Inside Asian Gaming

June 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 53 Briefs Genting has also become the largest casino operator in the UK, where it owns 46 venues after buying out Stanley Leisure for US$1.3 billion at the end of 2006. Japanese Visitors Complain of Macau’s Poor Service According to a report in the Macau Daily Times , Japanese travel agents are holding off sending tourists to Macau because of the “unsatisfactory” experience an increasing number are having in the city. According to Tetsuya Yamada, general manager of JTB (Macau) Travel Ltd, a travel agency specializing in bringing Japanese tourists to Macau, many Japanese visitors to the city complained of poor service from tour guides, shop assistants, waiters, hotel staff and bus drivers. New air routes have resulted in the number of Japanese visitors to Macau increasing 36% year-on-year last year to almost 300,000. The signing of an agreement earlier this year to increase air rights between Macau and Japan will provide further impetus for visitor growth, while greater marketing efforts by new Macau casino resorts, such as the Venetian Macao, have raised awareness of Macau among Japanese. According to Kuroishi Junichi, managing director of JALPAK, the Hong Kong based travel agent attached to Japan Airlines:“Japanese tourists used to travel to Hong Kong for three nights and maybe spend a day in Macau.These days they are only staying in Hong Kong for one day and spending the rest of the time in Macau.”The share of the company’s business that comes from Macau trips has jumped to 30% from 10% two years ago. Unfortunately, many Japanese visitors are returning home with complaints about Macau. The Venetian Macao is the focus of much criticism with guests finding its size impractical and service levels poor, the Macau Daily Times quoted Mr Kuroishi as saying. Poker Stars Opens Room in Macau PokerStars.com, the world’s largest online poker operation, announced that it is managing a land poker room in Macau. Isle of Man-based Poker Stars has teamed up with the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino on the Cotai Strip to operate its poker room, which has a capacity to hold 250 players and will offer cash games as well as a full tournament calendar. The new poker room was launched last month with a No-Limit Texas Hold’em Charity Poker Tournament to raise money for the victims of the recent earthquake in Western China. Gary Woollard, General Manager of Grand Waldo Casino commented: “The arrival of poker as a gaming option in Macau’s casinos will encourage more people to come and enjoy all Macau has to offer.We are delighted to have a company with the reputation of PokerStars to manage what is sure to be a very successful and popular poker room.” The full schedule for the Asia Pacific Poker Tour’s second season will be announced shortly, but will kick-off at Grand Waldo Casino, with the September 1-6 APPT Macau Main Event, a HK$25,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em poker tournament with a guarantee of HK$10 million. MGM to Step Up in Macau Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage announced that its Macau venue is under-performing and that it needs to increase its marketing efforts in Mainland China. MGM Mirage holds a 50% stake in the MGM Grand Macau, and made the statement in its quarterly earnings report, in which it reported a 30% drop in total profits due to a fall in revenues as well as the temporary closure of its Monte Carlo resort. MGM stated that its Macau property generated net revenues of around US$298 million for the three-month period alongside property earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of US$43 million. “We are generally pleased with the resort’s performance thus far but clearly know that we have several areas to improve on going forward,” said MGM Mirage Chairman and CEO Terry Lanni. “We expect margins will improve at this joint venture as it grows in this dynamic marketplace and remain focused on improving results in all operating segments.” MGM stated that the venue was not meeting expectations because it holds approximately nine percent of the gaming capacity in Macau but reported a market share of approximately eight percent. Lanni stated that MGM would be increasing its marketing efforts in China in order to drawmore tourists and lift the performance of its mass-market gaming tables and slot machines. “You are able to advertise non-gaming aspects in a judicious matter in the People’s Republic of China and that’s something we had failed to do and it is something we are now addressing,” said Lanni. Like other operators,MGM also said it regarded the government’s moratorium on new casino development as positive and it does not expect the new policy will hold back its expansion plans for the Macau peninsula or Cotai Strip. “We do not believe that it [the moratorium] will have an impact on our expansion of MGM Grand Macau, which is under way or on our plans for a resort on Cotai,” said Mr Lanni. “We have submitted a development plan for that site (Cotai) and each of those initiatives seem to fall within the statements that chief executive Edmund Ho made and we’ll define that as we have upcoming meetings with him but we feel pretty comfortable with that.” Grand Waldo

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