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China
MGM Mirage Macau Casino Opens
MGM Mirage Inc opened a spanking new 600 room Las Vegas style casino resort
hotel in Macau on Tuesday 18 Dec 2007 amongst concerns that Macau may have too
many casinos fuelling intensive competition. The US$1.25 billion Grand Macau,
is a joint venture between MGM and Pansy Ho, the latter being the daughter of
Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho was launched not long after the opening of Las
Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts in this small former Portuguese enclave. With the
opening of MGM Mirage, all six of Macau's gaming concessions are now taken up
after the territory ended Stanley Ho's 40 year casino monopoly in 2001.
Macau Casino Competition
Sheldon Adelson was the first foreigner who entered Macau casino market with
the opening of Sands Macau in 2004. Then in August 2007, Adelson opened the
much vaunted, US$2.4 billion Venetian, a Las Vegas style mega casino resort
hotel complete with Venetian gondolas plying its indoor canals. There are now
27 casinos in
Macau, up from only 17 in 2005.
About 22 million tourist visited Macau in 2006 pumping its
gaming income over that of Las Vegas Strip itself. The number of tourists
visiting Macau far outstrip its population of only about 530,000 people. With
so many new casinos, questions are now asked about the sustainability of the
Casino boom.
However, casino owners are rather upbeat about the
gaming industry because just sitting next Macau is the Chinese province of
Guangdong, one of the wealthiest regions in China
and home to 100 million people. On top of that, Macau has China itself as its
hinterland with a population of more than 1 billion people, the country with
the largest population in the world.
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Just last week, Ms Pansy Ho dismissed the concerns about the overcrowding
industry when she was making a tour of the hotel resort. She said "These new
casinos will actually work in conjunction to present a really formidable
proposition to all VIP customers that this should be the center of the high
rolling gaming experience."
MGM Mirage CEO, Terry Lanni echos her confidence and thinks that the
gaming industry in Macau is still evolving and believes that the casinos in
Macau will not only attract hard core gamblers, but will also get them to stay
longer as entertainment facilities improve. "I suspect that the market place
will grow sufficiently to meet the demands of the ever growing casino
population," Terry said with rigor in his voice.
He further went on to say that with his 31 years in the gaming industry,
there wasn't a single year gone by without people asking if he is building one
room too many or one casino too many. "So far we have not and I guess you
really don't know until you build that one room too many," quipped the 64 year
old MGM Mirage CEO.
However, market watchers think that the new casinos banging on customers
staying longer than the current average of 16hrs is just a gamble and may turn
out to be a bad bet. Will the casinos in Macau survive the stiff competition?
Only time will tell. - MGM Mirage Macau Casino article was
posted on 19 Dec 2007
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