Why is this man smiling?
Gambling revenue in Macao jumped a whopping 48% last month, as customers left $1.4 billion in casino coffers. No surprise, Stanley Ho‘s casinos continued to maintain their 30% market share, followed by Sands China at 23%. Fighting for a distant third were Wynn Macau (15%), Melco Crown Entertainment (12%) and Galaxy Entertainment (11.5%). Recent gains by MGM Grand appear to have eroded, as the joint venture with Pansy Ho didn’t quite reach the 9% mark. Analysts at J.P. Morgan had only expected 30% growth … prompting one to wonder if this geyser of cash from Mainland China will spur Peking to tighten the monetary pipeline again.
Casino executives like Sheldon Adelson and ex-sidekick William Weidner, who liked to disparage Nevada’s economy and idolize China’s, ought to have given more thought to the Chinese’s government’s ability — and willingness — to micromanage the Macanese economy like a kitchen stove. Unlike, Las Vegas, upward surges in Macao’s casino business are always accompanied by the fretful prospect of another intervention by the not-so-invisible hand of the “control economy.”
