Macau Casinos and Gambling News

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Even as the Singapore Turf Club is facing stiff competition from soccer betting, a new threat looms on the horizon with the possible introduction of a casino in the Republic. The New Paper finds out how the local turf club can take a leaf from the Macau Jockey Club's moves to ensure racing thrives in the face of such a daunting challenge

April 02, 2005

Danny Khoo
Reporting from Macau

THERE are already 16 casinos in Macau, with another five under construction in the former Portuguese enclave.

There are also more than a dozen sports betting outlets peppered across the boom city.

Despite the ever-increasing competition, betting on horses remains healthy and the privately-owned club controlled by Macau mogul Stanley Ho continues to enjoy its fair share of the gaming pie.

As Macau Jockey Club (MJC) director of racing Ian Paterson puts it succinctly in an exclusive interview with The New Paper at his Taipa office recently:

'There's a certain lure about horse-racing that will always attract the punting man or woman.

'Unlike casino games, where the player depends almost entirely on the roll of the dice, racing is not a game of pure chance.

'There's mystique and romance involved and there's always a test of a person's judgment when picking a horse to come out tops.

'There's also an element of skill involved and you can't leave it to pure chance. That's why racing will always survive.'

Despite a population of less than 500,000 to draw upon, turnover at the MJC has continued to enjoy steady growth.

Turnover, in the past few years, has jumped at least three-fold.

The MJC collects an average of HK$60 million ($12 million) per meeting or HK$5 million per race.

SECRET OF SUCCESS

So what is the secret behind the MJC's success?

'Racing in Macau has been able to co-exist with the burgeoning interest in casinos and soccer betting for quite a while because the MJC is constantly re-inventing itself.

'Better prizemoney is one move that goes down well with owners,' said Paterson.

'We have been increasing our prizemoney over the years and will continue to do so, especially for the higher classes.

'Of course, if the dividend payouts are healthy as well, punters will continue indulging in the sport.

'Our product must look favourable for the punters.'

HONG KONG TIE-UP

Its recent tie-up with the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) to televise the latter's races has raked in an additional HK$2 million ($420,000) a race.

The MJC has also benefited from the 'spillover' from the HKJC.

'Yes, we have many owners from Hong Kong who race with us because they want to be owners but are unable to do so because of the long queue at the Hong Kong Jockey Club,' said Paterson.

[SeeMacau]

HONG KONG – As reported by the Dow Jones: "Macau fever and the ensuing mania for the enclave's plays may have cooled in recent months, but it's not too late to take a punt on Shun Tak Holdings Ltd.(0242.HK).

"Shun Tak has a pedigree of successful investments in Macau, say analysts - and shouldn't be lumped in with the many so-called Macau concept stocks that soared late last year even when their connection to the territory was, at best, tenuous.

"…Operating 15 of the city's 17 casinos, Shun Tak, owned by 83-year-old gaming kingpin Stanley Ho, is Macau. And Macau has come a long way since it was a sleepy Portuguese enclave more known as a weekend getaway for Hong Kong residents than as the gambling capital it's become.

"…Shun Tak shares, at their HK$7.35 close Thursday, have more than doubled from their HK$3.279 close on March 29 last year, though they're off their HK$9.15 peak on January 3. The shares, analysts say, are more than just a casino play.

"'We're bullish on Shun Tak because we're bullish on the Macau economy as a whole,' said CLSA analyst Keith Yeung. 'Along with its parent, Shun Tak is the biggest conglomerate in Macau.'…"

[SeeMacau]

HONG KONG: Galaxy Waldo Casino and Hotel, which operates a gaming facility in booming Macau, plans to raise about US$200mil in a Hong Kong listing in June, sources close to the deal said.

The listing would be the first casino initial public offering (IPO) since the Hong Kong stock exchange allowed firms with gaming as their core business to float in 2003.

Galaxy Waldo, which opened last July, has 161 guest rooms and a casino with 63 gaming tables and 83 slot machines. The firm has reportedly appointed BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank as the sponsors of the deal.

Investment in hotel and gaming projects in Macau is fast growing. The former Portuguese colony on the south China coast is the only place in the fast-developing country where casinos are legal. The 17 casinos there pay 35% of their gross receipts in direct tax to swell the public coffers. – Reuters

[SeeMacau]

BALFOUR Beatty's £175m contract to build a Las Vegas-style hotel in China's hottest gaming enclave has raised hopes that other British businesses could profit from Asia's latest boom.

