Feb

28

Pansy passes Nevada regulators

Filed Under Macao, Cotai, MGM & Pansy Ho, MGM Cotai | Leave a Comment

One more hurdle in Nevada, then on to A.C.

After two years of research, Nevada regulators found Stanley Ho’s daughter, Pansy, as a suitable partner for MGM-Mirage.

Pansy: “For almost all of the 40-some years of my life, I have been trying to find an open forum to find and to express that I believe I have the capabilities to be an independent person and also to obtain independent success. I think the MGM opportunity will give me the chance to prove that further.” (*more below*)

And its a good thing Stanley was not the one in front of regulators.

Nevada Gaming Board Member: “There are volumes of controversy surrounding Dr. Stanley Ho, both historic and present. From my perspective, he operates in an environment that is less transparent than I am comfortable with.”

The decision must still be confirmed by the Nevada Gaming Commission, however, which is expected to meet in a month.

Pansy Ho and MGM are building a casino resort in Macau that should open in 2007 and are also in the planning stages of a Cotai casino.

Feb

24

Macau Studio City history and Playboy Club

Filed Under Macau, Cotai, COTAI CASINOS, ENTERTAINMENT, eSun and New Cotai, Macau Studio City, Nightlife | Leave a Comment

Half-naked women, film studios, and hotel rooms. No, its not porn - its Macau Studio City!

Macau Business has an indepth article on the story behind eSun, New Cotai, and Capitaland’s Macau Studio City casino resort. It is too long and complicated to summarize here, so I suggest reading through it. (**more below**)

The new stuff is that Macau Business is claiming to have broken Macau Studio City’s secret that a Playboy Club will be included in their Cotai project. Based on the article’s sources, it sounds like a good bet that Playboy is coming to Macau. Playboy recently opened its first Playboy Club in a long, long time at the Palms in Las Vegas, so it makes sense that they would look to a Macau club as a launching pad into China.

Feb

19

Tabcorp breaks up with Virgin

Filed Under Macau, Cotai, Virgin, Tabcorp | Leave a Comment

That was quick.

Reuters is reporting that a source familiar with the Tabcorp / Virgin negotiations is claiming that the two companies have decided to end a partnership that would have had the two companies jointly develop a casino complex in Macau. (*more below the ads*)

Source: “We can’t see that (partnership) going anywhere. These things happen all the time”

This unnamed source also believes that Virgin is still talking to a number of other interested parties.

Source:”Virgin are obviously moving forward and still talking to partners”

The two most vital ingredients of a potential Virgin casino are still unknowns - location and concessionaire.

Feb

18

Chinese love Vegas

Filed Under Macau, Cotai, OTHER, TOURISM | Leave a Comment

We knew the Chinese love to gamble, but the two billion dollar questions have been :

  • Will they love to shop?
  • Will they pay for nice hotel rooms?

I think these two pieces may help alleviate some of that concern.

From Vegas Turns Red For Chinese New Year…

Bruce Bommarito, the vice president of international market development for the Travel Industry Association of America, saysthe average visitor spends more than $5,000 shopping each trip.

“They’re tremendous shoppers. And I think that’s something that people underestimate.”

And how about some good old fashioned anectodal evidence from a Chinese tourist in Vegas:

“In Macau, only the casinos are good. I don’t see any other things. Here there are so many shops, many high-end shops.”

From Vegas Casinos Pursuing China’s Burgeoning Middle Class (*more below the ads*)

Looks like Vegas is a must-see stop for Chinese tourists

“The Chinese National Tourism Authority says about 90 percent of Chinese visitors in the United States spend part of their trip in Nevada”

And people are worried that the Chinese wont want to drop a couple hundred dollars for a hotel room

“The Commerce Department says Chinese visitors spend more - time and money - than other international visitors to the United States, with trips lasting two weeks to 18 days.”

If 100 million travel abroad, how many will travel to Macau?

“By 2010, about 100 million Chinese are expected to travel abroad annually, up from 35 million today, according to the Travel Industry Association of America”

My point is that the people (LVS, Wynn, and MGM) planning these billion dollars resorts in Macau and Cotai are the ones that have Chinese tourists staying at their hotels and gambling at their casinos every day. Maybe they know what they’re doing.

Feb

17

Venetian Macao to sponsor 2007 NBA All-Star game broadcast in China

Filed Under Macau, Cotai, Las Vegas Sands, Venetian Macao, ENTERTAINMENT | 1 Comment

Sheldon got more game.

Las Vegas Sands announced its Venetian Macau will be the 2007 NBA All-Star game’s presenting sponsor on China’s national tv station CCTV. LVS President William Weidner said:

“With the opening of our 15,000-seat arena at The Venetian Macao later this
year, we will undertake an ambitious effort to bring an array of
professional sports, world-class entertainment, and international
prominence to Macao and the entire region.”

And in a warning to Stanley, Steve and the others, the press release also stated: (*more below the ads*)

“…the telecast represents the company’s opening salvo in an aggressive marketing campaign that will
highlight the unprecedented resort offerings The Venetian Macao will bring
to the region when it opens this summer”

This is the Venetian Macao’s second tie-in to the NBA. Back in November, the casino announced the Cotai Strip® Cup.

Feb

14

MGM announces Cotai project

Filed Under Macau, Cotai, MGM & Pansy Ho, MGM Cotai | Leave a Comment

But Pansy still hasn’t passed muster with US regulators.

