Baccarat Instrumental in Macau's Good Casino Revenues

On July 24th, 2008, Macau's casino profits grow by forty-eight percent in the second quarter mainly because of high-roller baccarat play. The Gaming Inspection and Coordination stated in their website that the former Portuguese enclave's thirty casinos earned 28.89 billion patacas or $3.6 billion in the three months through June, compared with the 19.57 billion patacas in the same period a year ago.

Substantial VIP baccarat profits, which improved around 52% to 20.1 billion patacas or $2.5 billion compared with the same time last year, were one of the major factors about the improvement of casino profits. The opening of new casinos, like the Venetian Macau of Sands, which opened on August 2007, also helped push casino profits. Revenue for the last three months through June experienced a substantial drop from 29.82 billion patacas or $3.7 billion in the 1st quarter of the year.

According to analysts, it was the 1st quarter to quarter drop since the year 2005. Fewer Chinese tourists-who account for the majority of customers in the Chinese enclave-after the devastating earthquake in the Sichuan province in May which killed 70,000 people, have been one of the causes of the decline. The number of arrivals from China dropped from 1.55 million visitors in May to just 1.36 million visitors in June, a drop of twelve percent according to the data held by the Macau Tourist office.

On 2007, Macau casinos earned $10.3 billion. In 2006, Macau outstripped Las Vegas as the world's top gaming destination.

Monday, August 04, 2008
John Palmer