Macau, a tiny former Portuguese colony on the South China coast, is in the throes of an unprecedented wave of investment as global gaming giants position themselves for a slice of the action.

Analysts reckon Macau will surpass Las Vegas for gambling revenue soon, possibly this year, noting its avid Asian gamers spend twice as much per head as visitors to the US desert town.

Last year, Vegas pulled in $5.3bn (£2.8bn) while Macau's punters fished $5.1bn from their pockets. Deutsche Bank has estimated Macau's gaming revenue could grow 20% a year for the next half-decade.

Macau's economy grew by a quarter last year after expansion of almost 50% in the second quarter alone. Analysts estimate that, over the next five years, the equivalent of £10 billion could be invested in hotels, casinos, convention facilities and malls.

'It certainly is the global hotspot for gaming companies,' said an economist in Hong Kong - the former British colony sits a short ferry ride across the Pearl River Delta from Macau.

Balfour Beatty's win came through Gammon, a Hong Kongbased engineering and construction-company in which Balfour, led by chief executive Ian Tyler, picked up a 50% interest seven months ago for about £35m. The balance of the group is held by Jardine Matheson, one of Hong Kong's oldest trading groups.

Together with a Macau partner, Gammon is the lead contractor on the 3000-room, 32-storey Venetian Macau. The £1.1bn project will be the flagship property for US group Las Vegas Sands, one of the biggest Vegas players.

Britain's InterContinental Hotels is among seven hotel operators that have said they will back new properties along the fast-growing Macau strip, part of which was built on land reclaimed from the sea.

Macau's boom has been triggered by the local government's decision to liberalise gaming in the territory, inviting powerful Las Vegas players to compete head-to-head with a local casino operator.

At the same time, the central government has eased rules on mainland visitors, sparking a surge in arrivals from the rest of China, where casinos and gambling remain illegal.

[SeeMacau]

Set to top Las Vegas in revenue this year

MACAU is poised to overtake Las Vegas as the gambling capital of the world before the end of the year.

The more than 16 million visitors who poured into the former Portuguese enclave last year pushed gambling revenues in the island's casinos to A$5.1 billion ($6.4b) for 2004, reported The Australiannewspaper.

That's just a whisper behind Las Vegas' A$5.3b.

Yet, Macau's received just half the number of visitors as the US gambling capital.

Moreover, its gambling jumped 40 per cent last year alone, and is set to grow at 18 per cent a year for the next three years, forecast Mr Marc Falcone, gaming analyst at Deutsche Bank.

The boom in demand is being matched by an explosion in facilities in the tiny enclave of 440,000 people.

The current 16 casinos with 894 gaming tables is set to balloon to more than 30 boasting 3,500 gaming tables in a building frenzy that also includes hotels, resorts and shopping malls.

The US$17 billion ($28b) is set to transform the territory from what The Australian described as 'a sleazy sinkhole of smoky gambling dens... into a conference centre and a family-friendly international tourist destination'.

In the first of two major investments that will change the face of Macau, Australia's richest man, Mr Kerry Packer, has teamed up with Mr Lawrence Ho, son of Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, to build a $HK1.5 billion ($318b) six-star hotel and casino complex that is due to open next year.

In the second, Mr Sheldon Adelson, founder of the iconic Sands casino in Las Vegas, is planning a US$1.8 billion, 3,000 room hotel and tourist complex on an 4.7sq km area of reclaimed mudflat.

He believes the development on its own will be bigger, better and more profitable than any casino resort currently in operation in Las Vegas.

[SeeMacau]

Las Vegas now has serious competition for the title of "Gaming Capital of the World." The latest gaming revenue shows casinos in Macau, China made about the same amount of money on gambling as Las Vegas.

The difference is that Macau matched Las Vegas gaming revenue with less than half the number of visitors. There were 16 million visitors to Macau in 2004. That same year, 37 million people came through Las Vegas.

Gaming experts say that Asian tourists visiting Macau gamble a lot more money than the average tourist coming to Las Vegas.

Casino operators in the valley realized that competition from around the world would take our gaming dollars. With the expansion Indian gaming in the U.S. and explosive growth in Macau,

UNLV gaming studies coordinator Dave Schwartz says Las Vegas changed. The Mirage was the first to add attractions to casinos like world-class shows and high-end shopping.

