Macao's gaming revenue amounted to 5.5 billion patacas (about
680 million U.S. dollars) in the first 15 days of 2008, according
to a report on Thursday by The Macao Daily News, a major
local Chinese language newspaper.
By far, the highest gaming revenue for a month was recorded on
November last year, which stood at 9.5 billion patacas (1.2 billion
U.S. dollars), and the revenue for January 2007 was expected to
break the record based on the present market development, the daily
said.
The Las Vegas style casino resort MGM Grand Macao, opened in
September 2007, has expanded the gaming market by increasing the
number of casinos in Macao to 28, but the island city's gaming
industry development may be affected by the credit crunch in the
United States, said Dr. Fong Ka Chio, director of Institute for the
Study of Commercial Gaming at the University of Macao.
For the time being, big American gaming companies, including the
Las Vegas Sands, Wynn and MGM Mirage have all set foot in Macao's
gaming market, heating up the competition with local gaming magnate
Stanley Ho whose decades-old monopoly ended in 2001.
He pointed out that the current subprime mortgage crisis may
prompt banks to squeeze their credits, which will dry up funds for
American gaming companies to further pursue their investment in
Macao.
Macao logged a record gaming revenue of over 80 billion patacas
(around 10 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007, outstripping Las Vegas,
but some of the Las Vegas gaming companies with investment in Macao
still saw their share prices drop in recent months, according to
the daily.
(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2008)
