{"id":282,"date":"2009-10-13T20:41:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-14T00:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/10\/13\/Macao-giveth-Macao-taketh-away"},"modified":"2009-10-13T20:41:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-14T00:41:00","slug":"macao-giveth-macao-taketh-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/macao-giveth-macao-taketh-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Macao giveth, Macao taketh away"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Casino operators in Macao<\/strong> better make the most of the recent relaxation of visa quotas into the enclave. What the government gives with one hand, it partly reclaims<\/a> with the other. Casino expansion remains out of the question and the minimum age for gambling would go up to 21, from 18, under a bill draft soon to be put forward. (Steve Wynn<\/strong> can afford to be sanguine<\/a>, as it's far more likely to impact his mass-market-oriented competitors. Investors didn't share his enthusiasm<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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If Wynn — who continues to toe the Peking<\/strong> party line — comes out a winner, facing negligible "obstacables," Lawrence Ho<\/strong> is the presumptive loser. As best S&G<\/em> can ascertain, the curtailment of gambling in residential areas<\/a> is aimed at his Mocha<\/strong> slot routes, one of the younger Ho's bread-and-butter enterprises.<\/p>\n

Another proposal awaiting action by the Macanese Lege would cap table-game inventory. Writes J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong>, "we believe the Macau government believes the timing is right to implement these initiatives given the completion of the commission cap rule and the resumption of growth in the industry … if the number of tables will be limited to 1,000 per operator, [Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>] may need to modify its future expansion plans, as it is already over the limit, while SJM<\/strong> will need to close down some of the older tables operated by the third parties, as it too is already over the limit<\/em>."<\/p>\n

None of this appears to bode especially well for Sands' long-in-coming IPO<\/a>, although it remains to be seen whether this is a bonafide legislative agenda or simply a warning to inhibit growth<\/a>. The news, however, managed to cast a pall<\/a> over Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>'s planned resumption of his Cotai Strip™<\/strong>. Also, it's not as though the Macanese government and its casino-owning subjects don't have to worry about an upsurge in gambling<\/a> back on the Mainland.<\/p>\n

Detroit, briefly<\/strong>. The depression continues to eat into Detroit<\/strong>'s casino revenues, -2% last month. Despite a -6.5% drop, MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong> remains the big cat, grossing $42 million. Second place is up for grabs, though, as MotorCity<\/strong> continues to fall back (-7%) toward upstart Greektown<\/strong> (+12%), which is closing the gap, grossing $28.5 million against $33.5 million for MotorCity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casino operators in Macao better make the most of the recent relaxation of visa quotas into the enclave. What the government gives with one hand, it partly reclaims with the other. Casino expansion remains out of the question and the … 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":[28,44,14,94,62,93,11,25,12,61,32,19,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282"}],"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=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}