Gaming (Casinos, NFO, Pachinkos, Online Gambling etc)

[ishak]

No easy money in Asian casinos

Profit margin in Macau is just 10%, while in S'pore it's estimated to be nearly 40%

15 Sep 2008

While the profit margin takes into account various operational costs, including junket commissions, the tax on gaming revenue is a big factor, and in Macau operators pay 35 per cent of gross gaming revenue in taxes.

In Singapore, the gaming tax rate will be 12 per cent (plus GST) for VIP play and 23 per cent (plus GST) for non-VIP play.

At the 13th Annual Asian Casinos Executive Summit 2008, which included industry players from Caesars Entertainment and Genting International, it also emerged that the profit margin for gaming operations in Macau work out to be about 10 per cent. In Singapore, it is estimated to be closer to 40 per cent.

Of course, taxes only matter to the extent that there is revenue to be taxed.

Speaking at the summit, Robert Stocker, president of the International Master of Gaming Law (US), said that generally, gaming tax needs to be below 20 per cent if the operators are also expected to provide amenities like entertainment, retail and F&B, and still remain feasible.

In a Citi gaming report, Anil Daswani said that Macau gaming revenues have plateaued and forecast a 20 per cent drop for September, down from HK$9.2 billion (S$1.7 billion) in August.

While visa restrictions from China were cited as one reason for this, cut-throat junket commissions and easy credit lines are creating what Mr Daswani calls an environment of 'irrational competition'.

In this environment, he also noted that some Macau developers including eSun have failed to secure funding for projects.

CapitaLand has a 20 per cent stake in the eSun project, Macao Studio City. A spokesman said: 'Currently, the progress of the Macao Studio City project is dependent on when the site will be re-gazetted and its use extended to allow for additional hotel rooms and other entertainment activities. The pace of securing project financing will also correspond with this approval. At the same time, the current environment has also become more challenging due to the global credit crunch.'

With the Chinese government expected to curb casino development in Macau, other countries are ramping up efforts to attract investors.

Singapore may be ahead of the game here but even in small gaming jurisdictions like Cambodia, where there are already 28 casino hotels, the government is looking to build bigger and better facilities.

Also speaking at the casino summit, Secretary of State for the Cambodian Ministry of Economy and Finance, Chea Peng Chheang, said it was now hoping to build 'destination casinos'.

Casinos are only open to foreigners in Cambodia but the market is not heavily regulated. This is largely because, apart from Naga Corp's casino in Phnom Penh, casinos are located in border towns like Cam-Thai and Cam-Viet to stimulate the economies there.

Casinos are also imminent in Japan but this is more because the Japanese have a yen for gambling. Pachinko and Pachislo machines there generate more than US$10 billion in revenue every year.

Japan has just moved one step closer to legalising casinos.

Toru Mihara, adviser to the Casino Study Group of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party, said that one of the main stumbling blocks - the lack of bipartisan support - had been recently resolved with a bipartisan group formed to study gaming issues.

He also revealed that 16 congressmen had travelled to Macau and Singapore recently for this purpose. 'We are now discussing not when casinos will be allowed, but how,' he said.

Political will could make all the difference. In India, for instance, where slot machines were legalised only in Goa in 1993, Sunder Advani, chairman and managing director of Advani Hotels and Resorts, says it is very unlikely that the government there would allow resort-style casinos anytime soon. 'There is too much resistance from anti-gambling bodies.'

For now, Mr Advani owns the only 'full-fledged' casino in India and that is located on a ship off the Goa coast. Five more off-shore licences are still pending.

Some investors are still gung-ho on the industry, though.

Canada's Asian Coast Development (ACD), which counts US-based Harbinger Capital as a partner, has already got US$1.5 billion funding to build a 2,300-room casino resort in Vietnam's Bang Ria-Vung Tau Province called the Ho Tram Strip.

The casino will have 90 gaming tables and 2,000 slot machines and the resort will have a golf course designed by Greg Norman.

Vietnam already has two casinos but entry is restricted to foreigners. ACD chief executive David Subotic is, however, optimistic that this will change. ACD's revenue model includes local gamers.

