Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming July 2016 32 The opening of five new properties in Cotai over the next 18 months has many wondering whether it will help boost Macau’s gross gaming revenue or simply cannibalize the market. But such fears aren’t new to the city, which is why we dug out this article from exactly five years ago which examined the impact of the then recently opened Galaxy Macau . T wo weeks’ trading doesn’t make a business revolution – but it does appear that Galaxy Macau actually expanded the Macau gaming market in May rather than merely cannibalising its rivals. At the time Inside Asian Gaming went to press, Lusa – the Portuguese news agency – was reporting market sources saying gross gaming revenues (GGR) for May were likely to hit MOP24 billion (US$3 billion). This implied an average daily gross for the month of MOP774 million. That’s around 13% higher than Macau’s MOP683 million average daily gross in April 2011. April was itself a year on year record, bringing in MOP20.5 billion across the month. There are good reasons to be cautious, however, about such comparisons and using them to extrapolate in relation to Galaxy Macau. One is that April has one fewer day than May. A second is that seasonal Blast from the Past June 2011 Pie Squared ? Before the flood – publicity photos of Galaxy Macau’s main floor prior to opening june 2011