Macau’s first-quarter gaming revenue surged 44% from a year earlier as casinos opened in the past three years gained more customers.
The Chinese city’s gambling industry reaped 18.1bil patacas (US$2.25bil) of revenue, according to figures posted yesterday on the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau’s website.
That compares with 12.6bil patacas in last year’s firs quarter and 16.6bil patacas in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Macau gaming revenue started to surge in 2004, when Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp and Galaxy Casino SA ended the four-decade monopoly of billionaire Stanley Ho. Seven new casinos opened in the city last year, bringing the total to 24.
Foreign investors are staking US$20bil on making the city, a former Portuguese colony, into the gambling capital of Asia.
About 2.2 billion people live within five hours’ flying time of Macau, compared with 410 million in the same radius of Las Vegas, according to CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.
Wynn Resorts opened the US$1.2bil Wynn Macau in September. The Las Vegas-based company, operated by billionaire Steve Wynn, plans to build a second casino in the city. Kirk Kerkorian’s MGM is also building a new resort in the city.
Macau gaming revenue may reach US$8bil in 2007, mainly driven by the scheduled opening of Las Vegas Sands’ Venetian Macao mid-year, Jonathan Galaviz, a partner at Globalysis Ltd, wrote in a report in August. The Las Vegas-based gaming consulting company estimated 2006 revenue on the Las Vegas Strip at US$6.6bil. — Bloomberg
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