Schwartz says, "Las Vegas also expanded because they moved into non-gaming. That is a vindication of that decision."

That move away from gaming was embraced by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Senior Vice President of Marketing, Terry Jicinsky says Las Vegas is a destination that doesn't just rely on gambling to attract guests.

"People go there for short periods of time, whether it be four or five hours in the afternoon or an evening of gambling. People come to Las Vegas for the full resort vacation experience," Jicinsky said.

Las Vegas casino owners also realized the potential in Macau. Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson opened the Sands Macau. Wynn Las Vegas owner Steve Wynn is opening a casino there next year. MGM-Mirage started negotiations four years ago and announced a partnership for a new casino in Macau as well.

An MGM-Mirage spokesman says the Macau expansions will not be competition, but an opportunity for Las Vegas. As visitors in Macau grow, the companies here that own property there can a pitch for a trans-Pacific vacation.

But why does each gambler in Macau spend more than an average gambler in Las Vegas?

The tourists going to Macau take gambling more seriously than most visitors to Las Vegas according to UNLV's Dave Schwartz. He says a huge percentage of the gaming revenue in Macau comes from table games. He adds Asian gamblers are very picky about where they bet their money. Macau visitors play on baccarat, but you won't find a craps table.

Schwartz says, "Asian gamblers look at dice with distain."

An extremely small percentage of Macau tourists play slot machines.

Macau is located in a densely populated part of the world. There are millions of Asians targeted by the casinos there. "I think many of them are new to casino gaming and probably would not have the money to make the trip to come out to Las Vegas, but do have the money to go to Macau," Schwartz added.

In 2003, Eyewitness News went to Macau. In an interview there, Harald Bruning from the South China Morning Post said Macau gamblers bet larger amounts of money for a reason.

Bruning said, "They are convinced they are going to win. They believe in luck. Luck is what determines all of life, or lack of it."

At the moment life is good for the people who own casino properties in one of the world's fastest growing gaming meccas.

Gaming experts say Macau is one of those places in the world to try and get a foothold if you want to be a significant gaming company.

[SeeMacau]

Macau is on its way to become the new gambling headquarters of the world, nabbing the title from current holder Las Vegas. Already this year, Macau is expected to exceed Vegas in gambling revenue, which has helped the Chinese-ruled nation boast an economic growth rate of 25 percent, with private investment shooting through the roof at 47 percent. With only half the visitors as Las Vegas, Macau managed to shoot up to $5.1 billion in gambling revenue last year. Compared to Las Vegas' $5.3 billion, this year's predicted performance is not such a long shot.

Macau's gambling boon is expected to grow for years to come. According to one estimation, within three years, Macau's 16 casinos and 894 gaming tables will grow to at least 30 casinos and 3500 tables. Additionally, the increased demand for property, resulting in part from the casino invasion, has helped raise property prices by 50 percent.

[SeeMacau]

MACAU – As reported by the Australian: "Macau is poised to overtake Las Vegas as the gambling capital of the world before the end of the year.

"The more than 16 million visitors who poured into the former Portuguese enclave last year pushed gambling revenues in the island's casinos to A$5.1 billion (US$6.4 billion) for 2004.

"That's just a whisper behind Las Vegas' A$5.3b.

"Yet, Macau's received just half the number of visitors as the US gambling capital.

"Moreover, its gambling jumped 40 per cent last year alone, and is set to grow at 18 per cent a year for the next three years, forecast Mr Marc Falcone, gaming analyst at Deutsche Bank…"

[SeeMacau]

By Catherine Armitage
March 28, 2005

IN the late 1940s, the mobster Bugsy Segal dreamed an improbable dream that a desert town could turn into one of the US's biggest resorts.
Years later, long after Segal's associates had silenced him, Las Vegas shook off the mob to become not only the world's gambling capital, but the fastest growing city in the US.

Now gambling moguls such as Kerry Packer and Steve Wynn are hoping to pull off, without the mob connections, a similar transformation in Macau – turning what has been a sleazy sinkhole of smoky gambling dens, recycling reputedly ill-gotten cash, into a conference centre and a family-friendly international tourist destination.

