\nNov. 4 (Bloomberg) \u2014 Macau\u2019s casino revenue plunged by the most since the city started monthly records in 2005, as China\u2019s crusade against corruption prompted gamblers to cut back on lavish spending.<\/p>\n
\tTotal casino revenue in the world\u2019s biggest gambling hub fell 23.2 percent to 28 billion patacas ($3.5 billion) in October, dropping for the fifth straight month, according to Macau\u2019s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. This compared with the median estimate of a 21 percent decline from five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe revenue will remain very weak for the next few months, we expect November and December to also be down quite a bit,\u201d said Aaron Fischer, a Hong Kong-based analyst at CLSA Ltd., adding the slump might not hit casinos\u2019 income as badly because most of the drop was from the VIP segment, which tends to have lower margins.<\/p>\n
\tThe previous record drop was in January 2009, when revenue fell 17.1 percent in the aftermath of a global credit crisis. Macau casino slumped for seven months straight from December 2008 to June 2009.<\/p>\n
\tPresident Xi Jinping\u2019s two-year long campaign on graft has discouraged high-stakes gamblers from ostentatious displays of wealth in Macau, the only place in China where casinos are legal. The month\u2019s data also came off a high base, as October 2013 was the second-best month on record for the city, behind February this year which coincided with Chinese New Year, a popular period for gambling.
\n\tGovernment Scrutiny
\n\tSands China Ltd. fell 3.3 percent to HK$46.80 at the close of trading in Hong Kong, the worst performer on the benchmark Hang Seng index, which declined 0.3 percent. Wynn Macau Ltd. and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. both dropped 3.4 percent, while Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. lost 2.8 percent and SJM Holdings Ltd. declined 2.3 percent.<\/p>\n
\tMacau gaming revenue is expected to keep declining until mid-2015, when casino operators start opening new properties, Barclays Plc analyst Phoebe Tse wrote in a note today. Full-year revenue should slump by 1 percent, according to Tse, making it the industry\u2019s first annual decline in the city.<\/p>\n
\tMacau recorded the slowest annual growth in casino revenue in 2009 with 9.7 percent gain and it hasn\u2019t seen a yearly decline since the city started records in 2002.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAs the scope, magnitude and length of campaign turns out to be wider, deeper and longer than anticipated, the scrutiny and social pressure from the austerity drive could make it increasingly difficult for one to visit Macau,\u201d JPMorgan analysts including D.S. Kim wrote in an Oct. 29 research report.
\n\t\u201cIn The Foxholes\u201d
\n\tWynn Resorts Ltd., the casino company founded by billionaire Steve Wynn, reported Oct. 28 that revenue climbed 9 percent at its two casinos on the Las Vegas strip, which helped offset a 5.6 percent drop in its properties owned by Wynn Macau where the company gets more than two-thirds of its sales.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe policy of the central government in being very, very aggressive about what appeared to be a misconduct and corruption of the government has put a lot of the wealthy businessmen in the foxholes,\u201d Wynn said in a teleconference after the results, according to a Bloomberg transcript.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s a squall or we\u2019re in the rainy season or how long it will last, but we\u2019re still very, very bullish on Macau,\u201d the 72-year-old executive added.<\/p>\n
\tGovernment finances won\u2019t be hit by falling casino tax revenue even with continued declines next year, said Macau\u2019s Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam in a statement on the Information Bureau\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
\tThe industry\u2019s current slowdown \u201cis in line the authorities\u2019 expectations,\u201d Tam said, adding that he believes the trend \u201cwill be maintained for a longer period of time\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) \u2014 Macau\u2019s casino revenue plunged by the most since the city started monthly records in 2005, as China\u2019s crusade against corruption prompted gamblers to cut back on lavish spending. Total casino revenue in the world\u2019s biggest gambling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}