Zona de Azar China – MGM Cotai Open for Business Ahead of Lunar New Year in Macau

China.- February 14, 2018 www.zonadeazar.com MGM Resorts opened its $3.4 billion casino resort in the Chinese-controlled territory of Macau on Tuesday, just days ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, hoping to ride a boom in business in the world’s biggest gaming hub.

MGM Cotai, which will more than triple the number of MGM’s hotel rooms in the former Portuguese colony to 1,972, marks a major expansion in non-gaming attractions amid uncertainty over the renewal process of its casino license that expires in two years.

The new resort, MGM’s second and the biggest investment in Macau, boasts a 2,000-seat theatre and artwork including 28 carpets from the Qing dynasty as well as a four-storey atrium garden space that features digital art. It also increases MGM’s overall gaming table count in the hub by 29 percent to 552.

The opening comes at a time of surging casino revenues. Macau’s January numbers stormed past expectations with a 36 percent year-on-year jump, the 18th gain in a row, on demand from big whale gamblers and mom-and-pop mass punters.

The Chinese new year holiday which starts on Friday is expected to be very strong, Grant Bowie, chief executive of MGM China, the company’s Macau unit, told a news conference.

“Based on the numbers we are seeing, the reservations we have got, it was very important for us to open before.”

MGM is one of six licensed casino operators in the special administrative region located on the heel of China’s southern coast – the only place in the country where citizens are allowed to gamble legally.

But MGM’s license is due to expire in 2020 along with SJM Holdings, while licenses for Sands China, Wynn Macau, Galaxy Entertainment and Melco Resorts are set to expire in 2022.

Macau authorities have provided little information about whether, and how, the licenses will be renewed.

Bowie said the opening was vital for the concession renewal process.

“Concession renewals will be determined on diversifying Macau into more than just a gaming town,” he told a news conference.

Ahead of the expirations, operators including MGM have tried to diversify into non-gaming offerings to pacify Beijing which has been increasingly wary of Macau’s acute reliance on gambling, which accounts for more than 80 percent of its revenues.

MGM Cotai will open with around 177 mass gaming tables, according to analysts, with VIP gaming mostly handled by middlemen junkets set to launch by the end of the second quarter along with the resort’s luxury mansion villas.

Spanish online gaming revenue hikes 38% in Q4

Spanish gaming regulator Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) has revealed further growth in the country’s online gambling market in the fourth quarter.

Revenue during the three months to December 31, 2017, amounted to €173.3m ($213.5m), up 38% on the corresponding period last year and also an increase of 23.5% on the total collected in the third quarter of this year.

Sports betting remained the main source of income in the quarter, contributing €103.6m to the revenue total, 48.5% more than last year.

Casino revenue was also up 37.4% year-on-year to a total of €49.4m.

However, consumer wagered more on online casino games than any other form of internet gambling in the period, with the €1.77bn total 48% more than last year and also ahead of sports betting on €1.34bn.

The DGOJ also noted growth within the online poker market, with total spend up 15.5% year-on-year to €411.6m, while revenue climbed 5% to €15.5m.

The regulator put this growth down to a 2.2% increase in tournament fees in the period, as cash games stakes dropped 2.6%.

In addition, there was growth in the bingo market, with turnover up more than one third to €25.5m and revenue up 40% to €3.3m.

Editó: @_fonta   www.zonadeazar.com