![\"HotelLisboa\"](\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/HotelLisboa.jpg\" "\\"HotelLisboa\\"")
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Compared to the acrimony currently flowing on the Strip, a stunning new policy directive from across the Pacific practically qualifies as “happy-talk news” …<\/em><\/p>\n With casino revenues increasing at a jet-propelled pace, China<\/strong> has yet again applied the brakes to Macao<\/strong>‘s casino industry. However, instead of limiting access to the protectorate, it’s putting a lid on casino development<\/a> per se<\/em>. Basically, if the government of Fernando Chui<\/strong> hasn’t signed off on your project already (a process that moves at glacial pace), you’re stuck with what you’ve got. As reported by Reuters<\/strong>, the immediate ramifications of Chui’s proclamations aren’t evident but Macquarie Securities<\/strong> analyst Gary Pinge<\/strong> cut to the chase: “We believe that the underlying message is no further casinos will be built on Macau in the foreseeable future<\/em>.”<\/p>\n The Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>‘s Howard Stutz<\/strong> shines a light through some of the opacity<\/a> surrounding Chui’s speech, which puts a damper on the Cotai Strip™<\/strong> in general and Wynn Cotai<\/strong> in particular. The Macao chief executive’s decree could be a blessing in disguise for Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>, not only limiting his competition in Cotai but forestalling Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>‘ precipitous rush to build two additional casinos — on top of those already begun — in “Asia’s Las Vegas™.” (That Adelsonian coinage says a lot about where U.S. companies have gone astray in Macao but that’s a subject for another occasion.) Sands, you might say, has been saved from itself.<\/p>\n Score<\/em>: Adelson 1, Wynn 0. Steve Wynn<\/strong>, in particular, may have cause to eat some bullish sentiments he recently uttered in re<\/em> Macao: “We can’t think of a better place to build it, all things considered, namely the workforce and government policy<\/em>.” [emphasis added] Although Encore Macau<\/strong> gives Wynn a very good shot at equaling Sands’ Macanese market share or nudging Adelson into third place, the present ranking of the market as Stanley Ho<\/strong>, Adelson, Wynn and Everybody Else has been all but frozen into place by Chui’s edict.<\/p>\n With land and housing at a premium<\/strong> — to say nothing of the domestic tsuris<\/em> occasioned by the use of labor imported from the mainland — Chui’s determination to repatriate land for low-cost housing also marks a significant new policy direction. In a seemingly unrelated development, talks between Macao and Guangdong Province<\/strong> bear watching, especially if their upshot is round-the-clock overland access between the two … lessening demand for Macao’s bumper crop of new hotel rooms.<\/p>\n Casino executives and analysts who scoff at Chui’s threat to reclaim undeveloped casino land and call it “political posturing<\/a>” do so at their own peril. Maintenance of domestic and economic equilibrium in Macao have long been priority issues for Peking<\/strong>. There’s also the small matter of historical Chinese resentment (not ill-founded) toward Western nations and corporate interests carving out “spheres of influence.” If Macao looks like it’s becoming a distant outpost of Las Vegas<\/strong>, there’s certain to be backlash — if we’re not seeing it already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Compared to the acrimony currently flowing on the Strip, a stunning new policy directive from across the Pacific practically qualifies as “happy-talk news” … With casino revenues increasing at a jet-propelled pace, China has yet again applied the brakes to … Continue reading