This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The Real Reason Macau's Casinos Are Suddenly Empty
A trip to the high-roller tables in Macau or Las Vegas strip casinos over the holidays revealed an unexpected, eerie (and terrifying if one is a bondholder in said casino) sight: empty chairs as far as the eye can see. Indeed, as Bloomberg reports, "Macau’s casinos just recorded their worst year, ending a decade of expansion that turned the former Portuguese enclave into the world’s biggest gambling hub. More tough times are ahead. Casino revenue in the city fell 2.6 percent to 351.5 billion patacas ($44 billion) in 2014, after a record 30.4 percent monthly drop in December, according to figures from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau today. Analysts projected a 2 percent annual decline, based on the median of nine estimates in a Bloomberg News survey."
Casino revenue fell to 23.3 billion patacas in December for a seventh straight month of decline and the biggest drop since Macau began recording monthly figures in 2005. That compared with a median estimate of a 30 percent drop in a Bloomberg News survey of 11 analysts.
Macau had posted its smallest annual casino revenue gain of 9.7 percent in 2009, after it began yearly records in 2002.
So what are the stated reasons? Chief among them: a crackdown on corruption by China's government, coupled with background checks on Macau gamblers.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bid to catch “tigers and flies” in an anti-corruption drive and weaker economic growth means Macau may face shrinking revenue until at least mid-2015, when new resorts open. The crackdown has deterred high rollers who account for two-thirds of Macau’s casino receipts, and wiped out about $73 billion in market value of companies including Wynn Macau Ltd. and SJM Holdings Ltd. last year.
“The VIP heyday is over,” said Philip Tulk, an analyst at Standard Chartered Plc in Hong Kong. “The anti-corruption crackdown doesn’t look to be a short-term phenomenon,” with funds flows between the mainland and Macau being much more closely scrutinized, he said.
Yes, there are concerns over corruption and embezzlement, which were capped when Macau implemented background checks for VIP gamblers, but a far bigger threat for Macau has been its abuse as a money-laundering mecca to which Beijing had turned a blind eye for many years but finally said enough. "Macau’s government has been curbing money flows to the territory over concern that illegal funds are being taken out of the mainland. It is restricting the use of China UnionPay Co.’s debit cards and its hand-held card swipers at casinos. Further clampdowns are expected with the help of banks."
To be sure, the crackdown on Macau "hot-money" meant that it was Las Vegas that emerged as a preferred money-laundering spot for Chinese billionaires. As we wrote previously, "as Macau has seen growth collapse, Las Vegas has seen Baccarat (the preferred game of China's rich) surge. In May, as Macau growth slumped, Las Vegas Baccarat surged over 85%. While slots (the staple indicator of the 99% in America) continues to decline (-4.4% in May), it seems rich foreigners are finding creative new ways to wash their money out of China.Macau had been the money-laundering center for Chinese elite: "You don't actually buy anything," said Lai, standing near a half-empty display case containing a messy spread of watches and jewellery. "We just help people get money out of China so they can gamble more."
And yet, subsequent to the brief burst in Las Vegas Baccarat revenues in the summer, this too money-laundering alternative appears to have fizzled out, suggesting there is more to it than merely a corruption crackdown and a halt to money-laundering.
That something is simple: as noted repeatedly on these pages, even as China's economy has been careening dangerously to a hard-landing, its stock market has soared over the past six months.
Why? Beuase in addition to the PBOC quietly launching both a lite version of QE in the summer and cutting rates in November, something far simpler happened: China's habitual - and filthy rich - gamblers decided to move from point A to point B, namely from the dark-lit Macau gambling parlors to multiple-monitor lit trading desks.
From Bloomberg:
While mainland regulators have eased regulations on investors using margin debt to buy shares, Macau’s government has tightened visa rules for Chinese visitors and cracked down on the use of UnionPay debit cards to bypass mainland currency controls. President Xi Jinping, who has spearheaded the anti-corruption campaign, is expected to visit Macau this month.
The bottom line:
"Customers who used to wager on casino tables are probably now sitting at home betting on stocks,” said Tai Hui, Hong Kong-based chief Asia market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management. “Investors are levering up on margin trading, or ‘using a small knife to cut a large tree.’"
And there you have it: why gamble in a casino when one can gamble in the just as rigged stock market?
As for tumbling casino stocks, all Macau needs to do is wait for the Shanghai Composite to crash as the latest equity bubble pops, and all those gamblers who made the track from Point A to Point B hoping to get rich quick, rush back to where they came from.
That, or perhaps it is time for UBS to rent out its massive, world's-biggest, trading floor in Stamford to Wynn, or Sands or Galaxy or MGM. It's not like UBS uses it anyway.
