\nMohhamend Cohen; Forbes Asia<\/p>\n
\tMacau casinos have always been winning bets for Hong Kong billionaires\u2013until 2014. Total casino revenue fell last year for the first time since Stanley Ho\u2019s 40-year gambling monopoly ended in 2004\u2013by an estimated 3.3%\u2013and that\u2019s hammering Hong Kong casino fortunes. Year-on-year revenue started dropping in June, when shares in Macau\u2019s six casino licensees had already been falling for months. They\u2019ve sunk 47% from their highs early in the year. Analysts see lower casino revenue persisting well into this year.<\/p>\n
\tThe four casino tycoons on this year\u2019s list\u2013Lui Che Woo and three members of Ho\u2019s family (daughter Pansy, son Lawrence and \u201cwife\u201d Angela Leong)\u2013each fell at least $1 billion last year. One\u2013Galaxy Entertainment Group Chairman Lui\u2013dropped more than $7 billion, a third of his net worth. Another of Ho\u2019s \u201cwives,\u201d Ina Chan, fell off the list, her wealth cut by well more than half. New World Development founder Cheng Yu-tung, who slipped by $500 million, was a 10% partner in Ho\u2019s original casino vehicle, STDM.<\/p>\n
\tChina President Xi Jinping\u2019s anticorruption drive has squeezed the casinos, frightening away even honest players. Macau has long attracted corrupt state officials and others shifting money overseas illegally. Spectrum Asia Chief Executive Paul Bromberg, a specialist in gambling regulation, says that \u201cmany normal, hardworking businesspeople, players who might ordinarily travel to Macau to gamble, do not want to attract unwarranted attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tVIPs generated 65% of Macau\u2019s $45.1 billion in casino revenue in 2013, but VIP revenue sank by an estimated 11% last year. Mass-market revenue began retreating in October, when a full smoking ban on the main gambling floors, but not in VIP areas, took effect. This pushed some premium mass-market players into VIP rooms, which are usually run by junket promoters that collect a 1.25% commission on betting-chip purchases, further pinching the casinos.<\/p>\n
\tOther factors are also hurting the industry. China has tightened credit and also the restrictions on transit visas for mainlanders who supposedly are continuing overseas but often remain in Macau. The protests in Hong Kong have hurt, too, because mainlanders often visit the two cities in a single trip. And no new casinos have opened since April 2012 to give the market a jolt. So instead, many Chinese are choosing gambling destinations away from Beijing\u2019s scrutiny, such as Manila, Phnom Penh, South Korea, Melbourne and even Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
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Mohhamend Cohen; Forbes Asia Macau casinos have always been winning bets for Hong Kong billionaires\u2013until 2014. Total casino revenue fell last year for the first time since Stanley Ho\u2019s 40-year gambling monopoly ended in 2004\u2013by an estimated 3.3%\u2013and that\u2019s hammering…<\/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-8486","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\/8486","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=8486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}