online craps casinos

Macau Gambling Skyrockets

Posted on April 24th, 2011

News Sponsored by Online Vegas Casino

Rated 5 Stars by crapsonline.com

Read Review

Visit Casino

Download Software

————————————————

As the lone district of the People’s Republic of China legally allowing gambling, Macau has already surpassed Las Vegas and has become the world’s leader in the gambling industry. Since the 1850s, the Portuguese, then the colonizers of Macau, has legalized gambling in the area. However, prior to 2002, the gambling business in Macau was monopolized by the Chinese. On 2002, the government of Macau opened its district to foreign investors, especially to the big companies engaged in the casino business in the Las Vegas Strip, with hopes of further strengthening its revenues from the gambling industry. Yet, Macau surprisingly surpassed every expectation gamblers all over the world expected from it. By 2007, Macau already outranked the Las Vegas Strip’s revenues from the various companies well-known in the gambling industry. Last year, Macau’s revenues from the said industry skyrocketed to $23.5 billion, an amount four times higher than the revenues from the Las Vegas Strip. Today, Macau has become the most lucrative market for the gambling industry. More than just an escape destination for the people in Mainland China looking for less restrictive districts, Macau has become the top choice of tourists and investors alike searching for world-class resort-casinos. Macau district lures more than 22.7 million visitors per year, most of which are enticed with the myriad of world class resorts and casinos.

Recently, in the first quarter of 2011, Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau released a financial statement that its revenues coming from the gambling business have gone to a whopping 20.09 billion Macanese Pataca (MOP), the currency of Macau. As compared to 2010’s first quarter reports, which reported MOP13.57 billion, the gambling industry in Macau nowadays has really become the city’s lifeblood and lifeline. Given the current booming gambling industry in the special district of Macau, it is no wonder that even the big fishes of the Las Vegas Strip has flocked into its streets, seeking a buffer to the slow performance of the gambling industry in the US. The companies behind the luxurious resort-casinos in the Las Vegas Strip, such as the Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands, Galaxy Entertainment Group, and Melco, have all competed for slots in the six licenses Macau has issued for businesses engaged in resort-casinos. Fortunately, their investments were not put to waste, as their profits reached to enormous heights.

For first quarter (Q1) in 2011, Macau’s six big casino companies have reported reaching MOP 58.5 billion. These earnings were 43% higher than last year. This is great news, especially because business analysts have changed their projected earnings for companies engaged in the gambling industry. From the previous estimated growth of 20%, business analysts now project 30% growth for the year 2011.
Both the Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd and the Wynn Macau Ltd have released financial statements regarding their first quarter earnings in 2011. As the gambling business in Macau continues to reach greater heights, their investors could have never been happier. Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd had a 71% increase in their earnings for the first quarter of 2011. This increase corresponds to a sum of HK $712 million, as opposed to last year’s earnings of HK $417 million. Meanwhile, Wynn Macau Ltd proudly released that their company had a 47% increase translating to $865.7 million in the first quarter. Moreover, Wynn Macau is set for its third resort-casino in Macau following the approval of the Macau government.

Amidst the profits earned by the companies in the gambling industry of Macau, expansion has been a cutthroat business. Each company hopes to beat the other through continuous renovations and expansions. Also, each company unceasingly strives to tie up with well-known gambling tycoons from the area, hopeful of generating more investments. The most recent development in these partnerships was when Pansy Ho decided to sell 1% of her share of stock to MGM Resorts International, thus making MGM the majority stock holder for MGM Grand Macau. For the year 2011, the Galaxy Entertainment Group is due to open Galaxy Macau, a $1.9 billion dollar investment, the company’s biggest venture yet. Galaxy Macau, the company’s third resort-casino, will open on May 15, 2011. This is the only resort-casino said to open this year.