Macau’s gaming win: $10.3 billion

Macau's booming casino industry has blown past the Strip in revenues and is closing in on Nevada's statewide win, new figures show.

Fueled by three large casino openings and a 23 percent jump in annual visitor volume, gambling halls in Macau collected more than $10.3 billion in gaming revenue during 2007, an increase of 46 percent. The figures were released Tuesday by Macau's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.

Nevada's total gaming win for 2007 won't be released until next month. Through November, the Gaming Control Board said, the Silver State's casinos had won $11.752 billion from gamblers. Previously, gaming analysts had predicted Macau's annual gaming revenues could reach $12 billion by the end of this year.

In 2006, 24 casinos operating in the Chinese gaming enclave collected $6.95 billion in gambling revenue. Strip casinos won $6.69 billion during those same 12 months. Statewide, Nevada casinos won $12.62 billion in 2006.

"The 2007 figures are pretty consistent and in line with what we had been estimating," Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Bill Lerner said Tuesday.

According to the Control Board, through November, the Strip's 37 casinos had collected $6.13 billion from gamblers.

Macau added four casinos in 2007 to bring the region's total to 28, but saw a large increase in its gaming offerings thanks to three of the resorts.

In May, the $565 million Crown Macau opened. The resort is operated by Melco PBL, a joint venture between Australian billionaire James Packer and Lawrence Ho, the son of Hong Kong billionaire Stanley Ho, who controls 18 of Macau's 28 casinos.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. expanded its Sands Macau, which opened in 2004, and opened the $2.4 billion Venetian Macau on Aug. 28. The 3,000-room hotel-casino has a 565,000 square foot casino, the world's largest. On Dec. 18, the $1.25 billion MGM Grand Macau opened. The 600-room resort is a joint venture between MGM Mirage and Stanley Ho's daughter, Hong Kong businesswoman Pansy Ho.

But unlike 2007, Macau is not expected to see much in the way of casino expansion. Las Vegas Sands is expected to open a Four Seasons next to the Venetian Macau this spring.

"What's exciting is 2008 is an absorption year," Lerner said. "We'll see very little supply growth, so we'll finally have a year where the product is absorbed into the market."

Jonathan Galaviz, a partner in Globalysis, a Las Vegas-based consultant firm that advises clients doing business in Asia, said the billions of dollars Las Vegas-based casino operators have invested into Macau have brought more visitors.

"While Macau's casino gaming revenue continues to grow significantly, there is still a need for Macau's noncasino revenues to grow at the same trajectory," Galaviz said via e-mail.

More than 27 million people visited Macau during 2007, according to the government's Statistics and Census Bureau. Almost 15 million visitors of them traveled to the Special Administrative Region from Mainland China, while 8.2 million came into Macau from Hong Kong.

Macau is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal.

More than half of Macau's casino revenue, approximately $6.9 billion, came from baccarat tables reserved for high-end gamblers, government data showed.

VIP play constitutes gamblers who typically spend at least $62,000 on casino wagering during each trip to Macau casinos, analysts and casino industry executives say.

Macau, which lies about an hour west of Hong Kong via high-speed ferry, returned to Chinese rule in 1999, two years after Hong Kong.

Some analysts speculated the news out of Macau helped the stock prices of Las Vegas Sands, MGM Mirage and Wynn Resorts Ltd., which also operates a casino in Macau, rebound Tuesday.

Shares of Las Vegas Sands rose $3.84, or 5.08 percent, to close at $79.44 on the New York Stock Exchange. MGM Mirage closed at $69.90 on the New York Stock Exchange, up $1.91, or 2.81 percent. Wynn Resorts, traded on the Nasdaq National Market, closed at $101.21, down 22 cents or 0.22 percent.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or (702) 477-3871.