Inside Asian Gaming

Feature Gaming With a South Pacific Twist T he Polynesian-themed Pacifica Gaming area at Sands Cotai Central features entertainers from around the Pacific Rim—including Tahiti and New Zealand—as well as costumed ambassadors greeting guests not only at the casino entrance, but also throughout Macau, from the border gates to the open-top Pacifica Party Bus which travels around the Macau peninsula and Taipa from 11a.m. to 7p.m. daily. Apart from the entertainers and greeters, however, the Pacifica’s décor is decidedly Western, and stands in contrast to the Eastern- influenced tones of the neighboring Himalaya casino, which opened as part of SCC’s first phase. Pacifica occupies 104,000 square feet and offers close to 200 mass market gaming tables and over 1,000 electronic gaming machines. Owing to the government-imposed cap on the number of gaming tables in Macau—5,500 market-wide in 2012—the table count at Pacifica was made up by reallocating tables fromother Sands China properties. As of 2Q 2012, the Himalaya casino offered 217 mas tables, while SCC housed a further 145 VIP tables. In a recent note, Union Gaming’s Grant Goversten shared his thoughts on the Pacifica: “The new casino has amuchmoremodern feel to it, and is generallymuch brighter /more spacious than its peers. It generally isn’t compartmentalized like most Macau casinos (e.g. even if a traditional Macau casino doesn’t have physical segmentation via walls / columns / walkways, the ceiling often demarcates the casino floor) but is much more free-flowing. While it will take some time for the property to ramp and for its full potential to become known, we think this styling is likely to hold notable appeal—not unlike Galaxy Macau’s mass market floor (also quite different than traditional Macau casinos)—which we believe will generate in excess of US$300 million in EBITDA this year (prior to contribution fromVIP). We also believe the completion of the overhead air-conditioned walkway between Venetian and Sands Cotai Central should be a meaningful driver of cross-property foot traffic (per our proprietary Cotai foot traffic survey, we estimate that Sands China already has a two-thirds share of Cotai foot traffic).” Also possibly as a result of the table cap, electronic table games feature prominently in the mix at Pacifica, with approximately 280 terminals, including Macau’s largest stadium-style installation—a 200-seat configuration of LT Game’s multigame terminals offering baccarat, roulette and sic bo . Pacifica main floor Pacifica Party Bus Polynesian flavor—Pacifica greeters High limit Ruby Room at Pacifica INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | October 2012 38