A flurry of good news to end the week, starting in Macao:
September, the first month affected by a relaxation of severe visa restrictions imposed on the mainland, saw a 53% jump in Macanese gambling revenues. In terms of market share, Stanley Ho opened a big lead on Sheldon Adelson, 30% to 20%, with Melco Crown Entertainment close behind with 16%. The remainder of the market was divvied between Wynn Resorts (14%), MGM Mirage (10%) and Galaxy Entertainment (8%).
Is Melco’s City of Dreams (above) eating into nearby Venetian Macao‘s business? On the surface, it certainly looks plausible. Given the immensity of the facilities he’s building on the Cotai Strip™, Adelson ought to be getting more bang for his pataca.
Vegas hearts gays. Earlier today, I was asked to reflect on my nearly 11 years in Las Vegas. It’s been full of surprising twists of fate — who ever thought Steve Wynn would be forced out of the Mirage brand he’d created, just for starters?
But I sure as heck never imagined I’d open my e-mail box at work and find the following casino promotions, all keyed to National Coming Out Day (Oct. 3):
“Two Queens Beat a Straight” (New York-New York)
… or the slightly more innocuous …
“COME OUT and Celebrate at Luxor“
(Luxor was smart and didn’t offer Criss F. Angel tickets as part of the, uh, package)
In the Vegas of even a few years ago, “Boys’ Night Out Package at Excalibur” would have had more of a frat-party connotation. MGM Grand plays it safe with a “His or Her Getaway” which sounds like a generic singles-oriented deal. Even so, we’re actually seeing progress from the days when Vegas marketed itself as a synonym for a very debauched and jaundiced vision of male heterosexuality.
There’s nothing like a depression to make this a party town of equal-opportunity decadence. After all, LGBT dollars spend just as fast as straight ones.
$545 a night. That’s what Mandarin Oriental is asking. If you read the fine print, you’ll note that (through March 31), if you buy a room night at that rate, you’ll get a comped night, too. Which makes the effective rate $272 and change. By current standards, that’s still steep … but maybe staying in a 392-room hotel instead of a 4,000-room behemoth is an intangible added value. What do you think?
