Inside Asian Gaming

IAG AUG 2022年8月 亞博匯 30 2004 TO 2013 Macau’s arguably most historic gaming company, STDM, founded by the legendary Dr Stanley Ho, held the city’s monopoly casino gaming concession from 1960 to 2000. In the wake of the handover of Macau from Portugal to China on 20 December 1999, the concession was extended to 2002, after which the industry was liberalized with the addition of Wynn Macau and Galaxy Entertainment, creating a triumvirate of industry operators. Subsequent sub-concessions were granted to Venetian Macao (now Sands China), MGM China and Melco-PBL (now Melco Resorts), expanding the triumvirate into a sextet. It took until 18 May 2004 for Sands to open their first property – Sands Macao – on the Macau peninsula near the Hong Kong-Macau ferry terminal. Two months later Galaxy’s first casino opened across the road at the Waldo hotel and the shiny new industry was off to the races. What we were to witness over the next decade was nothing short of miraculous. Each of the six concessionaires opened a world-class five- star property – Grand Lisboa, MGM Macau, Sands Macao, StarWorld and Wynn Macau on the Macau peninsula and Crown Macau (now Altira) in Taipa. Three followed up with even greater offerings in Cotai – City of Dreams, Galaxy Macau and The Venetian Macao. Gross gaming revenue (GGR) grew from MOP$29 billion (US$3.6 billion) in 2003, the last year of monopoly operations, to MOP$361 billion (US$45.1 billion) in 2013, the still-reigning high-water mark of Macau GGR. That represents a decade-long compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of a mind-boggling 28.7% – and don’t forget that decade included the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008. COVER STORY