Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2009 14 million in a safety deposit box in Hong Kong, and said other assets included a £6.1 million (US$10 million) home in London. The Macau Intermediate Court removes an interim injunction against LVS that prevented the company from operating a ferry service between Hong Kong and Cotai. February – Ponte 16, a HK$2.4 billion (US$310 million) casino and hotel joint venture between SJM and Macau Success (now Success Universe Group Ltd), opens at Macau’s Inner Harbour. It features 270,000 square feet of gaming floor with 150 gaming tables, five VIP halls and 320 slot machines. April – Edmund Ho, Macau’s chief executive, announces a moratorium on new gaming projects and licences. The shares of Macau’s existing concessionaires rise in value at the news. In the same speech, Mr Ho proposes a commission cap on VIP rolling chip commission at 1.25%. He suggests the government will seek industry support for the measure, but indicates it will be willing to impose it if necessary. In his policy address only nine days before May Day, Mr Ho announces every permanent resident and non-permanent resident of Macau will receive a one-time government subsidy of MOP5,000 and MOP3,000, respectively, in July. That year’s May Day workers’ rally goes ahead, but only a few hundred turn out. The event passes peacefully and without arrests. A Clark County jury in Las Vegas awards Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen US$43.8 million after he claims he helped Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) win its Macau gaming licence. LVS appeals against the decision. May – The December 2007 decision of Crown Macau to offer a record 1.35% rolling chip commission to VIP betting agents takes the property from also-ran to market leader in less than six months. Toward the end of Stanley Ho’s 40-year casino operating monopoly in Macau, the average commission rate on VIP rolling chip sales in Macau was only 0.7%. Galaxy announces it plans to open a ‘jumbo’ VIP facility with 100-plus tables at its StarWorld Hotel & Casino on the Macau peninsula. Analysts say the company is expected to populate the tables by following the MPEL/Crown Macau model and doing a deal with a junket aggregator. The aggregator is later named as Neptune Group. July – Dr Stanley Ho is named as ‘most influential person’ on Inside Asian Gaming ’s inaugural ‘Asian Gaming 50’ list of top personalities in the regional industry. Sheldon Adelson, Chairman and CEO, Las Vegas Sands Corp, is in second spot. Steve Wynn, Chairman and CEO, Wynn Resorts, is named in third place, indicating the powerful new role that Las Vegas-based companies now have in a formerly localised industry. SJM, Dr Stanley Ho’s casino operating company, finally raises US$500 million from its long-delayed Hong Kong IPO. The offering had been proposed as far back as June 2006, but delayed repeatedly because of litigation. SJMannounces in its IPO prospectus it plans touse themoney fromthe listing for a series of new and revamped properties located in clusters around the Macau peninsula. They include Oceanus, a casino designed by Paul Steelman on the site of a former shopping centre only a few minutes’ walkfromMacauMaritimeTerminal.Oceanus is due to open at Christmas 2009. August – Portuguese news service Lusareports thatBeijing isagainrationing permits to visit Macau, in a bid to cool a rapidly expanding market that recorded 50% revenue growth year on year in the first half of 2008. The average hotel stay in Macau reaches 1.5 nights for the first time, accordingtothecity’sStatisticsandCensus Service. Supporters of the integrated resort concept imported from Las Vegas take it as a vindication of their policies. By the end of the month, the total number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector grew by 799 (+5.1%) from a year earlier, to a total capacity of 16,577 rooms. The Asian Poker Tour offers a then Macau record US$1.5 million guaranteed prize pool for its inaugural Texas Hold’em tournament at Galaxy’s StarWorld Hotel & Casino. Central and local government agree to fund 42% of the US$5.47 billion cost of a Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau superbridge across the Pearl River Delta, Work on the 18-mile long structure is expected to start in 2011. October – Macau feels the first aftershocks fromthefinancial earthquake caused by the credit crisis in the Western financial system. VIP players with factories in Mainland China experience a slowdown in orders from abroad and a more conservative approach to the issuing of gambling credit by VIP agents and casinos. SJM Holdings announces its first trading results since going public in July. It reports an 8.1% increase in net profit year- Cover Story Sheldon Adelson APT Macau 2008 main event winner Yevgeniy Timoshenko Ponte 16