermore, Lei believes the hiring of 22,000 people will also “for sure affect the formation of the local/imported workers ratio.” An imported labour monitoring group was created to analyse the needs of Macau’s economic sectors and it is expected to set up a ratio between local and non-resident staff for the gaming industry. “I do think that an appropriate ratio should be flexible and specific for each sector, which should be subject to review and re-assessment from time to time,” the economist explained.

Macau December Casino Revenue Rises 66% to $2.36 Billion on China Tourism
Bloomberg

By Wendy Leung and Marco Lui - Jan 3, 2011 Casino revenue in Macau, the world’s largest casino hub, surged 66 percent to 18.9 billion patacas ($2.36 billion) in December as an increasing number of Chinese gamblers visited the city.

Sales for casinos in Macau, the only place in China where they’re legal, surged 58 percent to 188.3 billion patacas last year, according to data from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. China, which contributes more than half the number of tourists to Macau, may grow 10 percent in 2010, according to the median forecast of 18 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Macau’s visitor arrivals rose 15 percent to 22.7 million in the first eleven months, with more than 80 percent coming from mainland China and Hong Kong, the city’s tourism agency said. Tourists from mainland China increased 20.5 percent in the first 11 months, according to the agency’s data.

“The key driver was the higher average spend by an increasing number of mainland tourists,” Aaron Fischer, a Hong Kong-based analyst for CLSA Ltd., said today. “What surprised us was how strong the growth remained in the second part of December.”

Wynn Macau Ltd., the Hong Kong-listed casino unit of Wynn Resorts Ltd., climbed 5.7 percent, the most in more than two months, to HK$18.40, the highest since it started trading in October 2009.

SJM, Galaxy

Billionaire Stanley Ho’s SJM Holdings Ltd. rose 3.4 percent to HK$12.76, Sands China Ltd. gained 1.6 percent to HK$17.36 and Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. surged 5.6 percent to HK$9.29. Melco International Development Ltd., which has a joint venture with with Australian billionaire James Packer’s Crown Ltd., advanced 5.9 percent to HK$4.70.

“We believe gaming revenues will remain extremely robust in 2011 and increase by at least 20 percent during the year,” CLSA’s Fischer said. “We also expect another 25 percent growth next year as 2012 benefits from a full year of two new large scale resorts being opened.”

Galaxy is building a $1.9 billion casino resort, which it plans to open this year, on the Cotai Strip, where Sands China operates the Venetian Macau and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. has its City of Dreams.

Sands China is building St. Regis, Shangri-La, Sheraton and Traders resorts on sites 5 and 6 of the Cotai Strip. Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s chief executive officer, has said he plans to recreate the Las Vegas Strip on Macau’s 1.8-mile length of reclaimed land between Macau’s Coloane and Taipa Islands to boost the non-gambling portion of casino operators’ earnings.

Market Share

SJM had the biggest market share among the former Portuguese colony’s six casino operators, with 30.6 percent in December, said Huei Suen Ng, a Hong Kong-based analyst for CLSA. Wynn Macau had 16.9 percent, followed by Sands China at 16.4 percent and Melco Crown with 14.2 percent, the analyst said.

MGM Grand Paradise SA, a venture between the Las Vegas Strip’s biggest casino operator and Stanley Ho’s daughter Pansy Ho, had 11.6 percent, according to CLSA’s estimates while Galaxy had 10.3 percent.

Macau surpassed the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s biggest gambling hub in 2006, after the government ended Stanley Ho’s four-decade gambling monopoly and allowed the entry of foreign operators.

Any new developments or news on this thread....thanks.

No news, good news!

Any new developments or news on this thread....thanks.
Yes, the new Galaxy will open end of April. All staff needed has been employed already. If you have not rented out your flat yet, you are in trouble.

No news, good news!

:lol::cheers:

Yes, the new Galaxy will open end of April. All staff needed has been employed already. If you have not rented out your flat yet, you are in trouble.


Thanks....:okay:

Wynn's bluff...