Then again, probably not, because so much snarky commentary would be avoided if finally none other than Chinese billionaires were manning the trading terminals to the biggest rigged casino ever.
- 34735 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -





WYNNING !!!
Chicken farm
With stock markets at this height, Macau wishes it could be the House.
...Can we bet on Obama's golf score?
Like Goldman Sachs, each has never lost a trade/match respectively.
China's multi-trillion rmb QE trickled into casinos and flooding into foreign RE -- HK. USA, Canada [been to Vancouver lately?], Syndey [anyone see the condo prices at Darling Harbor recently?], NZ, and the list goes on....
Bullish !
I say if the idiots want to overpay for RE, let them. We have plenty more where that came from.
Gold Bitchez...I pick up trash
It is not just Sydney (although Sydney is up there with the worst!). ALL the metropolitan areas (Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and even Darwin) have seen substantial "concrete box in the air" style of RE development, all for pretty astronomical prices.
There still seems to be reliavble supply of "greater fools" though - plenty of "investors" willing to part with their probably "not so hard earned" $$s when the big developers have their "Off the Plan" purchasing open days. http://www.firststateauctions.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1121.jpg
I live in NY state, where the greedy psychopaths and the clueless public just voted in gambling. They're planning to build a couple of massive casinos in NY, where they expect to make lots of money. Doubt if they'll have them ready before the bubble pops. Let's pray that they've gone all in by then...
Bad time to open a casino anywhere but fools still flourish in the investment game...
Fools or smart and savvy operators who take advantage of the sheeple?
QUESTION: Are those all UBS stock pushers?
It looks like a giant call center full of minimum wage cable TV pushers.
Nothing tells you where your money goes when you "invest" any better than that picture.
You know those damn commercials with the bald professor and the falling dominoes that get bigger and bigger and are supposed to represent your "retirement"?
Funny thing, they never show the medium and big dominoes being carried away by banks and banksters and having the littlest dominoe move from the front to the back because of all the engineered market crashes while you are trying to save!!!
Fuckers.
Casinos = gambling for the little people.
Stock Markets = gambling for the elites.
401K/I.R.A./Pension holders = providing chips and free drinks for the elites/banksters.
Casinos bring impressive local recessions without exemption - here's how it works.
A. Dummy's X,Y,Z and Grandma who do not have enough intelligence to realize that they loose 2% on every gamble - loose their money at the casino . Happens 100% of the time on a long enough time scale.
B. Casino revenues are like GDP vacuum cleaners sucking local GDP that would of been spent on productive things now become a resource revenue to a bloated government that produces *nothing* but poverty.
C. Governments hooked on the revenue and easy life of simply collecting the people's money while pretending to provide a service - can never back off even when the local economy is broken.
D. The end result is a sizable portion of value generating capital is converted into worthless capital. Local businesses close down, houses don't get repaired that are owned by the chronics. Their garbage houses that are in a state of disrepair drag down the whole community. Drugs and alcoholism infiltrate otherwise immune areas as people try to cope with the fact they bet their grocery money on red.
E. Kids don't get fed.
The state of New York would be much further ahead if they loaded up a B-52 bomber with shrapnel cluster bombs picked a random course over New York and dropped random bombs. It would do <less> damage.
~"Dummy's X,Y,Z and Grandma who do not have enough intelligence to realize that they loose 2% on every gamble - loose their money at the casino . Happens 100% of the time on a long enough time scale."~
Did you miss the header logo of this website? Let me restate it for you:
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for ecveryone drops to zero.
You post is one spoken like a person who does not frequent casinos. Good for you. But there is a respectably large segment of the population that does, and they frankly don't give a shit about your 2% assumptions. Most do lose some, but they also win some, and the losses are written off against their winnings. For this sum they are entertained, wiling away the hours making small wagers, watching the blinking lights and on occasion, winning piker bets. Many of them are retirees, often widowed, divorced and/or lonely and bored. They have a certain measure of discretionary money and the losses, (and/or gains), aren't going to change their world one way or the other.
The decline of the gambling crowd in Vegas is more of the casino's own making than that of gamblers. In the last few years the casinos have been crapping on the pay tables of their wagers, most notably in slots. It is now harder than ever to win at slots in Vegas, (trust me, I know). The casinos are doing this in their attempt to stay solvent, but the players are hip to the crappy odds, (sorry, no pun intended), and so they, (also maybe due to their own harder times), are less willing to go play in casino where the "action" sucks.
Also, not all casinos are corporate owned. In California and Arizona, they are owned and run by Native American tribes. There is no true comprehensive plan as each is independent from the next, with varying, and interesting results for players, but that's a different conversation. To say that these Indian casinos "are like GDP vacuum cleaners sucking local GDP that would of been spent on productive things now become a resource revenue to a bloated government that produces *nothing* but poverty," underscores your lack of understanding of the effects Indian casinos have on local economies.
