Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming May 2014 16 9/11 slump and Mr Adelson recovered from the July 2001 onset of peripheral neuropathy, a muscular disease that makes it difficult for him to stand and walk, and treatments that he says rendered him “a bit coo-coo” for six months, company ambitions grew. LVS executives salivated over US$45,000 in daily revenue per table they estimated from the eight-deep crowds of bettors at the Lisboa and Jai Alai, then Macau’s leading casinos, compared with $2,200 in Las Vegas. Once Mr Stone and LVS President and Chief Operating Officer William Weidner sold Mr Adelson on Macau’s huge potential, the company wanted to make a splash with the market’s biggest and fanciest casino to date. There were huge risks involved. “No one knew that people would want a better level of service and that razzamatazz. Stanley Ho said that’s not why people come to Macau,” Mr Bromberg says. From an architectural perspective, putting the casino on the second level rather than the ground floor broke design convention, but it was the only way architect Paul Steelman could make the plan work on the irregularly shaped site. Despite Macau’s recent underworld violence, LVS didn’t take precautions against mob attacks. “They were all laughing at us,” Those listed companies also undergo scrutiny from capital markets regulators, as a former LVS executive requesting anonymity points out. “Regulatory gaming standards are converging, although there will never be uniformity,” says Jorge Godinho, a visiting law professor at the University of Macau. “Items like suitability requirements and the need to detect money laundering are standards everywhere in gaming jurisdictions. Macau has considerably expanded the scope and breadth of the regulation, making gaming law a growing body of law.” Along with an improved regulatory regime, Macau authorities hoped liberalization would lead to greater diversification of the economy, or at least the tourism sector. “Non-gaming doesn’t get much attention because of gaming,” CLSA Asia Pacific Markets gaming analyst Aaron Fischer says. “But non-gaming as a stand-alone does quite well. It’s very successful compared with other parts of Asia. Retail is widely successful. Wynn, Venetian, Four Season are some of the most successful retailing in Asia. F&B is pretty strong. The disappointment has been in non- gaming entertainment. Sands China invested in sports and concerts while others haven’t.” As for Macau’s limited success as a convention destination, Mr Bromberg blames stiff competition in the Pearl River Delta. “But it’s not a mistake to keep at it. MICE [meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions] is part of a true integrated resort. There’s a business component and a family component. [The Venetian Macao Convention & Exhibition Center] simply opened before its time.” He sees diversification developing slowly but surely. “Over the Sweeping aside suspicions of bribes and meddling by Beijing, insiders contend LVS found favor largely on the strength of its promise to promote the convention business and build a replica of its Las Vegas flagship, The Venetian, on Cotai, a swath of reclaimed land joining Macau’s outer islands of Coloane and Taipa. next five years, with the expansion of supply in Cotai, Macau will become what the Macau government originally envisaged. People traveling to Macau have started to change. Over time, people will start going there for the resort experience, for family holidays.” But don’t expect Macau to become a global tourism spot, says Mr Green. “Macau will always struggle to attract visitors from outside China, for several reasons. English is not widely spoken, particularly where transport is concerned. Flight connectivity from major potential feeder markets is poor. Retail is largely geared to the China market: Is there anywhere on earth with more jewelry shops per capita?” Jewelry shops are ubiquitous in Macau. billion master plan for creating an Asian version of the Las Vegas Strip. However, Sands Macao didn’t further that initiative. Instead, it was responding to an official desire to get gaming competition up and running as soon as possible. LVS originally proposed a “temporary facility” on the peninsula, but as it recovered from the Cover Story