ACD is also eyeing other Asian markets. He said: 'Ho Tram Strip is a showpiece for Japan and Taiwan, to show the governments there that our model is the most successful.'

Mr Subotic concedes that competition will be intense, and if credit markets remain persistently bearish, funding will be challenging.

But he added: 'If you build something of substance in this region, we believe people will be attracted.'

Source: Business Times

[kennynah]

wonder why they try to make it sound better....gaming industry?

gambling means gambling lah...

[sidney]

For Those with gambling in their blood... Rebrand to -----> Huatoindustry

Huatoindustry is a wholly-owned gaming subsidiary under Huatopedia.

[sidney]

wonder why they try to make it sound better....gaming industry?

gambling means gambling lah...

Framing Image we formed in our brains lor.

Insurance advisor and financial wealth consultant almost the same meaning also. But difference very big, ppl less heard of fwc so is more "accepting to others".. although now its over used. So maybe the occupation is morphing to financial planner, then after sometime, overused again will morph again into..

[ishak]

29,000 people to be automatically banned from Singapore's casinos
CNA, 1 Oct 2008

Some 29,000 Singaporeans will be banned from visiting the casino next year when the first integrated resort opens its doors. The first casino at Marina Bay is expected to open in the third quarter of next year.

The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) will start receiving applications for casino exclusion orders in January.

And from January 2009, families may also apply for their members to be excluded.

When an application is submitted, both the family member making the application, as well as the person to be excluded will have to go for counselling before a committee of assessors. The committee will then hold a hearing to determine if an exclusion order should be issued.

So far, 60 grassroots leaders and social service professionals have been shortlisted to join the panel of assessors. Each assessing team will be made up of two of them, together with a council member from the NCPG.

The assessors were selected based on their age and maturity, years of experience in the social or community service, the ability to make proper and fair judgement, and minimum academic qualifications of O-levels and above.

Casino exclusion orders are issued by the NCPG under the Casino Control Act.

Samuel Ng, a member of the panel of assessors and executive director of Family Service Centre, said: "I don't think this act alone can solve or eradicate this whole problem. I think what this act attempts to do is more to prevent or more to manage the problem so it will not escalate.

"At this time, we cannot anticipate the volume of applications, but my concern as a social worker is that we should not take it as a punitive measure, but rather as a preventive measure.

"One of the possible problems could be that it will create more family conflicts. Within the family dynamics, certain family members can use this Act as their weapon."

The NCPG will launch an extensive public education campaign on casino exclusion next year.

[winston]

Vietnam casino developer eyes $1 bln HK IPO -paper

HONG KONG, Oct 6 (Reuters) - A Canadian firm developing an ocean-front casino complex in Vietnam hopes to raise $1 billion in a Hong Kong IPO in the next two years, a local newspaper reported, despite signs of weakening Asian gambling revenue.

Asian Coast Development and investor Harbinger Capital began work on their $4.2 billion Ho Tram Strip project in May, hoping to open in two years and target mainly Chinese gamblers.

The South China Morning Post cited chairman Mike Aymong as saying on Monday he would prefer a Hong Kong share offering because of strong investor appetite there for gambling firms.

Aymong was also quoted as saying the firm had prepared an $800 million to $900 million debt offering, but planned to ride out the global financial storm before taking it to market.

"You'd have to be a fool not to be concerned about the marketplace, so we just have to pick our timing and pick our price," the newspaper cited Aymong as saying.

"We've got enough money where we can start the pre-construction and start building, and when the market opens back up, we'll go out and do the debt offering."

Analysts point out that explosive growth in Asian gambling -- fuelled by increasingly wealthy Chinese gamers -- may be decelerating.

Citigroup estimated on Monday that year-on-year gambling revenue in Macau, the region's gambling capital, fell 3 percent in September, the first fall since January 2006.

The bank cited restrictions on visas granted to residents of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, a major source of gamers for the former Portugese enclave, the only city in China that permits gambling.