Over the next few years, more than $US17 billion ($22 billion) is poised to plunge into this tiny former Portuguese enclave, sparking a building frenzy of hotels, casinos, resorts and shopping malls that will transform the territory for its 440,000 people.

Already Macau ranks among the fastest growing places in greater China with economic growth of 25 per cent last year and 47 per cent growth in private investment. It is set to blitz Las Vegas in gambling revenues this year and Australian companies have a front seat at the tables.

Packer's Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd is teaming up with Lawrence Ho, son of Macau gambling mogul Stanley Ho, to build a $HK1.5 billion ($250 million), six-star hotel and casino complex due to open next year. Meanwhile, poker machine maker Aristocrat Leisure is setting up in Macau after soaring sales in the territory helped it become the best performing large stock on the Australian stock market last year.

Sands casino founder Sheldon Adelson last week unveiled his grand vision for a gambling and tourism strip which he expects to outclass and out-earn anything Las Vegas has to offer.

The anchor property on what is now 4.7sqkm of soggy mudflats – reclaimed from the ocean to make two islands into one – is the $US1.8 billion, 3000 room Venetian Hotel. There are plans for at least eight major hotels and a shopping citadel where cashed-up new-rich Chinese can pay homage to some of the world's best known (and hopefully genuine) luxury brands. Within seven to 10 years, there could be 60,000 hotel rooms, Adelson says, predicting the whole project will cost up to $US15 billion.

Frank McFadden, the Irishman running the new Sands, has billed it as perhaps the world's single biggest tourist investment ever.

Seemingly in response, Lawrence Ho was quoted in the Financial Times saying the partnership between his company Melco and PBL would build a $US1 billion "mass market" casino to take on the Sands properties. This will dwarf the $US192 million Park Hyatt already under way, which will cater primarily for high rollers, who account for an estimated 70-80 per cent of existing Ho revenues.

Aristocrat has snared 50 per cent of poker machine sales to the stunningly lucrative new Sands in Macau, which has earned back its $US250 million investment in less than a year.

Since the mainland regained control in 1999, visitor numbers have more than tripled from 6 million a year to 16.7 million last year thanks to China's progressive lifting of restrictions on individual travel for its citizens. Macau gambling revenues surged around 40 per cent to $5.1 billion last year. That's just a whisker behind Las Vegas's $5.3 billion, with half the visitor numbers. Macau revenues will grow 18 per cent a year through to 2008, forecasts Marc Falcone, gaming analyst at Deutsche Bank, by which time gambling opportunities are expected to balloon from the current 16 casinos and 894 gaming tables to at least 30 casinos and 3500 tables. Analysts say property prices are up 50 per cent in the past 12 months, while a frenzy for "Macau concept" stocks has fuelled warnings of a dotcom-style bubble in the making.

Melco has been a big beneficiary, its share price more than doubling from $HK7.15 to $HK19.15 since last October. Wynn Resorts doubled in price on the Nasdaq last year while Sands has added more than 60 per cent since listing last December.

Sands is one of three groups to secure gambling licences after Macau's chief executive Edmund Ho (no relation) ended Stanley Ho's 40-year monopoly on gambling in the territory in 2002. Stanley Ho's Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) also got a licence, as did Wynn Resorts, whose owner Steve Wynn created the famed Vegas casinos Mirage and Bellagio. Wynn Resorts has a $US700 million resort under construction.

"We designed (the casino) to be the antithesis of what was existing. Where there were low ceilings there is height. Where there was darkness, there is bright," says McFadden of the Sands Macau.

So far, the non-smoking gambling area and floor-to-roof windows on the upper level are working their magic. The casino is already earning more than the company flagship, the Venetian in Las Vegas.

On a recent Wednesday evening, about 4000 people crowded around the baccarat tables while dancers shimmied on an adjacent stage with the action beamed from a giant video screen overhead.

Stanley Ho, having lost 30 per cent of the Macau gambling take to the newcomers, is fighting back with four new casinos in the past two years and big plans for more. This includes a $US250 million Grand Lisboa hotel/casino taking shape across the road from his ageing landmark Casino Lisboa, and a $US110 million Fisherman's Wharf theme park. Due to open in September, it will feature a spewing volcano, a Mississippi steamboat hotel, a Chinese fort and a faux Colosseum.

"We are Chinese and we will not be disgraced. We will not lose to the intruders," Ho vowed at a company function in September, according to the South China Morning Post.

