It's been a tough year for the live casino industry in the United States, but it looks like casino mogul Steve Wynn has found a new country to build his Wynn empire.
The Wynn Resorts Ltd quarter numbers have been better than expected, and analysts believe it's their new casino industry in Macau, China that has been a big part of the impressive numbers.
"The Macau numbers were well above expectations, even given very bad win rates," said Sanford Bernstein analyst Janet Brashear. "Las Vegas looks like it's sort of hanging in there — it wasn't as terrible as it could have been."
Macau had a 31.6 percent growth in the last year. The growth of the casino industry has been so impressive in China that Wynn is planning to move his entire casino base to Macau, to start a new Chinese Vegas.
Wynn has two resorts in Macau, the Wynn Macau and the Encore extension, the latter opened last week to a spectacular fireworks show.
Could this mean the end of significant growth in Sin City?
John L. Smith, a columnist with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, essentially said that Wynn is abandoning the city that build his empire. "Las Vegas, which has given Wynn everything he has ever asked, is struggling," he wrote. "Unlike Wynn, most locals can't cut and run."
Wynn has told analysts that he was unlikely to invest much anymore in casinos in the U.S., with the possible exception of Massachusetts if that state expands gambling.
Fortunately for us, the online casino industry is alive and well, and won't be going anywhere in the near future.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Mosely's Gambling Not Enough to Beat Mayweather at MGM Casino
Sugar Shane Mosely surprised Floyd Mayweather by gambling on coming after him early, but once Mayweather adjusted, the heavily anticipated boxing match became one-sided. Observers at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas saw Mayweather recover quickly from a second-round stunner to dominate the rest of the fight.
Mosely entered the bout considered number three in the mythical world pound-for-pound championship, behind Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, in no certain order. After its conclusion, Saturday night's match left no doubt as to the gap between Mosely and Mayweather.
Mayweather appeared dazed in the second round as a Mosely right caught him square, leaving him smiling but moving slowly and flat-footed. But Mosely was unable to finish the champ before the bell, and Mayweather began meeting his opponent's charges by standing his ground, flicking his head and waist just enough to slip the first punches and repeatedly scoring with counters.
Some had thought Mosely's speed would neutralize Mayweather's legendary defense, but it was Mayweather's power and ability to hurt Mosely that seemed most unexpected. At the end, Mosely looked close to done, but Mayweather never has a problem taking home a decision, so he allowed the judges to assert his victory, finding him better in eleven of the twelve rounds.
Gambling had been suprisingly brisk on Mosely, as many continue to question Mayweather's brilliance because he doesn't deliver knockouts. Despite a 40-0 record going in, Mayweather was only -380 just before the fight, unusually low odds for a man mentioned among the best ever.
"It's a contact sport, and you're going to get hit," Mayweather said in talking about the second round. "But when you get hit, you suck it up and keep on fighting."
Talk at the casino after the fight among viewers was frequently about hopes that soon they'd be gambling on Mayweather-Pacquiao, the final test of the greatest at any weight.
Mosely entered the bout considered number three in the mythical world pound-for-pound championship, behind Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, in no certain order. After its conclusion, Saturday night's match left no doubt as to the gap between Mosely and Mayweather.
Mayweather appeared dazed in the second round as a Mosely right caught him square, leaving him smiling but moving slowly and flat-footed. But Mosely was unable to finish the champ before the bell, and Mayweather began meeting his opponent's charges by standing his ground, flicking his head and waist just enough to slip the first punches and repeatedly scoring with counters.
Some had thought Mosely's speed would neutralize Mayweather's legendary defense, but it was Mayweather's power and ability to hurt Mosely that seemed most unexpected. At the end, Mosely looked close to done, but Mayweather never has a problem taking home a decision, so he allowed the judges to assert his victory, finding him better in eleven of the twelve rounds.
Gambling had been suprisingly brisk on Mosely, as many continue to question Mayweather's brilliance because he doesn't deliver knockouts. Despite a 40-0 record going in, Mayweather was only -380 just before the fight, unusually low odds for a man mentioned among the best ever.
"It's a contact sport, and you're going to get hit," Mayweather said in talking about the second round. "But when you get hit, you suck it up and keep on fighting."