Investor demand for gambling-focused firms has also waned in past months. In July, the much-anticipated debut of tycoon Stanley Ho's gaming flagship, SJM Holdings, disappointed investors when its shares dipped 1.3 percent below its offering price on its first day.

[winston]

IT'S A BEAR MARKET IN VEGAS by Brian Hunt

For most of the past three months, one of the market's few safe havens has been "the basics"... companies like Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and Kraft. The thinking here goes, "Folks gotta shave, brush their teeth, and eat."

From a few laughable sources, we've heard claims that gambling would also hold up well in a weak economy. The thinking here goes, "Folks will try to win back what they've lost."

Today's chart will put this claim mercifully to rest. It's a two-year look at America's largest publicly traded casino operator, Wynn Resorts. Along with fellow gambling giants Las Vegas Sands and MGM, Wynn's fortunes, earnings, and shares are plummeting. The stock is down 62% from its high.

The decline of Las Vegas is a lot like the decline of Wall Street. Both have crumbled due to a mixture of drunken speculation and wild overbuilding. And both places are filled with whores who will do anything for money. We'll take shares of Johnson & Johnson!

[winston]

Losing Las Vegas Shows How Americans Crap Out in Housing Casino By Daniel Taub and Dan Levy

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Leigh Sogoloff, who spends her evenings lap-dancing at Rick's Cabaret Vegas on Procyon Street, says she's making half her income of a year ago.

``You don't shop, you don't buy stuff you can't afford,'' the 36-year-old Sogoloff said between dances at the Las Vegas club. She has postponed buying a house and is reading Deepak Chopra. ``I know how to save money. I'm not a dumb stripper.''

The city that sold Americans on the dream they could lay down a small wager and walk away millionaires is reeling from speculation in the housing market that helped bring down Wall Street. The quick profits that so easily spread from Nevada to Florida, just as casino gambling migrated to 37 states, are now proving what happens in Vegas rarely stays in Vegas.

Las Vegas leads the nation in falling home prices, foreclosures and stalled construction projects. Rick's Cabaret International Inc., with 20 clubs in seven states and two in Buenos Aires, has lost 74 percent of its market value this year.

The ``main nerve'' of the American dream runs through this desert metropolis, Hunter S. Thompson concluded in his 1971 book, ``Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.'' Chopra, the spiritual teacher whose writings Sogoloff has turned to, said that less than 2 percent of the $3 trillion to $4 trillion that circulates in the world's markets daily is used for goods and services.

`Pure Speculation'

``The rest is trying to make money off money,'' said Chopra, adjunct professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois. ``Our financial structure which, of course, is an American system but is now global, is pure speculation. It's gambling.''

More than $10 billion of hotel and casino projects with 10,000 rooms have been delayed on Las Vegas Boulevard, better known the world over as the Strip, according to locally based real estate and economic consulting firm Applied Analysis LLC.

Gaming revenue for casinos on the Strip fell for the eighth straight month in August from a year earlier, the longest streak of declines since records began in 1983, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board in Carson City. The 16 percent drop in May was a record. August revenue fell 7.4 percent.

``The only comparable period was around 9/11, when we were down for five straight months,'' Frank Streshley, senior analyst at the board, said in an interview. ``This is a very difficult time for the gaming industry.''

Empty Houses

All this in a state that led the U.S. housing boom with an estimated 275,000 new homes built from 2000 to 2007, a 33 percent increase that was the highest of any state, according to the Census Bureau. Now, many of those homes are empty and worth less than when they were built.

The bust that started almost three years ago has brought down New York-based securities firm Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and led to the forced sales of investment banks Bear Stearns Cos. and Merrill Lynch & Co., and led to more than 137,000 job losses in financial services worldwide.

Las Vegas had the biggest home-price decline in the country in July and Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in August. One in 91 homes in Nevada were in some stage of default, compared with one in 416 for the U.S. overall. California had the second-highest rate and the most foreclosure filings, and Florida had the second- most filings.

The signs of decline are right on the Strip, where Boyd Gaming Corp.'s $4.75 billion Echelon casino and resort may be the most obvious symbol for the city's economic slowdown.