Excavation work has begun on the PBL-Melco Park Hyatt site where last week two men were laboriously shovelling dirt into plastic bags while five cranes worked overhead. Phase one, a six-storey casino of 200 tables and 1300 poker machines, is due to open mid-2006. The hotel of 240 deluxe VIP suites promises "spaciousness and unrivalled luxury decor" follows in 2007.

PBL-Melco are spearheading a pokie push into Macau. Among the assets of the joint venture are three "Mocha slot lounges", cafe-style machine parlours through which Melco-PBL are trying to persuade Chinese punters of the pleasures of pokies.

While machines are the "bread and butter" of casinos elsewhere in the world, including Australia and the US, they contribute less than 3 per cent of Macau gambling revenues, according to Michael Swing, Ho's nephew and regional operations manager of SJM.

"The Chinese don't play slot machines, only on their way from the baccarat tables to the toilet. Now we have to educate them," Swing says.

Lawrence Ho has charge of the task. It looks like an uphill battle. On a weekday afternoon when The Australian called in to the Mocha slot lounge at the Hotel Royale, on a winding hilly street well away from the big downtown gambling venues, all of about 30 places at the electronic roulette tables were taken. By contrast only six of 41 machines were occupied.

One older lady who declined to give her name was pressing the buttons of "Warrior Woman". She plays the pokies when she has some free time because she doesn't know how to play the table games, she says. It doesn't worry her that the machines are covered in English writing which she can't read. "The machine will tell you if you've won," she says.

According to Swing, Chinese punters prefer playing the tables because they have a greater sense of influence in the choice of "lucky" cards. The Sands has put in 1800 machines but there, too, few punters appear to be using them. "I don't think this will be a slot-based gambling industry in the foreseeable future," McFadden says.

Analysts estimate the eventual market at about 20,000 machines, compared with 680,000 in the US and more than 200,000 in Australia.

Foisting machines on an uninterested clientele isn't the only gamble for the PBL-Melco joint venture. There's also the matter of whether the Victorian and West Australian gaming authorities will deem Melco a fit and proper business partner for PBL, as is required by the terms of PBL's licences to operate the Crown casino in Melbourne and the Burswood casino in Perth.

In 1986, the NSW authorities deemed Stanley Ho, chairman of Melco, "unsuitable" to hold a NSW gaming licence during the tender for Sydney's Star City casino.

Melco-PBL, whose joint venture aims to cover casino developments throughout Asia including Vietnam, Japan and Thailand, are also among more than 12 groups who have tendered for the casino or casinos being considered by the Singapore Government.

Singapore is hesitant to tarnish its squeaky-clean image by introducing a passtime known to attract vice. A PBL-Melco proposal might be a long shot.

On the border with the mainland at Zhuhai, stall operators reportedly take cash deposits well beyond the legal cross-border limits in return for the promise of waiting chips at the casino counters in Macau.

Michael Swing admits with disarming candour that the Lisboa is happy to send winnings to Hong Kong for gamblers in false names, that it's not uncommon for people to leave the casino carrying bags full of cash; that the notorious jailed triad leader Broken Tooth was well known at the Lisboa where he was a "nice guy" who "behaved well".

But the bad old days just before the 1999 handover, when Macau citizens were cowed by casino bombings and street warfare between triads, are over, says Swing, thanks to a Chinese government crackdown.

"Macau is so small, you can't hide, they will find you. China knows exactly which are the good guys and which are the bad guys," says Swing.

Yet Macau hardly featured in a recent, well-publicised crackdown on the illegal outflow of mainland funds which has forced casino closures just across the borders in North Korea, Burma, Vietnam and Russia.

China may be content to turn a somewhat blind eye to shady dealings in Macau, which it holds up as a winning example of the "one country, two systems" model – an example it hopes to use to win over Taiwan.

"Macau's achievements since its return are a great source of joy to all of us," Chinese President Hu Jintao told Macau's chief executive Tung Chee Wa last December.

With China's average income adding 8 per cent a year for the past 20 years, more than a billion people living within a three-hour flight of the city, and the apparently enthusiastic support of Beijing, Macau may be a fair bet for a while yet.

[SeeMacau]

Macau, China, Mar. 28 (UPI) -- Gambling moguls such as Australia's Kerry Packer and the Las Vegas' Steve Wynn are betting on Macau becoming the next the Las Vegas.

