{"id":28058,"date":"2020-09-29T11:52:40","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T19:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=28058"},"modified":"2020-10-05T10:54:20","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T18:54:20","slug":"vegas-mixed-message-china-puts-the-squeeze-on-macao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/vegas-mixed-message-china-puts-the-squeeze-on-macao\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegas’ mixed message; China puts the squeeze on Macao"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Is the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> coming back? Yes and no, to judge by hotel rates for the October 18-24 period. They’re 50% 0ff last year’s but with a severe dichotomy between weekdays and weekends. For instance, Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> (even without Palazzo<\/strong> midweek) is -63% on weekdays, -15% on weekends. Wynncore<\/strong> is almost identical: -63% weekdays, -16% weekends. Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>‘s midweek numbers are a little more respectable\u201449% down\u2014but it’s 30% off the pace on weekends, while MGM Resorts International<\/strong> is -56% midweek and -31% weekends. Even so, at least according to MGM, it’s cheaper to keep a hotel open, even at greatly diminished occupancy, than to shutter it. But with no conventions on the schedule, you can see how badly that’s hurting the resorts across the board, even Wynn Resorts<\/strong>, which only recently starting vying for conventioneers. Can the Strip get by on leisure travelers? It has no choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indicative of this, Caesars announced the Oct. 8 reopening<\/a> of Planet Hollywood<\/strong>\u2014with weekend-only hotel bookings. At least the spa and (more importantly) the William Hill<\/strong> sports book. Meanwhile, it’s official that Virgin Hotel<\/strong> is going to open<\/a> on Jan. 15. It’s been the worst-kept secret in town, after Hilton Curio<\/strong>‘s Web site blabbed about it a couple of months back. This is hardly the end of the world. Far from it. The New Year’s Eve hubbub having died down, Virgin will have the headlines to itself and a clearer runway to establishing a Vegas identity. Besides, even if the brand equity is unclear at this point, there should be plenty of novelty factor going for Virgin, bringing a solid first wave of business. Also, convention ought<\/em> to be coming back at that point and it’s hoped that Coronavirus<\/strong> will have abated. (Perhaps the biggest imponderable of all.) Virgin will be replete with exotic eateries, so it will be a must-visit for the foodie crowd, not to mention everybody curious to see what the new look of the former Hard Rock Hotel<\/strong> will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Macao<\/strong> casinos find themselves between a rock and a hard place, as Beijing<\/strong> clamps down on the movement of cash and high rollers retaliate by pulling their funds<\/a> from junketeers, hobbling VIP tourism to the enclave. Reuters described the capital flight as an “unprecedented stampede.” This comes at a time when casinos had been banking on an imminent comeback in VIP play, a devilish turn of events. The central government may have the last laugh\u2014despite being unamused by the defection of high rollers to overseas markets\u2014by blacklisting VIPs from certain foreign jurisdiction. No names are mentioned but the Philippines<\/strong> springs to mind. With VIP play accounting for half of Macao’s $36.5 billion\/year haul, the guvmint’s desire to make the whale disport themselves close to home is understandable, if decidedly authoritarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports Global Gaming Business<\/em>, “The junkets have been a mainstay of the Macau industry for their ability to recruit high rollers on the mainland, where casino marketing is prohibited, arrange for their travel and accommodations and other perks and bankroll their wagering in contravention of China<\/strong>\u2019s strict currency controls.” The casinos are making some CYA moves of their own, cutting the amount of chips that can be issued by 80%, to $129,000. Credit Suisse<\/strong> analysts forecast the high-roller pullback will \u201cscale down over the next few years, dragging the pace of recovery.\u201d It may also spill into the coveted premium-mass sector, on which companies like Wynn Resorts and MGM China<\/strong> are dependent. \u201cWithout a healthy VIP junket system, casinos would lose one of the key sources to grow their premium mass players, as these players lost one of their major channels to move money,” explains Credit Suisse. To compound the pinch, it comes as visitation to Macao is finally recovering<\/a>, up 200% in August from the preceding month (but 93% from the same time last year). However you slice it, Macao has a long road to recovery, one that might even make Las Vegans feel smug\u2014and who could blame them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jottings<\/strong>: Emboldened by the opening of its first Barstool Sports<\/strong>-branded book in Pennsylvania<\/strong>, majority owner Penn National Gaming<\/strong> issued $1 billion worth of new shares. Penn hopes to capture the same sort of investors who have flocked to DraftKings<\/strong> … “Fraudulent acts” as the boss of Universal Entertainment<\/strong> are going to cost former CEO Kazuo Okada<\/strong> $204,000 in Japanese fines. Okada is becoming one of the biggest losers in gaming … Ever heard of the Nevada Gambling Treatment Diversion Court<\/strong>? It’s a forum for people who have overstepped the law while in the throes of disordered gambling and Judge Cheryl Moss<\/strong> runs it with solomonic wisdom<\/a> … Rivers Casino Philadelphia<\/strong> is being accused of sweeping Covid-19<\/strong> problems under the rug and not enforcing<\/a> safety standards. Said one employee, \u201cThe supervisors are afraid of the players. They haven\u2019t been trained properly and they\u2019re afraid to say something.\u201d To add insult to injury, workers had to take a 15% pay cut when they returned. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is the Las Vegas Strip coming back? Yes and no, to judge by hotel rates for the October 18-24 period. They’re 50% 0ff last year’s but with a severe dichotomy between weekdays and weekends. For instance, Las Vegas Sands (even … 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":[65,291,244,275,274,14,283,188,241,62,245,69,95,6,90,25,242,243,9,19,263,38,252,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28058"}],"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=28058"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28065,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28058\/revisions\/28065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}