Apr

27

Macau labor shortage coming to a head

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

A nice problem to have, or not?

It’s no secret that Macau currently has a serious labor problem, and the issue will undoubtedly get much, much worse when the Cotai casinos begin to open. The labor force in Macau is only so big, and when the casinos need to hire tens of thousands of new employees from a country that is at its natural unemployment rate, you have no choice but to steal employees from other sectors of the economy by raising wages or look outside your country for more workers. (*more below the ads*)

This is a great article from ChannelNewsAsia.com that discusses this problem. The casinos have resorted to raising wages for croupiers and card-dealers to near unsustainable levels in order to attract employees away from other jobs. With the government now proposing to relax immigration laws to alleviate this serious strain, the overpaid workers are planning to hold a massive street demonstration on May Day. Macau officials worry that the protests could result in a full-blown strike and shut down the country’s economic engine.

Univesity of Macau law professor: “The government must strike a balance between the needs of foreign investors and the concerns of the local population. The government is under pressure and it is mounting by the day.”

Merrill Lynch: “If your wages had doubled in three years and were looking likely to rise again, would you be wanting the government to do anything about it?”

Apr

20

Galaxy beats Sands

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Wall Street, COMPANIES, Galaxy | Leave a Comment

Nobody to Somebody.

Galagalaxyxy Entertainment had their 2006 conference call a few days ago that I will write about tomorrow. In the meantime, I wanted to write a quick entry how Galaxy joking referred to this Macau Business article with the headline “Galaxy Surpasses Sands in Market Share” to give themselves alittle pat on the back. The company sent this article out to people on their mailing list and someone forwarded it to me.  (Its saved as a picture so when you click on it make sure you enlarge the picture so you can read it)    *more below the ads*

You do need to hand it Galaxy, they went from nobody to somebody in just a few short years. The real test will come when they break-out Starworld’s results on their next earnings release.

Apr

17

Chinese megamall only gets 10% of projected visitors

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, ENTERTAINMENT, Shopping | Leave a Comment

Then where do all the Chinese teenagers hang out?

This is a very interesting and relevant articlein regard to the tremendous amount of retail space being built in Cotai. Some folks believe that there is too much retail being built in Macau and Cotai. Some also believe that the Chinese won’t want to shop. I’m not saying anything other than read the article. (**more below**)

South China Mall:
Official Site , Wiki , Random Interesting Article about World’s Biggest Malls

Apr

13

Hengqin’s bridge to Cotai to reopen

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Taipa, Hengqin Island, OTHER, TOURISM | Leave a Comment

Cotai Strip’s lifeline.

MacauDailyBlog.com reports that the Lotus Bridge border crossing between Hengqin Island and Macau’s Cotai area will reopen in May.

This is crucial to Cotai since it is one of the two ways to cross over into Macau from Mainland China. To see why this is so important to Cotai, you need to understand how most Mainland Chinese travel to Macau.

The main and most traveled entrance to Macau is the northern tip of Macau, which is connected to Mainland China. For those visitors to get to Cotai, they would need to travel past the tempting Macau peninsula casinos (Sands, Wynn, Lisboas, etc), deal with all the traffic, then go across another bridge into Taipa. Then, they would need to deal with Taipa traffic and drive south to Cotai.

The Lotus bridge offers a second, and less congested, route to Cotai from Zhuhai’s Hengqin Island. This bridge will not only be crucial to allow easy access from Mainland China to Cotai, but it will also connect the Hengqin Island amenities that Las Vegas Sands is planning to the Cotai Strip.

This map shows Taipa, Cotai, and Coloane in Macau, with Hengqin Island to the west. You should be able to see the Lotus Bridge connecting the two land masses. Scroll north to see the densely populated Macau Peninsula

Apr

12

Sheldon Adelson Story

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

From bagel chips to casino chips.

Bloomberg did a nice article on Sheldon Adelson. Nothing new in the piece, but Sheldon Adelson’s story is worth reading from time to time. Plus, he seems to be quite the character so you never know what he’ll say or what someone will say about him. (*more below the ads*)

Sheldon on Cotai:

“I don’t understand why people don’t see what I do. Why should anyone have any questions? My track record is pretty good.”

Las Vegas union leader on Sheldon:

“He’s the most litigious person I’ve ever encountered. Anyone who checks his absolute authority or voice, he wants to try and run over.”

Apr

5

More Venetian Macao basketball

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Las Vegas Sands, Venetian Macao, COTAI CASINOS, ENTERTAINMENT | Leave a Comment

King James coming to Macau

Las Vegas Sands, the NBA, and the Chinese Basketball Association announced last week that the Venetian Macao will play host to Macau’s first ever NBA basketball game.

The first game will be held October 18th, and will feature the Orlando Magic vs the China Men’s National Team. Two days later, LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers will take on the Magic.

This is the third basketball announcement coming out of the Venetian Macao in the past 6 months. How about some hockey, arena football or even mixed martial arts in that 15,000 seat arena?

February announcement

November announcement

Apr

4

Melco PBL reports fourth quarter 2006 results

Filed Under Cotai, Melco PBL, Crown Macau, Wall Street, City of Dreams | Leave a Comment

Alot of noise, but not alot of news.

Dont be distracted by the strong results from Mocha Slots. Investors only care about Crown Macau and City of Dreams.

I already reported back on March 9th that Crown Macau planned to open May 9th and would be overbudget, so nothing new there. The full cost of the Taipa casino will be about USD $585 mm. Melco PBL says that the upped budget is not due to escalating construction costs, but due to an increase in scope and higher planned pre-opening and post-launch promotion of the property to the mass market.

With the City of Dreams, it sounds like the company is starting to lay the groundwork for a future announcement that the $2.1 billion budget will be increased:

“The company anticipates an increase in the total project budget for the City of Dreams project and will continue to explore ways to mitigate the impact of potential budget increases through various cost saving measures”

If City of Dreams budget jumps roughly 14% like Crown Macau did, you’re looking at another USD$300 million dollars in investment - thats real money. For now though, its still $2.1 billion so lets wait and see.

The first phase of City of Dreams is still scheduled to open in late 2008, with the opening of Hard Rock Hotel and Crown Towers, Cotai to pump traffic through its massive 450 table, 2,500 slot machine casino. A more modest 50,000 square feet of retail space will open as well, followed shortly by a 2,000 seat theatre in 2009.

The City of Dreams second phase is planned to open in 2009, with the opening of the 1,00o room, twin tower Grand Hyatt hotel. This is slightly different than the original plan that included separate Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency branded hotel towers.