Some $22 billion is poised to be spent during the next few years on building hotels, casinos, resorts and malls in the former Portuguese enclave that now has a population of 440,000 and is considered a special administrative region of China.

Packer's Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. has partnered with Lawrence Ho, son of Macau gambling mogul Stanley Ho, to build a $250 million, six-star hotel and casino complex scheduled to open next year, The Australian reported Monday.

Wynn Resorts, which created the famed Las Vegas casinos Mirage and Bellagio, has a $700 million resort under construction.

Some 16 million visitors to Macau helped its gambling revenues grow 40 percent to $5.1 billion last year, just behind Las Vegas's $5.3 billion, The Australian said.

[SeeMacau]

8 April 2005

MACAU – As reported by the Agence France Presse: "…The rise of the casinos in the southern Chinese territory has been dubbed a miracle: GDP growth for 2004 is expected to pan out at a massive 26.5 percent and for 2005, between 15 and 20 percent.

"But with every silver lining comes a cloud, and the crushing of the gardens -- and many other beauty spots around the ancient city -- under the wheels of rampant economic development has become the focus of a growing discontent among many locals with the mushrooming gaming industry.

"While roulette and card tables are providing public finances and jobs for a tiny city of 450,000 people that 40 years ago relied on textiles and fishing, they are also bringing a host of undesirable social costs that have lowered the quality of life in this once sleepy enclave.

"…The race is on to provide not only homes for the growing workforce that is being drafted in from China, the Philippines and Hong Kong to staff the casinos but also to construct hotels, holiday homes and second homes for the increasingly affluent Chinese tourists who have swollen attendances in the century-old casino industry…"

[SeeMacau]

Casino operators are placing big bets on Macao with good reason. The former Portuguese enclave, which tore up its gambling monopoly in 2002, is set to overtake Las Vegas as the world's biggest gaming market this year. International operators are stacking the chips high.

Last month, Las Vegas Sands outlined plans for a $12bn-$15bn casino-and-hotel project. Melco International Development, the incumbent operator, and Australian tycoon Kerry Packer pledged more than $1bn for a new mass-market casino.

[SeeMacau]

The Las Vegas Sands Corp., together with world-renowned hotel brands and leading investment companies is currently developing a Las Vegas-style entertainment strip in Macau. The strip is a master planned development of resort casino properties on Cotai, an area of reclaimed land between the islands of Taipa and Coloane in Macau.

"By assembling an attractive group of world-class hotel brands, with the support of the Macau SAR government, this development will reposition the city as an international tourist and convention and exhibition destination," said Sheldon G. Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., as he unveiled a massive model of the proposed COTAI strip.

The first phase is scheduled to open in 2007, which will feature seven resort hotels offering more than 10,000 guestrooms set amidst lush tropical landscapes. In addition, there will be world-class meetings and convention facilities, over 20,000 seats of live entertainment in 8 separate theater venues and the most modern and exciting casinos in Asia.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. president William P. Weidner confided that the Dorset Hotel Group, Four Seasons, Hilton Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Regal Hotels, and Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide are involved with the project. "It took 75 years for Las Vegas to emerge as an entertainment destination. Our intention is to replicate that feat, for Macau, in less than 3 years.

[SeeMacau]

April 19 (Bloomberg) -- K. Wah Construction Materials Ltd., a Hong Kong-listed builder, said it plans to acquire 97.9 percent of a Macau casino operator for HK$18.4 billion ($2.4 billion) in new shares and other securities.

K. Wah Construction will buy Galaxy Casino SA from the Lui family, which controls the builder through K. Wah International Holdings Ltd., a unit of Guoco Group Ltd. and other shareholders of Galaxy, according to a joint statement today. Galaxy Casino, backed by K. Wah Chairman Lui Che-woo and Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp., operates a casino at the Waldo Hotel in Macau, the only place in China that allows casino gambling.

Galaxy, backed by K. Wah Chairman Lui Che-woo and Las Vegas Sands, won one of three gaming licenses in 2002 when Macau ended tycoon Stanley Ho's 40-year monopoly. Macau, the world's biggest gaming market after the Las Vegas Strip in 2004, has forecast gambling will contribute a bigger share of the economy in two years as casino operators such as Adelson add blackjack and roulette tables in their quest to replicate the Las Vegas Strip.

