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Aug 2007 • MOP 30 Macau Bottlenecks The Walls Have Eyes Crown Revisited Out of Australia Facilities to draw a new breed of visitor Changing Macau’s Profile Aug 2007 Changing Macau’s Profile Page 6 ~ Changing Macau’s Visitor Profile 4 Page 12 ~ Macau Development Bottlenecks 12 Page 19 ~ The Walls Have Eyes 18 Page 26 ~ Vendor Profile - Videobet 22 Page 28 ~ Destination Singapore 26 Page 32 ~ Crown Revisited 30 Page 34 ~ Riding Asia’s Slot Wave 32 Page 36 ~ Out of Australia 34 Page 40 ~ Regional Briefs 36 Page 42 ~ International Briefs 40 Page 4442 ~ Online Briefs Page 4644 ~ Going Global 45 2 3 4 Editorial Changing Macau’s Profile Sands Macao may have become the biggest table-gaming casino city. When Sands Macao opened, it had a slot to table ratio of 1.46, but in the world, and generates more gaming revenue than many coun- Venetian’s ratio at opening will be 5.06. High returns from putting in tries—last month, Inside Asian Gaming visited the Philippines (report more tables had previously discouraged investment in slot machines to appear in next issue), and while the various casinos were hives of in Macau, but the tide is clearly turning as both table and slot capacity activity, the entire country’s gaming revenue was less than half the show explosive growth, but wins per slot have remained steady while revenue of Sands Macao. wins per table have declined. The properties opening to date in Macau have concentrated pri- The capacity increase has boosted overall casino revenue, which marily on gambling. Sands Macao famously scaled back its high-end jumped 47.5% year-on-year in the first half of 2007 to US$4.7 billion. dining venues to make way for more tables and its 700-seat theatre The Venetian Macao opening could help drive revenue towards or has yet to stage a performance, over three years after Sands’ opening. even past the US$10 billion mark for the year. Wynn Macau closed down its Tryst nightclub, and plans to replace it Ever-bullish Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) says it expects full occu- with more VIP gaming space. MGM Mirage CEO Terry Lanni, mean- pancy at the 3,000 all-suite Venetian Macao soon after opening. Ac- while, told Inside Asian Gaming that MGM Grand Macau, scheduled to cording to LVS President William Weidner, occupancy is expected to open later this year, will not have any significant entertainment com- reach 85% to 95% about a month into business ponent, taking a “wait and see approach” to installing such facilities “We expect the hotel to be wall-to-wall by October,” said Mr once proven demand appears for them. Weidner, adding that the property isn’t targeting just gamblers, but The US$2.4 billion Venetian Macao, when it opens on August 28, other vacationers and business visitors as well, thus lengthening the will take the bold step of offering expansive and diversified entertain- duration of each stay. Visitors to Macau currently stay a mere 1.1 days ment, dining, retail and of course convention and exhibition facilities. on average, and increasing the length of stay would have an expo- It will give an important first indication of whether Macau can evolve nential impact on hotel demand and occupancy. into a diversified tourism hub in the Vegas mould, or will remain driv- Mr Weidner expects the average guest at Venetian Macao to stay en solely by hardcore gambling. three to four days, He also predicts the property will draw 40,000 visi- The new demographic of visitor drawn to Macau by the com- tors per day in its initial phase. In addition to the casino, the property ing wave of mega resorts will dramatically alter the tourism and also will feature 1.2 million sq. ft of convention and exhibition space, and gaming landscapes. Slot machines contributed a mere 4.2% of casino almost a million sq. ft of retail areas. Venetian Macao also boasts a revenue in Macau in the second quarter of 2006, compared to close to 15,000 seat stadium for staging sporting and entertainment specta- 70% in Vegas as a whole (and over 50% on the Strip). cles, and a 1,800-seat theatre, which will host a permanent Cirque du Macau’s slot revenue is already showing explosive percentage Soleil show from next year. growth as traditionally table-loving Chinese gamblers finally start Including Venetian Macao, LVS has a combined US$12 billion trusting and becoming familiar with gaming machines—slots made worth of investment in progress on Macau’s Cotai Strip. LVS plans to up a mere 0.8% of revenue in 2003. Hyperlinks and jackpots have stock Cotai with 20,000 high-end rooms in various hotels, along with proved especially popular with Chinese players seeking a big win. hundreds