With the end of 2015, this month many Macau bookmakers have reported their financial results for the year behind. With Chinese authorities’ crackdown on corruption (starting back in late 2014) and the subsequent flee of VIP players, the businesses in the area have suffered losses across the board. This month however seems more promising with results picking up for major players in the industry. This is partly due to the Chinese New Year, celebrated between the 7th and the 13th February. As usually, a lucrative period for all companies relying on customers of Chinese descent. Another major factor in the improvement of the numbers in the gambling industry is their change of focus from high-rollers to smaller stake players and the expansion into not gambling related activities – mostly holiday resorts in the area.
The 82 years old billionaire behind Las Vegas Sands – Sheldon Adelson – has been also seriously hit. His is the biggest casino in Macau and the current situation there is the main reason for the nearly 20% net income drop compared to last year (surpassing by far the predicted by Bloomberg experts decline of 8.5%). The destination historically a safe haven for gambling has turn into somewhat of a nightmare over the past two years.
Let’s focus on the positive though. Despite the losses being on a roll for a 20th straight month this January, Bloomberg’s expert Tim Craighead reported a raise in revenues for February and painted a more optimistic picture for 2016.
His explanations to the more assuring results are similar to ours – the decision to broaden activities towards non-gamblers that many online and offline operators have been toying with lately. The expansion into new markets and customer types has proved to be working. This is evident looking at the operators that seem to be doing better – they are the ones either having new venues, such as Galaxy, or with a focus on web based activities.
With higher interest to online gambling, the number of players on the virtual scene is growing more than ever, making it harder and harder for an average player to find their way around. You can refer to the safecasinos.org.uk overview of trustworthy online casinos or similar destinations, doing the hard work of checking the credibility of a given operator. The detailed information provided (such as this review of a very popular player in the field, to give you an idea safecasinos.org.uk/mrgreen is essential when trying to work your way through the jungle of generous offers and promises of easy wins. As you would know (especially if you come from financial background), if it looks too good to be true, it probably isn’t. But let’s not digress and sum things up.
Even with the drastic losses, Macau remains the world’s largest gambling hub, beating even the Las Vegas Strip (revenues for 2015 despite all troubles still represent 5 times Vegas’ results). What China based operators seem to be learning the hard way is, ironically, becoming more like Vegas – featuring more non-gambling facilities to lure tourists in from around the globe. The $4.1 billion Wynn Palace will now offer air-conditioned cable car rides. The Parisian (a venue of Sands China scheduled to open later on this year) will entertain visitors with a half-size Eiffel Tower. The shift from high end VIPs to more regular players seems to be the way to go, even though Billy Ng, an analyst from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, rightly pointed out that the new customers will make the market more volatile to seasons – as you can imagine high rollers weren’t exactly bothered with pre-planned holidays and weekends.
Hope this article has been of interest, we will continue to monitor the latest developments and bring you hot news from the world of finance, gambling and all around. Stay tuned.