Talk at the casino after the fight among viewers was frequently about hopes that soon they'd be gambling on Mayweather-Pacquiao, the final test of the greatest at any weight.
‘Casino Jack’ Opens This Weekend
I caught Alex Gibney’s documentary, Casino Jack and the United States of Money, when it premiered at Sundance in January. It finally begins its theatrical release this weekend, and comes at a Gibney-centric time in Manhattan. He directed two feature films, and one chapter of another, that all premiered at the recent Tribeca Film Festival. Casino Jack did not screen at Tribeca this year, but you’d be forgiven if you assumed it had.
Gibney’s first documentary released since his Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side, this is a gripping and entertaining spiritual cousin to his breakthrough film, Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room. A historical look at lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s career as a powerful manipulator, Casino Jack allows the audience to examine the greed-based influence of the Reagan era, and the shady deals that took place when some influential men become inspired to perpetuate financial corruption within the U.S. government. Whether you consider yourself a “conservative,” a “liberal,” or neither, I feel it’s hard not to be riveted by this account of how Abramoff helped ruin the system. Like all of Gibney’s documentaries, this one is a dense and comprehensive, but it also rewards the viewer. Casino Jack opens in many cities between this weekend and the end of June.
Gibney’s first documentary released since his Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side, this is a gripping and entertaining spiritual cousin to his breakthrough film, Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room. A historical look at lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s career as a powerful manipulator, Casino Jack allows the audience to examine the greed-based influence of the Reagan era, and the shady deals that took place when some influential men become inspired to perpetuate financial corruption within the U.S. government. Whether you consider yourself a “conservative,” a “liberal,” or neither, I feel it’s hard not to be riveted by this account of how Abramoff helped ruin the system. Like all of Gibney’s documentaries, this one is a dense and comprehensive, but it also rewards the viewer. Casino Jack opens in many cities between this weekend and the end of June.
Mixed support in Ohio for Columbus casino issue
A state ballot issue that seeks to move the location of a planned casino in Columbus is drawing mixed support among Ohioans.
Don Davies, a restaurateur in northwest Ohio, said he’ll vote for state Issue 2 on Tuesday. But Tammy Rexroad, a school board member in Newscomerstown about 100 miles east of Columbus, said she’s leaning "no" because of her unhappiness with gambling in general.
"I’m a Christian. I don’t believe in gambling in Ohio or any other state," Rexroad said.
Issue 2 would change the location of the Columbus casino from a downtown neighborhood to a former auto parts factory on the city’s west side.
The casino was among four that Ohio voters approved last November for Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo.
Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman wants the city’s casino project out of downtown because it would clash with the district’s family oriented theme. The district is home to the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team and the city’s new minor league baseball stadium.
Davies, who lives in Van Wert, about 120 miles northwest of Columbus near the Indiana state line, said he has only a vague idea of the debate over the casino location. He’ll vote yes, he said, because the overall concept of the casino is something that Ohioans have already approved.
Proponents, including developer Penn National Gaming Inc., say the simplicity of the ballot issue — it changes only the address of one casino — should make it palatable to voters everywhere.
The issue has no organized opposition, but the Ohio Roundtable, which has traditionally opposed expanded gambling, is encouraging voters to turn down Issue 2 because the group sees it as a special favor to Columbus business interests.
Mike Holtsberry, a registered Republican in Van Wert who lost his job when his plumbing and heating business closed in August, said he doesn’t know much about the measure. He voted against the 2009 casino issue, but he’s in favor of this year’s proposal.
"The casino is going to be built somewhere," he said.
John McVay, 61, a retired information-technology manager from Van Wert, voted for the four casinos last year but doesn’t think its fair for Columbus to get a do-over.
"We ain’t voting for the dang thing again," McVay said. "We voted for it once, and we’re not going to do it again. We’re finished with this thing. Good Lord, people."
Battle Creek casino antes up a healthcare facility for its workers
A health clinic for workers at the Firekeepers Casino will open May 1, 2010, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette.
1,500 workers will benefit from the new health facility.
1,500 workers will benefit from the new health facility.
Firekeepers Casino opened a year ago and is owned by the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, the Kalamazoo Gazette said.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
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.
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.
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