Well, as the saying goes, it´s a dirty job (but someone´s got to do it). We are heading to Macau: Asia´s (and some would say the world´s) casino hub today.
The Banyan Tree, Macau
This former Portuguese territory is a short jet-foil trip across thre Pearl River delta from Hong Kong. It´s booomed in the last decade to overtake Las Vegas as the world´s largest gambling town.
And there´s still plenty of development going on, even though the numbers coming out of this Special Administartive Region of China (S.A.R.) this year don´t look as rosy as they have previously.
Melco Crown and Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. are opening new palaces this year, then Wynn Macau, MGM China Holdings Ltd. and Sands China Ltd. are opening more in 2016.
The Chinese government has recently requested that the big companies diversify more in to entertainment, to match the broader offer of Las Vegas. It looks like this is falling on open ears, as all the developers seem to be singing from the same song book.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s big crackdown on corruption, his anti-vice campaign and a slowing economy have resulted in a 10-month reduction in gross gaming revenues in Macao. The casinos can no longer rely on the baccarat high roller to bring the money in. They need to attract more families and that means better entertainment, world class shopping and
We´re going to take a look at the Banyan Tree in Macau, and then head for the Cotai strip to see how this town compares to Vegas.
In March, Macau saw a 39.4% decline in year on year gaming revenue, the 10th monthly decline in a row. The total of 21.5 billion Macau patacas was up 10% higher than the February figure, however.
Analysts expect April and May revenue to decline by a third versus last year. Should be some deals to be had then!
