Inside Asian Gaming

IAG AUG 2022年8月 亞博匯 52 COVER STORY CAN MACAU EVER RECLAIM ITS CROWN? Despite this proclamation dethroning Macau as king of the global casino gaming industry, it can take the crown once again. Should COVID finally be put behind us, that will see the end of the first Macau killer. But the second Macau killer – China’s posture towards Macau – will be with us for years to come, barring some unlikely about-face by the PRC. With the destruction of the VIP industry, a heavy crackdown on gamblers from China generally and the much stricter enforcement of China’s US$50,000 annual cap on funds taken by its citizens out of the mainland, Macau’s only option is to pivot to a mass market-focused offering – much along the lines of Las Vegas. Under such circumstances, the infrastructure of Macau in terms of hotel rooms, public transport and immigration processing is insufficient to support GGR anywhere near the dizzying heights of 2013 or 2019. Sure, Hengqin can help with hotel rooms but that whole Guangdong-Macau experiment is many years away from a mature realization, if that can even be achieved at all. Given this scenario, I would estimate Macau could – in the most favorable of circumstances and with no virus in sight – support a GGR of perhaps US$1 billion