of restaurants and shops, a labyrinth of expo facilities and While slots will continue to consolidate their following among Chi- performance stages. nese players, the rise of gaming machines in Macau will be fuelled by Other operators also have big plans for Cotai, with Melco PBL the arrival of more international tourists, drawn by the mega resorts. Entertainment planning to unveil the US$2.47 billion City of Dreams “While Macau’s gaming market today is predominantly driven by complex by the end of 2008, and the US$2 billion Macao Studio City mainland China and Hong Kong, what will be interesting to see is the set to open in 2009. influence players from different countries will have on the market as Several bottlenecks stand in the way of the massive development the Venetian opening on Cotai drives an influx of convention visitors underway, as outlined on page 12, but once the mega resorts arrive to the city,” says Aristocrat General Manager Asia Pacific Ken Jolly (in- in Macau, the big money is betting that the new facilities will indeed terviewed on page 34 of this issue). draw a new breed of visitor to the city. The half-million sq. ft casino at Venetian Macao will devote a lot Kareem Jalal more of its floor space to slot machines than any other casino in the We crave your feedback. Please send your comments to [email protected] Editor and Publisher Kareem Jalal Inside Asian Gaming is published by Director Must Read Publications Ltd João Costeira Varela Suite 1907, AIA Tower, 215A-301 Av. Comercial de Macau - Macau Business Development Manager Tel: (853) 6646 0795 Ricardo Carvalho Operations Manager For subscription enquiries, please email [email protected] Jos Abecassis For advertising enquiries, please email [email protected] Contributors Gavin Ho, Gary Pinge, Richard Marcus, Tom Skotnicki, Charles Anderer or call: (853) 6646 0795 Photography www.asgam.com Ike Graphic Designers Brenda Chao 5 Changing Macau’s Visitor Profile Macau’s tourism market is currently dominated by day-tripping gamblers. The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel will kickstart the push to extend the average length of stay, and draw a more diversified visitor demographic to the city. In his recent comprehensive report on Macau’s gaming industry, Macau Mania II—Battle Royale, CLSA’s Gavin Ho discusses the impact the opening of sprawling integrated resorts such as the Venetian, Macao Studio City and City of Dreams will have on Macau’s tourism and gaming market One of the major differences between Importance of repeat travel in Las Vegas a Las Vegas and Macau casino property to- day is scale. While a typical property on the Las Vegas Strip would offer a variety of activi- ties and choices beyond gambling and lodg- ing (including fine dining, entertainment and shows, golf, spa and other resort activities), the basics are almost all that the Macau prop- erties have on offer presently. This could be part of the reason for the currently short visits to Macau; another is the much stronger affinity for gambling among the Chinese. An average visitor will spend 3.5 nights during a trip to Las Vegas; while more than 50% of Macau visitors are same-day travellers, and report an average stay of 1.2 nights per visit. With the opening of the 3,000-suite Ve- Source: Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority netian Macao on August 28, the IRs will soon prove if they are able to take Macau to the next level, as they did to Las Vegas in the To become another prominent gaming business. This complements the vacation and 1970s to 1990s. The next growth driver will and entertainment hub like Las Vegas, Macau holiday travel and helps fill the rooms during have to come from either expansion of mar- needs repeat travellers. Today, 82% of the Las weekdays and of course the casinos and oth- ket segment or extended visits by existing Vegas visitors are repeat travellers, and the er entertainment venues at night. Macau’s visitors, or both. results from our survey point to a similar 83% coming IRs will narrow the hotel occupancy To examine the first driver, we examined for Macau. To keep that ratio high, even Las gap between Macau (about 70%) and Las Ve- the statistics on China tourism, and found visi- Vegas needs to erect new and state-of- the- gas (about 90%), with convention and enter- tor growth to Macau has been rising at a faster art properties from time to time. tainment adding to the value proposition. Conventions are a major component of pace than China’s outbound travellers, indi- The pipeline of new IR launches will cating the territory is more and more an easy Las Vegas visitors and revenue, with six mil- sustain Macau for at least another decade.