Macau success story

The rapidly-growing casino industry in Macau is gathering steam. From the People’s Daily:

Macao’s casino racked in 500 million patacas (62 million US dollars) in gross revenue in the first three days of the National Day holiday which began on Oct. 1.

Tuesday’s Macao Daily News reported that the holiday market has boosted the gaming sector. The accumulated gross revenues and taxes yielded by the gaming sector in the first nine months this year have surpassed the total amounts of last year.

For the whole of last year, the government collected 10.17 billion patacas (1.27 billion US dollars) in gaming taxes.

The newspapers source said that the gaming revenue in September amounted to 3 billion patacas (375 million US dollars), which were some one billion patacas (125 million US dollars) lower than the monthly income in the previous two months.

The newspaper said that the Macao Gaming Co. Ltd. owned by tycoon Stanley Ho held 67 percent of the market share in September, during which Macao’s first American casino the Las Vegas Sands Macao opened in May grasped 13.5 percent, and the Hong Kong-invested Galaxy Waldo inaugurated in July obtained 19.5 percent.

Industry insiders forecast that based on the current situation,the gaming sector would contribute 13 billion patacas (1.2 billionUS dollars) to the government’s tax coffer this year.

Holiday economy boosts Macao casino revenue

Though September may have been a disappointment, it looks like the October 1 holiday really helped boost revenues, which suggests that Macau is maturing as a destination. With a Mona Lisa-themed casino, what else can you expect?

I expect to learn more about the Macau market during a research trip there in early December. If anyone from Macau has advice for me, please contact me.