Sheldon Adelson Opens New $2.9B Macau CasinoSands China Sees Fifth Casino Resort In City |
|
Billionaire Las Vegas-based casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson opened his new $2.9 billion casino in Macau on Tuesday, which now gives him five properties in the only place in China where gambling is legal.
The opening of the Parisian Macau comes more than a decade after Adelson’s casino company, Sands China, opened its first Macau property. Since then, Macau has grown to a $45 billion gambling market only to shrink to under $30 billion.
The Macau gambling market is still close to three times as large as the state of Nevada, home to Las Vegas, but the decline for Macau was sudden and steep. Macau casinos still win about $2 billion a month, a third of what Las Vegas wins in a year.
Despite Macau breaking its 26-month-long gaming slump in August, Adelson said Tuesday that “there doesn’t seem to be too much more growth here,” according to a report from Bloomberg.
“We’re aggressively and continually lobbying for other locations throughout the Asia Pacific countries — we’ve been looking at Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand,” Adelson said at the opening of the casino.
Sands was approved for 150 table games, just like rival Wynn, but it was far less than what was asked for. The local government is trying to have the casino industry rely on non-gambling offerings for about 10 percent of its total revenue.
According to Bloomberg, Sands China is the dominant player among recreational gamblers and tourists, with about 30 percent of industry gaming win from that type of player. At the request of mainland China, Macau has also been trying to get the casinos to focus less on the high roller and more on the mass market customer.
The Parisian Macau’s opening follows the $4 billion Wynn Palace opening in August. A $3 billion casino from MGM will open next year. Two new casinos opened in Macau last year—one from Melco Crown Entertainment and one from Galaxy Entertainment Group.
Collectively, $20 billion has been invested into Macau by major casino operators despite the downturn. Experts predict that Macau will see year-over-year growth, albeit modest, in 2017.
Sands opened Sands Macau in 2004, the first Las Vegas-style casino in Macau. On the Cotai Strip, the company has The Venetian Macau, The Plaza Macau and Sands Cotai Central, and now The Parisian Macau.
Reuters reported that Adelson also said this week: “If the [Macau] government is listening please note we are interested in building more here.”
Adelson had once eyed a $30 billion casino complex in Spain and a massive resort in Miami, but both projects were sidelined. He is currently pushing for a nearly $2 billion NFL stadium in Las Vegas.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