Macau last year had $5 billion in gambling revenue, up 44 percent from 2003. During the first two months of this year, Macau's gaming revenue was $831 million, compared with $947 million in the Las Vegas Strip, K. Wah said in the statement.

K. Wah plans to issue 1.84 billion new shares for HK$8 each to finance 80 percent of the purchase. The remainder would be financed through the sale of unsecured fixed-rate notes and possibly some cash, the statement said.

Gaming receipts by 2007 will account for 60 percent of gross domestic product, Manuel Joaquim das Neves, director of Macau's Gaming Control Board, said earlier this month. Macau's economy last year expanded a record 28 percent to 82.7 billion patacas ($10.3 billion), with gambling accounting for half the total. Galaxy Casino has posted profit of HK$72.7 million since the company began operating last July.

K. Wah Construction Material said it plans to change its name to Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. The builder forecasts Galaxy will need HK$5.74 billion in the next four years to 2009 to build a casino and hotel resort.

Adelson aims to fill Macau's Cotai, a stretch of reclaimed land in about the size of two football stadiums, in seven to 10 years with casino resorts providing 60,000 rooms. Galaxy's capital expenditure would be financed through debt and stock sales and internal cash, K. Wah said.

[huaiwei]

Now that Singapore has just approved the building of two casinos....how is the Macau media reacting to it?

[van_gogh]

In general, the media does not see Singapore openning casino as a threat. By the time that Singapore gets their first 2 casinos, Cotai Strip, Macau's MGM, Wynn, and Venetian would be completed already. Moreover, Macau is closer to China compared to Singapore and people will not travel that far to gamble when they can do it closer with better selections as well.

[SeeMacau]

I don't think there's much effect for Macau if singapore opens casinos because majority of the people gambling in Macau are those from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

[SeeMacau]

MGM Mirage Inc., the world's second-largest gaming company, said Tuesday that its joint venture partnership with Pansy Ho Chiu-king has been granted a subconcession, allowing the partnership to develop and operate hotel and casino resorts in Macau.

The subconcession was approved by the government of Macau SAR.

The initial project, to be called MGM Grand Macau, will be located on a waterfront site next to the planned Wynn Resorts facility and near the Lisboa hotel-casino. The MGM Grand Macau project will include the development of a resort featuring about 600 rooms, suites and villas, a casino including 300 table games and 1,000 slot machines, several restaurants and entertainment facilities.

The MGM Grand Macau will also have about 50,000 square feet available for future expansion. The project cost, including land and license rights, preopening and capitalized interest, is about $975 million.

Construction of the resort will begin in the second quarter of 2005 and is expected to open in 2007. MGM Grand Macau will be 50/50 owned and jointly operated by the two partners.

Pansy Ho is managing director of Shun Tak Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong-based conglomerate operating shipping, property, hospitality and investment businesses. Shun Tak will not participate in MGM Grand Paradise. In addition to her position with Shun Tak Holdings, Pansy Ho is chairman of the Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre.

MGM Mirage shares rose $1.27 to $71 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

[SeeMacau]

MACAU, The Macau government collected a record 3.82 billion patacas (US$478 million) in gaming taxes in the first quarter, up 24.1 percent from the same period last year, the Finance Services Bureau said..

Gross-revenue casino taxes made up 77.29 percent of total government revenue of 4.94 billion patacas between January and March.

Macau is the only place in gambling-mad China where casinos are legal. Its 17 casinos, which are run by three rival operators, pay 35 percent of their gross revenue as direct tax to the public coffers.

In the first quarter, the government's total expenditure amounted to 2.73 billion patacas, an increase of 18.7 percent on the same period last year.

The government's overall surplus reached 2.19 billion patacas between January and March.

Macau's economy grew by 28 percent in real terms last year, the government announced earlier this month. Tourism, gambling and textile and garment exports are the mainstay's of the tiny territory's economy.

[SeeMacau]

Hong Kong property tycoon Lui Che-woo has agreed to sell his casino in Macao to a construction firm controlled by his family for HK$18.4bn which will give the gaming business a listing in the territory.

K Wah Construction materials, which has proposed to change its name to Galaxy Entertainment Group, will become the first Hong Kong-listed casino operator amid a growing frenzy for gambling businesses in the region. Singapore said this week it would build two casino resorts by 2009.