Monthly Archives: April 2017

Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam Chon Weng said yesterday that the government has decided that the former and current chiefs of the Cultural Affairs Bureau will have to subject themselves to disciplinary proceedings – including ex-president Guilherme Ung Vai Meng. A hard-hitting report released by the Commission Against Corruption early last month slammed the bureau for having hired a large number of staff on “unjustified” acquisition of services contracts.

Iao Kun Group Holding Company Ltd. has announced its name change… it is still running one VIP room in the City of Dreams of Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. The operator ran four other VIP rooms located in Sands Cotai Central, Galaxy Macau complex, StarWorld and L’Arc Macau until last year, claiming the closures were ‘part of its comprehensive strategic review of its VIP gaming room operations in Macau.’

The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) released a statement informing the public about their preparations for the upcoming Labor Day holidays, which will take place from April 29 to May 1. The Labor Day holidays are expected to bring many visitors from mainland China to Macau.

The addition of Daisy Ho Chiu Fung to the board of Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd would be of “great help” to the firm’s development, said Angela Leong On. Ms Leong is fourth consort of SJM Holdings’ founder Stanley Ho Hung Sun. Daisy Ho is a daughter of Mr. Ho by his second consort

MGM Cotai is likely to open in the fourth quarter of 2017, said James Murren. “It is going to open this year in the fourth quarter and probably right around – right after Golden Week, probably. But it’s going to open this year for sure and it’s going to be very spectacular,” said Mr. Murren.

MGM China reported operating income of $73 million, up 55.3 percent from $47 million in the prior year quarter, driven by mass and slots growth. “Management is clearly focused on mass, which grew 17 percent year-on-year,” noted analysts from Union Gaming. “Slot GGR grew 6 percent year-on-year resulting in combined mass/slots GGR growth of 15 percent year-on-year, which we estimate was ~300-400bps better than market-wide growth.”

Macau’s more than two-year recent slump in casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) has often been linked by industry commentators to China’s anti-corruption campaign. A new report from brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd suggests that months with the highest numbers of announced investigations into allegations of graft in mainland China were frequently months where Macau VIP casino GGR had registered year-on-year declines.