Idle Cranes

Boyd said on Aug. 1 it would halt construction of the Echelon, a 5,000-room property with five hotel towers, after investing $500 million. The company broke ground on the 87-acre development, on the site of the demolished Stardust hotel at the northern end of the Strip, in June 2007, just before the onset of the global credit crunch.

Construction equipment, including two excavators and one backhoe, sat idle last week. Six tower cranes stood poised over the project's steel skeleton, which was halted at the ninth story. The tallest tower is to be 58 stories. The cranes may stay there until building resumes, said Ryan McPhee, a Las Vegas developer who monitors construction in town.

``With things slowing down, there may not be the demand'' for the equipment, McPhee said. ``There's almost no way to get financing for projects right now.''

Boyd will delay Echelon for ``three or four quarters, assuming the economy turns and credit markets open up,'' said spokesman Rob Stillwell.

CityCenter Project

``When a home-grown leader like Boyd builds a mega-resort framework, then suddenly says they're halting the project, that's a stunner,'' said George McCabe of B&P Advertising and Public Relations, which creates ad campaigns for Las Vegas's real estate industry. ``It's scary.''

A relative bright spot on the Strip may be CityCenter, an $11.2 billion joint venture between MGM Mirage, the world's second largest casino operator, and Dubai World, a holding company for the government of Dubai. About 60 percent of the development's 2,647 luxury condominium and hotel-condo units are under contract, with $350 million in non-refundable deposits.

``Our product is different and we're selling real estate for future delivery,'' said Tony Dennis, executive vice president.

At Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport, the total number of arriving and departing passengers in August dropped 9.9 percent from a year earlier, when a record 4.3 million passengers went through the airport. Highway traffic declined 4.9 percent through July, the latest month for which figures are available, the visitors authority said.

Flights Cut

``We are uniquely positioned to be penalized by the global slowdown, because we're hugely dependent on the consumer getting in a car or plane to get away from their lives,'' said Jeremy Aguero, co-owner of Applied Analysis.

Southwest Airlines Co., which has more flights leaving Las Vegas than any other city, had a 7.3 percent drop in Las Vegas passengers in August, and starting in January the Dallas-based carrier will cut its daily Las Vegas departures to 227 from 240.

Occupancy at Las Vegas hotels fell 2.4 percent and the average daily room rate dropped 6.6 percent in the seven months through July compared with a year earlier, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. In July alone, the latest month for which numbers are available, room rates were down 10 percent.

The unemployment rate for the Las Vegas metropolitan area rose to 7.1 percent in August, a 2.1 percentage point increase from a year earlier. Those numbers don't tell the story of people such as Dimi Doronis, a banquet server for Aramark Corp.

Doronis worked just four days in July, six in August and 10 last month catering at conventions, down from about 25 days per month a year ago. She doesn't get paid when she's not given a catering assignment, and the Bulgarian native spends her days reading books about Eastern European politics.

Digging Into Savings

``I've been 18 years in this town, and I've never seen what's gone on like it has this last month,'' the 44-year-old Doronis said. ``I don't know how I'm still alive. I'm digging into my savings right now, but soon it's going to be done.''

Mark Stubbins, a cab driver in Las Vegas for two and a half years, watched his tips drop to as low as $30 a day from as much as $80 a day before business started slowing down in May. The 53- year-old said he's struggling to meet his company's daily fare goals, which were set a year ago, when more tourists and businesspeople were still coming to town.

``You can't do what's not there,'' he said.

Sogoloff, the stripper from Rick's Cabaret, said she moved to Las Vegas in 1999 because ``I knew it was good out here.'' She's put her plans to buy a house on hold while she watches her money. ``That's why I don't own a home right now.''

Home Prices Fall

Las Vegas's housing market is the worst in the U.S. Home values in the area at the end of the second quarter had fallen to March 2004 levels, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home-Price Index. Las Vegas prices fell 30 percent in July from a year earlier, the biggest drop among 20 U.S. metropolitan areas.