Wynn Cotai ‘not yet approved’: Francis Tam

20/09/2011


Wynn Macau’s land concession in Cotai has not been approved yet, secretary for Economy and Finance, Francis Tam Pak Yuen, said yesterday.
“Companies may release their news, and the news should correspond to reality. Anyhow these news release won’t affect the process,” the secretary told reporters.
Last week, the local gaming operator announced in a statement sent to the Hong Kong stock exchange that they had agreed to pay a MOP 1.55 billion premium to the government for a block of land in Cotai. On that same day, the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) said the request for a land concession was still being reviewed and the government was yet to make a final decision.
Yesterday, according to Tam “The process of reviewing land concession requests follows specific rules.” He indirectly hinted however the request could be approved sooner or later.
“The government has already said that land concession requests for gaming projects filed before 2008 would be approved. But those submitted after 2008 would not. Wynn is one of the operators that filed the request before that timeline,” he added.
He went on: “Some land in Cotai has not yet been granted, but that will likely happen in five-year’s time. The government did not say it would not approve [Wynn’s land request], but the final decision is not official yet.”
In Macau, land concessions are usually gazetted years after the agreement is reached.
Last week, Wynn said it had “formally accepted the terms and conditions of a land concession contract for approximately 51 acres [20.6 hectares] of land” and had already placed a fence around the block, located next to City of Dreams resort and the Macau University of Science and Technology campus, a company spokesperson told Macau Daily Times.

Studio City ‘must apply’ for gaming tables

Melco Crown Entertainment will have to submit an application to the government in order to include gaming amenities in the Macao Studio City project, the secretary for Economy and Finance, Francis Tam Pak Yuen told reporters yesterday, on the sidelines of a public event.
It was the first time the executive made a clear remark on the case. The gaming operator announced in June that it had gained control of the long delayed project, after buying a 60 percent share in the Cotai resort developer for MOP 2.1 billion. They also said the property is intended to have 300 to 400 tables and 1,200 gaming machines when it opens.

However, secretary for Transport and Public Works Lau Si Io had said no casino was included in a 2008 development plan, which states that the project for Macao Studio City primarily contains hotels and a film production enterprise.
After Melco’s announcement, the director of Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) Jaime Carion reaffirmed the government’s position, though he did not deny immediately that the property would not have gaming amenities.
The 2008 development plan of the project has never been made public and the last plan unveiled in the Official Gazette dates to 2001.
Back then, the land concession contract set that the Cotai project included film production studios, restaurants and residential units, but no gaming amenities

According to the operator, the MOP 1.55 billion premium was to be divided in one down payment, and eight semi-annual payments, while the rent was set at MOP 6.17 million a year. In May, chairman and chief executive officer of Wynn Resorts, Steve Wynn, told local media the company would start construction of the project as soon as the land was granted. The cost of the new project in Macau is expected to exceed MOP 20 billion and open within four or five year’s time, in late 2014 or early 2015.
Secretary Tam also reminded that the government would only allow the number of tables to increase by three percent until 2020, when some gaming licences are scheduled to expire. At this moment, SJM and MGM are also still waiting for the government’s reply concerning their Cotai reques.
Francis Tam meanwhile announced the government is working on a new legal system for the construction and location of casinos, slot machines and lottery houses, which will be ready in the first semester of next year. “The government’s stance is very clear: slot machine rooms have to move away from residential areas,” the secretary stressed.
This policy was announced in 2007. “Slot machines and lottery houses are banned in residential buildings and those that already exist will be relocated,” he recalled.

‘Total trust’ in AMCM

Asked to comment on the recent International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) report on the Monetary Authority (AMCM), Tam expressed the government’s total support of the local financial authority.
“During the international financial crisis, Macau economic and financial sectors were kept stable, so we have total trust in the financial system of Macau and our outlook towards AMCM’s work is positive,” Tam said.
He assured the government “will not politically influence AMCM’s operations” and stated the body had “sufficient capability to supervise financial and banking activities.”
The IMF report finger pointed towards “shortcomings in the operational independence” of AMCM and slammed its “lack of independence.”
Currently, the authority comes under the secretary for Economy and Finance, but the international organisation recommended it should be granted independence from the SAR Government.

