In a nodal moment for Macao, mass-market gambling revenue constituted the majority of monies collected during 1Q19. This is the first time that mass-market winnings have surpassed VIP ones. VIP
baccarat revenue was down 16% while mass-market win was up 16%. VIPs left $4.6 billion behind on the felt, while mass-market players put $5.3 billion into the slots and onto the tables. This makes mass-market gambling over 51% of the Macanese total, an unprecedented event. The average player is getting a taste for baccarat, with mass-market action up 19.5%, bringing it to 39% of market share. Slot play ($460 million) was on the downturn, albeit a lucrative downturn. Electronic table games, however, are catching on, up 6.5%. At $82 million won, they still have a ways to go.
* Back when Midnight Jim Gibbons was governor of Nevada, he discouraged the cultivation of overseas (read: China) tourist markets in favor of putting all the state’s eggs in the California basket. A good thing no one listened to him. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, tourism from the Golden State was way off last year, down 19%, making for an 8% decline in the last four years. At least the casino industry’s courtship of Millennials finds vindication, as they represented 38% of Las Vegas visitors, compared to 30% Baby Boomers and 31% Generation X.
* Lawrence Ho, one of the most creative of casino owners, has rolled out a series of environmental targets for Melco Resorts & Entertainment. By 2030 he aims to make his company carbon neutral, 
to achieve zero waste from his resort properties and to reduce emissions in a variety of categories. Melco’s Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility Report, issued yesterday, further states that “In 2016, Melco became the first operator in Asia to deploy real-time facial recognition security systems at every entrance to our gaming areas in Macau, assisting self exclusion … The technology uses biometric indicators to prevent restricted individuals from entering the casino floor, while complying with data privacy requirements.”
This is music to the ears of Japan, which wants to bar as many disordered gamblers from its future casino floors as possible. Melco’s “biometric intelligence system” aims to do precisely that and is designed to interface with Japan’s MyNumber I.D. card. Ho has already shown off the technology in Nippon and no doubt it will make a compelling part of his pitch to land a casino in the Land of the Rising Sun.
* Sic transit gloria Okada. The new owners of Okada Manila are contemplating a rebranding of the property, which bears disgraced gaming mogul Kazuo Okada‘s name. Is this the unkindest cut of all?
