Inside Asian Gaming

July 2016 inside asian gaming 33 variations in market-wide visitor traffic make month on month comparisons less useful than year on year ones. A third is that the Macau market is dominated by live table baccarat, and that game has a lot of volatility in the amount the operator gets to ‘hold’ and thus what profit the operator makes from that part of the gaming business. Some weeks and some quarters can be particularly lucky for the players, and other periods can work well for the house – even though over the long-term this volatility gets ‘smoothed’ for all the operators, thus reflecting the underlying (and very low) house advantage in the baccarat game. But for the financial community – focused on quarterly, half- yearly and year on year business trends – these win-rate variations are an important variable to be factored in. Despite all those very necessary caveats, there does appear room for a larger than normal dose of optimism about the trajectory of the Macau gaming market and Galaxy Macau’s place in it. If the MOP24 billion figure for total May revenue comes to pass by the time readers see this, it will have meant a year on year growth in GGR of 41% when compared to May 2010’s total of MOP17 billion. Galaxy Macau’s operator, Hong Kong- listed Galaxy Entertainment Group, said 20,000 people visited the Cotai resort in the very first hour-and-a-half of its phase one opening on Sunday 15th May. Even taking into account the opening ‘bounce’ in visitors that every new property in Macau has experienced, that looks impressive. The issue is, can Galaxy Macau maintain a consistent and above market average performance in the coming months, even if – as many observers expect – the initial frenzy dies down and daily guest numbers drop Blast from the Past somewhat. And one visitor through the door is not the same thing as one gambler at the tables. Sources at Sands China, for example, said The Venetian did more revenues over the first two days after Galaxy Macau opened than it had been averaging on a month-to-date basis. This was despite the fact it appeared to IAG and some other observers that The Venetian’s foot traffic on the main floor was down from its normal levels in the week of the Galaxy Macau opening. IAG’s observations of Galaxy Macau and anecdotes from other sources – while not scientific – do suggest sustained high use of the gaming tables and also the slots in the first two weeks of the property opening. The slot performance – in terms of people actually queuing to get on machines – is particularly interesting given that in Macau during 2010 the contribution of slots as a percentage of the gaming gross actually fell compared to 2009. Galaxy Macau may have taken a leaf out of Genting Singapore’s book over at Resorts World Sentosa in the Lion City. At RWS, the slots are in sociable clusters and integrated with table areas rather than spread out in endless rows often extending well away from table areas in the manner of Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, or The Venetian on Cotai. At RWS, all of the slot zones are on the way to somewhere, naturally creating foot traffic and the potential for casual play. The same principle seems to apply at Galaxy Macau. June 2011 Signs of change in Macau mass marketing Winning lines – industry experts generally agree Galaxy Macau got its slots offer right