One shouldn’t read too much into anything the Macao government says about casino operators. It likes to keep them guessing — especially U.S. ones. Still, it’s worth noting that Secretary for Economy & Finance Francis Tam Pak Yuen has floated the idea of moving concession renewals forward to 2015. This throws a slight pall of uncertainty over both MGM Resorts International and Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, which have Cotai Strip resort projects in train. All four other resort developers would have until 2017. The scarier part of Yuen’s suggestion is that casino concessions be put up for auction. He’s probably just messing with the heads of Sheldon Adelson and his ilk, but one never knows. Caesars Entertainment desperately needs to be in Macao as something other than a golf-course owner. That prospect is virtually the only thing standing between the company and disaster. If there’s a chance Caesars could do it, that might buy it time from Wall Street. But where’s Gary Loveman going to raise the capital? If he has to go against deep-pocketed Genting Group, which has made its intentions known, the battle’s as good as lost.
As I’ve been saying, the casino industry has bumped up against the limits of demand in the U.S., even retrenched a bit. The Press of Atlantic City has done an in-depth study along those lines and reaches a similar conclusion. Every market, it seems, is robbing Peter to pay Paul, whether it’s Delaware 
racinos losing players to “category killer” casinos in Maryland or Atlantic City continuing to suffer at the hands of Pennsylvania … which now faces competition from Ohio and New York. And New Hampshire keeps its head buried in the sand. One question is: Go big or go home? As reporter Donald Wittkowski summarizes Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Director Clyde W. Barrow, “the fierce competition will lead to more casino bankruptcies. That, in turn, will give bargain hunters opportunities to buy casinos on the cheap.” Or, like Tropicana Entertainment CEO Anthony Rodio (right), do you believe, “that the slumping Atlantic City market is on the brink of a comeback, mostly because he believes other casinos in the Northeast simply don’t have the attractions to compete with the resort town“? Whichever way you lean, Barrow’s notion that “table games and slots are just like a commodity” is certainly compelling.
Silly Season Dept.: Tribal casinos have “become one of the state leading economic generators” in Oklahoma. So opines the Tulsa World, before deciding they’re a bad thing. Instead of offering concrete solutions the paper simply reiterates familiar self-flagellation.