MGM Mirage announced it’s 50/50 joint venture with Stanley Ho’s daughter, Pansey Ho, will begin planning its second resort casino in Macau. The new casino will be located in a “prime identified spot in Cotai”. Plans for the new Cotai casino could be submitted by the end of the year. MGM’s first Macau casino project, the USD $1.1 billion MGM Grand Macau casino, should open in the fourth quarter of 2007. (**more below the ads**)

This is all fine and dandy for MGM, but their partnership with Pansy Ho has still not been approved by US regulators. If Nevada regulators are concerned that Pansy’s father (who has been accused at times of ties with organized crime) could be involved in the partnership, then MGM’s Macau aspirations could be in jeopardy. MGM would be forced to choose between Vegas or Macau, and since this is a Vegas centric company, the company would probably sell of its Macau joint venture interest. The silver lining for MGM in a scenario like this is the value they could receive from the casino and its concession license. Let’s not forget Wynn sold only a concession license for US $900 million last year. On the other hand, if a jurisdiction like New Jersey has problems with Pansy, then MGM could always just sell of its interest in the Borgata and move forward in Macau.

Feb

13

Adelson not losing sleep over Huge bet in Cotai

Filed Under Macau, Cotai, Las Vegas Sands, Wall Street | Leave a Comment

Apparently Stanley Ho was getting plenty of sleep too!

The Australian wrote a story about Las Vegas Sands’s and Sheldon Adelson. It is probably worth taking a look at since it goes into some detail about Adelson’s background and also scatters some good details about the company’s financing plans throughout the article.Regarding the Cotai Strip®, the company plans to have most hotel casinos open by 2009 or early 2010.

“We will build 20,000 hotel rooms, 2 million square feet of gaming space, 2500 new gambling tables, 16,000 slot machines”

The Cotai project’s construction will be partially funded by a massive US $12 billion in bank loans that the company hopes to raise this year. Even with all that debt however, Adelson said:

“We hope to be debt free in two to three years”

And now for the fun stuff:

Adelson:”I am not losing any sleep over my investment in China. It is not an exposure. It is an opportunity. As far as I am concerned China is the sure thing”

But what if Adelson makes a mistake? “If I make a mistake, I can’t fire myself.”"

And the best by LVS President Weidner on Stanley Ho: “The monopolist was asleep and had not updated the product. He left the door so wide open for us.”

 

Feb

8

The dealers always win in Macau

Filed Under Macau, Cotai, Las Vegas Sands, OTHER, MACAU PENINSULA CASINOS, SJM, Sands Macao | 1 Comment

Ho hires Adelson’s duds

The Australian recently reported that Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands fired 160 table dealers last November who were not up to the Sands Macao’s high standards. Did the dealer’s need to worry about changing careers or waiting in the unemployment line? Of course not! This is Macau, where the only people who are allowed to work as table dealers are Macanese residents.

So Stanley Ho invited the fired employees to apply for jobs at his SJM casinos, and used the firing as a golden public relations opportunity:

“It is our duty of care to the Macao community to employ quality, talented local Macao residents and to nurture them for a long and successful career with our company.”

SJM ended up putting its patacas where its mouth is though, and hired 110 of the former Sands Macao employees.

I’m guessing this is probably just the beginning. The new Macau and Cotai casinos are starting to ramp up their hiring in preparation for the thousands of dealer jobs that will be needed to fill the dozens of casinos that are expected to open over the next several years. For example, the Venetian Macao will open this summer and will have 700 tables just by itself. One unnamed casino executive was quoted as saying:  (*more below*)

“If all the projects open, are there enough Macanese to man the tables? No, there are not. We need to discuss how we are going to staff this thing with the Government.”

The pressure to hire quality employees (or unqualified in SJM’s case) is not limited to croupiers however. With a population of only 500,000, Macau has turned to hiring non-residents to fill management and support jobs. The process to hire a non-resident can take time though, with the proper approvals taking up to six months to be granted.

There are also anecdotal tales of local Macau college students dropping out of school to take the high paying table dealer jobs. Although this could look like a good short term win-win for the casinos and the students, the brain drain could have a longer term adverse impact on Macau’s economy.

After reading all of this, you’re probably wondering the same thing I’m wondering…where will those 50 dealers who couldn’t make the cut at Sands and SJM end up working? Because you know they’ll end up somewhere.

Feb

5

Taubman thinks Macau retail is undersupplied, & moves forward on Cotai Strip

Filed Under Macau, Cotai, ENTERTAINMENT, Macau Studio City, Shopping | 2 Comments

But last year they thought Macau would be oversupplied

Taubman began construction last month of its 750,000 square foot shopping complex as part of the Cotai’s Macau Studio City casino resort, after some hesitation last year due to fears that the Cotai and Macau retail boom would be too much. Even though it still seems like everyone is planning mega shopping and entertainment complexes in Cotai and Macau, Taubman now sounds like a believer. In an interview with the AP, a Taubman senior manager stated:

“We are extremely confident Macau won’t be oversupplied with retail”

“A lot of the supply is either delayed or not being built. There are big question marks about what’s being built”

A naive spectator like myself might take a look at the boom of retail construction that has been announced and/or is under construction in Cotai and Macau and be a bit skeptical of Taubman’s enthusiasm. However, Taubman appears to know what they are doing, especially after reading how they analyze the situation. (**more below the ads**)

The company thinks that even if the entire 6 million square feet of announced retail shopping gets built over the next three years, Macau will still be underserved based on the Sq Ft - Hotel Room ratio that they use. Based on Taubman’s calculation, Macau will only have 180 square meters of shopping space per room, vs. the 360 square feet of retail space per hotel room in Vegas. The Taubman executive continued:

“The Las Vegas market has 41 million square feet of retail today. Macau has less than 1 million. Yet it has more gaming revenue than Las Vegas.”

I guess one could ask why they didnt think of it this way last year when they were more hesitant. Instead, I’ll ask if comparing Macau to Las Vegas makes sense?