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Crown “busiest casino in world”: analyst |
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Tuesday, 25 March 2008 |
The Crown Macau turnaround orchestrated by a new deal with VIP junket operators has led to a gaming analyst branding the venue the world's busiest casino in terms of betting volume.
Late last year it made a deal with Hong Kong-listed junket operator, A-Max, offering the group 1.35 percent commission on chip sales over a specified volume, reportedly the highest amount offered in the city.
"Thanks to A-Max's junkets, Melco PBL's market share improved substantially from 5.7 percent in November to 18.1 percent in February, making Crown Macau the busiest casino in the world in terms of betting volume," The Australian newspaper reported Credit Suisse's Hong Kong-based gambling analyst, Gabriel Chan as saying in a new report on the company.
"If we focus on market share in the high-roller segment alone, the improvement was even more astonishing with market share increasing from 6.6 percent in November to 24.8 percent in February."
"We expect A-Max's junkets to generate on average $US6.3 billion rolling chip turnover per month in 2008."
The growth is coming at the cost of other operators in Macau the report said.
Chan says that Galaxy's market share has dropped from 14.9 percent in November to only 10.3 percent in February.
Market share of the Las Vegas Sands' owned Venetian Macao also fell from 28 percent to 22 percent from November to last month, according to the South China Morning Post which also quoted Chan's report.
One of the biggest losers appears to be Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) whose market share fell from 37 percent to 24 percent, the Hong Kong daily said.
The investor analyst also believes Crown has room to grow.
"A-Max junkets generated about $US5.3 billion in rolling chip turnover in February, up about 5 percent month on month," he said. "In our view, there is room for further growth.
The deal has also reportedly forced other operators to lift their commission rates to compete.
Last month Wang Wuyi, researcher of gaming economics at the Macao Polytechnic Institute told attendees of the Gaming and Hospitality conference held at the Venetian Macao that the current levels of commission were unsustainable and didn't allow operators to earn a profit. |
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