Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | January 2008 18 I t has been a year of activity and inactivity, events and non-events, giddy successes and flops, and most of all, lessons on what to do or not to in Macau. Stanley Ho’s SJM unveiled its answer to the new operators, the Grand Lisboa, in February.Then came Crown in April, the gar- gantuan Venetian in September, followed by MGM in December. Some readers have raised eyebrows on the lack of commentary on my part on the new SJM properties, saying that I focused purely on the new entrants to the market. Well, that is undeniably true and for the simple reason that there is nothing to com- ment on.SJMdon’t crow about anything,and to put it simply, their operations and proper- ties are not newsworthy. SJM also don’t brag about anything—probably because they have nothing to brag about. Where do we even start? To call the orga- nization a relic of the ancient past is an insult Brickbat & Bouquet Straight-shooting casino marketing columnist Octo Chang looks at the best and worst of Macau casinos over the past year Casinos Critique