Casino backers try again

Backers of a proposal to build a resort casino in western Maine delivered more than 90,000 petition signatures to state officials on Tuesday in hopes of triggering the sixth statewide referendum on gambling since 2000.

A representative of the organization hoping to build the four-season resort and casino in the Oxford area said the latest proposal is dramatically different from an Oxford County casino ballot measure that failed at the polls in November 2008. He also forecast that passage of the ballot initiative would likely help, not hurt, Bangor’s Hollywood Slots, which is the only sanctioned gaming facility in the state.

Peter Martin, spokesman for Black Bear Entertainment LLC, said petition organizers removed most of the “flaws” that he believes helped doom the last proposal. Those flaws included lowering Maine’s gambling age to 19, creating a 10-year moratorium on other gaming facilities in the state and giving the casino president a seat on influential state boards. Martin described the latest proposal as a privately funded stimulus package for Maine schools, with 70 percent, or about $32 million, of the annual tax revenues from the casino going to education statewide. The proposed four-season resort would create 800 to 1,000 jobs.

“It’s something that will affect every municipality in the state,” Martin said Tuesday moments after dropping off boxes of petition signatures at the Secretary of State’s Office.

Black Bear Entertainment, which was formed by a group of Maine business owners, needs 55,087 certified signatures from registered voters in Maine to place the issue on the November 2010 ballot.

The state’s voters already have rejected four gambling initiatives, including two proposed by Maine’s Indian tribes. Roughly 54 percent of voters rejected the last Oxford County resort casino proposal in November 2008. Dennis Bailey, spokesman for the anti-gambling group CasinosNO!, dismissed Martin’s suggestions that the latest Oxford County plan is an improvement over the 2008 proposal or that it will fare better at the polls this time around.

“These things are a scam and the voters know they are a scam,” Bailey said. “I see nothing here to convince people to change their minds and vote differently than they did in the past.”

In addition to opposition from CasinosNO!, Black Bear Entertainment will likely have to confront concerns among some Bangor-area voters that an Oxford County casino would draw business away from Hollywood Slots. Martin said the company anticipates most gamers at the Oxford casino would be from areas south of Augusta, with 50 percent likely from Massachusetts or New Hampshire.

Hollywood Slots officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Sen. Joe Perry, D-Bangor, said he does not believe a resort casino in Oxford would compete with Hollywood Slots.

“But I think it raises the issue that if we are going to have a full casino in the state, can we limit Hollywood Slots to just slots? Or should we consider opening up Hollywood Slots to table games?” Perry said. Hollywood Slots officials have made clear their interest in offering blackjack and other table games as a way to draw additional business to the facility, which is restricted to 1,500 slot machines.

But before they could offer table games, Hollywood Slots would need legislative approval. And Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat in his final year in office, has been adamant that he would veto any legislation expanding gambling in Maine.

Bailey also pointed out that under the current language proposed by Black Bear Entertainment, Hollywood Slots would still be prohibited from offering table games even if voters approve the Oxford casino.

Martin agreed, explaining that Black Bear’s proposal would not change the existing law governing Hollywood Slots that was approved by voters in 2003. “The reality is if this casino passes, the Legislature will award Hollywood Slots table games,” Martin said. “There is no reason they shouldn’t, and we wouldn’t oppose it.”

Perry said he would probably support expanding to table games at Hollywood Slots. But the Bangor-area senator said it is still unclear to him whether Mainers will support a resort casino ballot question authored by groups looking to build the gaming facility.

Sands China May Have Sales of $5 Billion in 2010

Sands China Ltd., the casino operator with the second-biggest market share in Macau, may have sales of $4.5 billion to $5 billion next year, according to the head of the company that controls it.

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp., made the forecast in an interview at the construction site for a $5.5 billion casino resort in Singapore yesterday. Sands China had sales of $3.05 billion in 2008, according to Bloomberg data. Adelson, 76, didn’t comment on the 2009 results.

“Macau is going through record growth so I would expect Sands to do well in 2010,” Sean Monaghan, a Singapore-based investment consultant who previously worked for Merrill Lynch & Co. as a gaming analyst, said by e-mail today. Still, gross revenue is “much higher” than the net figure Sands reports, he said.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. is expanding in Asia, betting that rising incomes may fuel gambling and retail spending, Adelson said. Sands China, its Macau unit, raised $2.5 billion last month in a Hong Kong initial public offering to repay loans and resume construction the city, the world’s biggest gambling hub.

Sands China’s shares rose 1.3 percent, the first gain in five days, to HK$9.35 in Hong Kong today. The stock has fallen 9.9 percent from its IPO price of HK$10.38.

Gaming Revenue

Casino stocks have been dropping as investors “rotate out of high beta stocks before the end of the year,” Aaron Fischer, a Hong Kong-based analyst at CLSA Ltd., said in a phone interview today. Beta is a measure of volatility or systemic risk of a security.

The Bloomberg/Standard Newspaper Macau Gambling Index that tracks 22 companies has declined 8 percent this month, set for its third monthly drop.

Investors also anticipate slower growth in casino revenue, Fischer said. “Recent monthly revenue growth of 40 to 60 percent is clearly not sustainable for the entire 2010 and we expect some slowdown. Nonetheless, we expect revenue growth of 17 to 20 percent in 2010,” he said.

Net revenue at Sands China rose 6.2 percent to $846 million in the three months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier. The company benefited from the first full quarter of operations at the Plaza Macao, according to its prospectus.

Record new loans in China that have boosted spending and a recovery in visitor arrivals to Macau drove gaming revenue to climb more than 6 percent in the first 11 months, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported Dec. 1, citing data from the operators.

Singapore Casino

Casino gambling revenue in Macau may increase 8 percent this year as global economies recover, Lawrence Ho, chief executive officer of Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd., said in a Dec. 4 interview. Melco Crown is a casino venture controlled by Ho, son of Macau casino billionaire Stanley Ho.

Official figures showed third-quarter casino gambling revenue increased 22 percent to 32 billion patacas ($4 billion), the first growth in a year.

Sands’ Singapore casino may open in the middle of April, Adelson said. He said in a Nov. 30 interview that the project would open on schedule at the end of the first quarter of 2010.

“Singapore is a very important development for us,” said Adelson. “We don’t want to over-promise. We want to over- deliver.”

Postponement to April means the opening of the Singapore project, called Marina Bay Sands, has been delayed by more than a quarter after it was originally scheduled to open this year.

“The project is massive and so a few months’ delay can always be expected,” Monaghan said, adding that Marina Bay Sands is the “most expensive single property” that Las Vegas Sands has undertaken.

The land on which the project is built also had structural problems, including a previously unknown sea wall that cost the development a four-month delay to remove, he said.

The return on investment capital at Sands’ Singapore property may reach 20 percent, while occupancy at its 2,500 hotel rooms may amount to 90 percent, Adelson said.