Tam was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the seminar on the implementation of the mainland China and Macau Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)’s model cities that took place yesterday, at the Venetian Macau.
The SAR secretary and deputy general director of the department of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Sun Tong, remarked in their speeches that the partnership has been “implemented effectively”.
Tam said Macau economic sectors had developed thanks to CEPA, but that the next target would be to focus on the service trade.


in macaudailytimes.com

Chan Meng Kam quer explicações sobre COTAI

O deputado Chan Meng Kam exigiu ao Governo uma explicação sobre o aproveitamento de terrenos do COTAI que têm sido associados a operadoras do Jogo, como a Wynn, MGM e SJM, que submeteram os respectivos pedidos de concessão. Numa interpelação escrita, Chan Meng Kam mostra-se sobretudo preocupado com o caso da Wynn Macau, por entender que a provável concessão está a gerar “polémica” na sociedade. Apelando à transparência de processos, o deputado pretende ainda que seja divulgada a taxa da conclusão dos planos de investimentos das operadoras de jogo no COTAI, por forma a entender melhor o desenvolvimento daquela zona.

in Jornal Tribuna de Macau

A senior legislator worried with the news Macau to public about Wynn Macau on COTAI.

I've yet to visit Macau since Sands build their casino. After reading this thread, its time to pay a visit, maybe...

Everybody waiting...

Market eyes Cotai news from Wynn


Investors are expecting strong results from Wynn Macau, as well as news from its Cotai project, with the gaming operator set to release its third-quarter earnings early today (Macau time).
The Hong Kong-listed company could report a 48 percent increase in operating profit – earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) – to USD 293.5 million (MOP 2.35 billion), J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff wrote in a note to clients earlier this week.
He also claimed Wynn Macau has an advantage over its rivals in attracting VIP gamblers and high-end retail customers.
“Record Macau results early in the quarter may have offset low hold in September,” Barclays analyst Felicia Hendrix wrote.
Analysts also expect the operator’s chief executive officer, Steve Wynn, to release more information on its plans for a casino resort in Cotai during the earnings conference call.
A month ago Wynn Macau announced it had agreed to pay a MOP 1.55 billion government premium for a 51-acre block of land located next to City of Dreams resort.
But on the very same day local authorities said they were “yet to make a final decision” about the company’s request for a land concession.

Analysts polled by FactSet expect Wynn Macau’s parent company, US-based Wynn Resorts, to post earnings of USD 1.18 per share – three times as much as in the period a year ago. Revenue is slated to reach USD 1.29 billion (MOP 10.3 billion), up by 27.7 percent from the third quarter of 2010.

in Macau Daily Times

Xi Jinping warns of over-reliance on gaming
09/03/2012 10:53:00
Macau Daily Times

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping yesterday was quoted as saying that Macau’s facing challenges of an over-reliance on the gaming industry. The Chief Executive agreed that Macau needed to diversify its economy.

According to TDM, Ho Iat Seng, one of the 12 Macau deputies to the National People’s Congress, who met Xi in Beijing yesterday said he expected Macau to face challenges in the future, one of them is the over reliance on gaming industry that squeezed the development space for other industries. The opinion is repeatedly expressed by different political and economic leaders but Xi is among the few top national leaders to personally address the problem. Ho described Xi as “thoroughly knowing the situation in Macau”. Xi is in charge of Hong Kong and Macau affairs in the central government.

After returning to Macau last night, CE Chui Sai On responded to Xi’s concern, saying that the city would strive to diversify its economy through extending cooperation with Guangdong and Hong Kong.He stressed that Macau would continue to improve its tertiary education and vocational training system to coach more talents for the all-rounded development of the city. He added that Macau would enhance cooperation with mainland institutions, including Qinghua University on the educational front.

Chui also said that in the face of the local and international challenges, the MSAR government wants to be prudent in the administration of public affairs. The newly set up budget reserve system shows that the authority is positively preparing for untoward situations in the current favourable conditions.

Xi expressed “three hopes” during his meeting with Macau deputies, saying that Macau should clearly understand local and international situations in order to be better prepared for all kinds of scenarios. He also hoped Macau would build up an awareness for accepting different challenges, and hoped the Macau deputies support the Macau government in implementing the political reform. Before leaving Beijing, Chui visited the Foreign Ministry and met Foreign Minster Yang Jiechi. Chui expressed gratitude for the ministry’s support for Macau’s international efforts.