After frequent demurrals, the Victoria government has ‘fessed up that it was on the receiving end of ham-fisted lobbying by Crown Casino owner James Packer. A delicate quid pro quo (higher taxes in return for more table games) was being negotiated. But, not wanting to leave anything to chance, Packer personally besieged both Victoria’s premier and treasurer in re Crown.
The state comes out of this looking worse than Packer, though, as witnessed by this weaselly attempt at damage control: “The Government is adamant that any expansion of Crown’s gaming tables was under discussion for a long time and that poker was a less addictive form of gambling than poker machines.” [Emphasis added] So I guess that makes it all copacetic, right?
Lawrence Ho & James Packer: less to smile about these days
Hammered in Macao. Packer’s new City of Dreams is getting stomped by nearby Venetian Macao. VIP baccarat play for Melco Crown Entertainment properties was off 19% — which is even worse than its sounds when you count on it for 60% of your total gambling revenues. Mass-market baccarat play was 12% up, so there’s some consolidation. (Meanwhile, in some parallel universe, the Wall Street Journal is nattering on about a “brighter outlook” for Macao, even as revenue continues to decline and City of Dreams flops. Visitation was -16% in June and the Mainland China subset of that was -22%.)
A good thing for Sheldon Adelson that Venetian Macao’s play is so strong. Bloomberg News reports that 85% of Las Vegas Sands‘ Macanese revenue is casino-derived … which ought to raise serious questions about Adelson’s hotel-, retail- and convention-premised Cotai Strip™ business model.
