Macau fortunes looking brighter

Macau – 02 February 2017 – 
Casino revenue in Macau increased in January, extending the industry’s recovery to a sixth consecutive month, while falling short of analysts’ estimates, Bloomberg reported.

Gross gaming revenue rose 3.1 percent to 19.3 billion patacas (US$2.4 billion), according to data from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. That compares with the median estimate of an 8.5 percent rise by eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg and follows an 8 percent increase in December.

The world’s biggest gaming hub is switching gears to woo tourists and casual gamblers with family-friendly resorts, including Wynn Macau’s US$4.4 billion Palace casino featuring a synchronised fountain show and Sands China’s US$2.9 billion Parisian with its Eiffel Tower replica.

While a recovery has been gathering momentum, the new casinos have been drawing visitors at the expense of some older properties.

“Macau’s latest wave of new resorts poses the classic gambler’s risk-reward dilemma,” wrote Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Brian Egger and Margaret Huang. “Additions are key to Macau revenue recovery and long-term growth, yet entail challenges.”

Those challenges include new resorts posing a cannibalisation threat to other Macau peninsula properties and margin pressure as a hotel surplus increases room rate cuts, according to the analysts.

Las Vegas Sands president Rob Goldstein said last week that its US$2.9 billion Parisian casino in Macau, known for its Eiffel Tower replica, gained traffic and posted net revenue while denting patronage at its Sands Cotai Central property.