{"id":15262,"date":"2014-12-22T11:13:58","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T19:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15262"},"modified":"2023-05-21T04:39:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-21T12:39:43","slug":"macao-pressure-for-change-stanley-ho-into-south-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/macao-pressure-for-change-stanley-ho-into-south-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Macao: Pressure for change; Stanley Ho into South Korea?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite having only one-tenth as many hotel rooms as Las Vegas<\/strong>, the enclave of Macao<\/strong> is feeling the pressure to develop a more tourism-oriented business model. China’s president, \"Venetian<\/a>Xi Jinping<\/strong> visited Macao last weekend and dropped a few strong hints. His desire: “to focus on building a global tourism and leisure centre and to promote appropriately diversified and sustainable development.\u201d He warned that \u201cwhile Macao has enjoyed rapid economic development in the past years, certain deep-seated problems have surfaced and development risks have also built up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to President Xi’s speech,\u00a0Central People\u2019s Government Liaison Office<\/strong> Director Li Gang<\/strong> was less roundabout, telling the New York Times<\/em>,\u00a0\u201cThe dominance of one industry can lead the city to prosperity, but it also can lead to its demise.\u201d Li, Xi and others would seem to \"Grand-Lisboa\"<\/a>prefer a more middle-class-dominated Macao, with greater\u00a0emphasis on sightseeing, less on gambling. With 80% or more of the economy driven by gaming, that’s not an easy or overnight solution. Attempts to broaden the Macanese appeal have been spasmodic — the failure of Cirque du Soleil<\/strong>‘s Zaia<\/em> lingers in the memory. But operators are not so easily deterred<\/a>. Reports the Times<\/em>, “Casino resorts are using diverse approaches \u2014 like Shrek-themed breakfast buffets for families and boxing title fights \u2014 to attract mainland Chinese visitors who will spend at least some of their vacation money away from the tables.”<\/p>\n

Although Macao is being pressured to be more like Las Vegas, it may have to watch against things — like high table minimums — that keep cost-conscious tourists away. With the opening of Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>‘ Parisian<\/strong> coming at the end of what is expected to be a flat 2015<\/a> and leading a wave of new megaresorts into the market, Macanese operators are going to need every trick in the book as they more fiercely compete with themselves.<\/p>\n

* One Macao operator who’s branching out elsewhere is Stanley Ho<\/strong>‘s SJM Holdings<\/strong>. The new target of opportunity is South Korea<\/strong>.\u00a0Paradise Co<\/strong>. and Sega Sammy Holdings Inc<\/strong>. are building a $1.2 billion casino, Paradise City<\/strong>, near Incheon International Airport<\/strong> but need casino-running expertise. Enter Ho’s company, sources say. It’s adjacent to the Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>\/Lippo Ltd<\/strong>. project but will be open roughly a year earlier. Sega Sammy, a panchinko manufacturer, is hoping to leverage SJM’s brand equity with Chinese gamblers, Seoul<\/strong>‘s customer of choice.<\/p>\n

“A spokeswoman for SJM declined to comment, while Lee Sang Yeon<\/strong>, planning department executive director at the venture between Paradise and Sega Sammy said the report is ‘unfounded,'” reported Bloomberg News<\/strong>. For all its cost, the casino will be small by American standards: 160 tables and 350 slot machines.<\/p>\n

* Another Communist stronghold that could be penetrated by the gaming industry is Cuba<\/strong>. If moves to normalize relationships between the U.S.<\/strong> and Cuba succeed, it’s expected that gambling could return … but not for a decade<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cSo many steps would need to be taken before it becomes a realistic pursuit,\u201d said Spectrum Gaming Group<\/strong>‘s Michael Pollock<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

* Last week’s casino approvals in New York<\/strong> have sent the Wall Street Journal<\/em>‘s Jason Riley<\/strong> into a fierce snit<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite having only one-tenth as many hotel rooms as Las Vegas, the enclave of Macao is feeling the pressure to develop a more tourism-oriented business model. China’s president, Xi Jinping visited Macao last weekend and dropped a few strong hints. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[80,7,22,62,53,101,33,12,187,61,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15262"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32657,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262\/revisions\/32657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}