The median price in August was $210,000, and three out of four home sales were bank-owned properties that were foreclosures, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors said. Nevada's foreclosure rate was the highest of any state for the 20th straight month in August, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

Hotels are using new promotions to try to win budget- conscious visitors. Harrah's Entertainment Inc., the world's largest casino company by revenue, offered a ``Two Cent Tuesday'' deal this month at its Harrah's Las Vegas property. The promotion allows guests to stay for that price as long as they book two nights before or after Tuesday at the regular rate, said spokeswoman Suzanne Trout.

The Flamingo

At the 1.9 million-square-foot Las Vegas Convention Center, visitor volume declined 1.1 percent this year through July, and attendance at some retail and merchandising events fell, according to the visitors authority. The MAGIC apparel convention was cut to three days in August from four days a year earlier.

Gambling was legalized in Las Vegas in 1931, the same year work began on the Hoover Dam. Mobster Benjamin ``Bugsy'' Siegel, a member of the Meyer Lansky crime organization, popularized Las Vegas in 1946 when he opened a hotel named The Flamingo, the nickname of his girlfriend, dancer Virginia Hill.

Since then, the city has become the destination of millions, who come for the shows, the gambling tables or just to sit bleary- eyed in front of the slot machines, pumping in coin after coin, ``still humping the American Dream, that vision of the Big Winner somehow emerging from the last-minute pre-dawn chaos of a stale Vegas casino,'' as Thompson wrote in ``Fear and Loathing.''

$6,000 Stripping

Some also come for entertainment that justifies the Vegas slogan, ``What happens here, stays here.'' Rick's Cabaret Vegas was known as Scores Las Vegas until Houston-based Rick's bought the club last month. A dancer whose stage name is Louanna who works with Sogoloff said she made $6,000 performing in September, down from $8,000 a year ago and $30,000 in January 2007, her best month in the two and a half years she's been performing.

Vegas workers may see their pay continue to shrink as tourists, turned off by the casino-style wagers they placed on their homes and retirement funds, stay away, said Faith Popcorn, who tracks cultural trends and spending habits as chairman of New York-based Faith Popcorn's BrainReserve. ``When we talk about gambling, that's a word we don't want in our vocabulary.''

[millionairemind]

Nov 6, 2008
Gloom for gaming sector ?

CREDIT ratings firm Moody's said on Thursday it has a 'negative' outlook for Asia's gaming sector in the next 12-18 months due to the economic uncertainty.

Casino operators in Asia's gaming haven of Macau will be the most affected, with the industry in Australia and Malaysia also expected to be hit, it said in a report.

'As in the US, the gaming sector in the Asia-Pacific is facing increasing operating pressures, which vary by company and country,' it said.

Cutbacks in discretionary spending, intense local competition and regulations on travel are expected to hurt the earnings of casino operators, Moody's said.

'In addition to these immediate concerns, gaming operators face the challenge of managing large acquisitions or capital expenditure in an uncertain environment,' it said.

The agency said the decline in revenues may worsen in Macau when new casinos open in the next six to 12 months.

The city's gaming revenues dropped 10 per cent in the third quarter, according to official figures, partly due to tougher visa restrictions on visitors from mainland China. It was the second consecutive quarter that gaming revenues fell there.

'In Australia, a slowing economy has darkened the outlook for the country's gaming sector because lower disposable incomes could lead to reduced spending at casinos,' Moody's said.

It said it recently revised its outlook for Australian casino operator Crown to negative 'on concerns over the company's ability to achieve its financial targets'.

Malaysia's gaming sector will also be impacted but a projected economic growth of 3.5 per cent in 2009 and the absence of local competition could support the industry, it said.

Moody's warned that 'aggressive expansion' by some casino firms amid the uncertain credit and economic environment contained risks and could result in project delays, but said the situation among its rated companies was manageable.

'No issuers have large maturing short-term debt and they have all secured financing for planned capex requirements or acquisitions.

'The challenge for some will be to ensure that planned capital expenditure remains within available funding,' it said. -- AFP

[kennynah]

sui lah....let these 2 IRs in Singapore ...go bust before they can even take off....