As to your comment about "governments hooked on revenues", let me just point out that if men did not sin, there would be no need for governments. The fact that we have allowed government to get too big is one that, given enough time, will right itself, though not necessarily in a nice way. History doesn't repeat, but it sure can rhyme.
"The end result is a sizable portion of value generating capital is converted into worthless capital." This is a flawed thought. Please rethink this. No capital is worthless. The statement is an oxymoron.
"Kids don't get fed." Show me one in America. Just one.
"The state of New York would be much further ahead if they loaded up a B-52 bomber with shrapnel cluster bombs picked a random course over New York and dropped random bombs."
You really must come to grips with this hatred for the State of New York. Excelsiorphobia, (yes, I just made that up), is a treatable disease. I strongly urge professional help. It does make a difference.
... and at lunchtime the casino owner comes around handing out puppies and candy, oh, the casino truly is a magical place full of wonder and enchantment.
Just one? I googled 'child neglect gambling' and found these straight away. How fucking dense are you? http://www.examiner.com/article/child-neglect-gaming-and-gambling http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/they-died-forgotten-how-gamb... http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/hialeah/artic... His thinking is not flawed your comprehension is. When a chinese high roller loses 20mill he made in the Chinese economy in James Packer's Macau casino, that money less a minute portion being taxed leaves the Chinese economy. Seeing as cnmcdee is discussing the effect on the economy of the city the casino is situated in, this capital is extracted and essentially worthless (to that city). I thought it strange you defending casinos here like you are Steve Wynn but I realise now you are actually here to defend yourself from cnm's attack on losing gamblers, of which you are clearly one. Best of luck with that. http://www.problemgambling.com/links.htmlIf you "know it is harder than ever to win at slots" then you are a fucking idiot and don't belong on this site. You don't ever win at slots, only the pace your losses accumulate changes.
Ha, I can one-up you. I live in Cairns, Australia, and there are plans afoot to build an 8 Billion Dollar Casino at a place just up the road called Yorkeys Knob. The entire community is behind it, almost. Named 'Aquis'. Supposed to have 1500 machines and 750 tables. Oh, and 7500 hotel rooms.
Yes, I think it will go ahead. Yes, I think it will be a success. Good location, even if flights inwards tend to be pricey.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/casino-canberra-is-sold-to-hong-kong-billionaire-tony-fung-20141223-12cud5.html
I have budgeted 1 dollar to spend there gambling, once constructed.
NY Casinos will prove to be a huge bust. Yonkers Raceway is called 'The Recycling Center' - its slots populated by old folks losing their Social Security checks... the one up by Monticello has a parking lot filled with old cars looking like hell - people who don't have enough to live on much less gamble....Atlantic City is a depressing place with increasing failures and bankruptcies and even the Connecticut Casinos are losing money - despite bussing them in en masse.
Another symptom that government is corrupt, lacking morals and any sense of reality. Appealing to the worst instincts in people, abusing them (illegal games have better odds) and taking money from people who can't afford to lose the little they have - while ending up even MORE dependent on government largess.
The real schmucks are the ones building the casinos. They aren't even likely to make their expenses back.
Friend of mine drives these losers to the front of the casino. 90 year olds, welfare folk and 300 lb fanny packers looking to make it rich. Said best part of job was wishing them luck as they departed and they all give the thumbs up. What a f'd up country. Meanwhile there are another thousand casinos opening.
It is like no one understands that what made vegas great was there was no where else to go. Now if you live close to a state line you can just drive across it and gamble, as that is where a lot of the casinos place themselves, or wait for casinos to come to your state. I love watching these things get overbuilt and blow up.
And here for all these years I thought I just hated most of the people in NYC
Almost the whole state is gun free and begging to be fleeced
Have they voted to legalize marijuana yet so they can numb their minds to reality?
Stoned Broke Victims ---> new State Motto coming to a license plate near you soon
who has cash to gamble when the govt is already gambling your life
GAMING ABSTRACT
Fiscal Net income/ Percentage year net loss change
2007 $2.297 billion 9
2008 $721.1 million -69
2009 -$6.778 billion -1,040
2010 -$3.432 billion -49
2011 -$3.996 billion 16.4
2012 -$1.212 billion -69.6
2013 -$1.348 billion 11.2
Fiscal Percentage
Year Revenue Change
2007 $25.257 billion 4.9
2008 $25.004 billion -1.0
2009 $22.011 billion -12.0
2010 $20.853 billion -5.3
2011 $22.012 billion 5.6
2012 $22.976 billion 4.4
2013 $23.075 billion 0.4
Source: Gaming Control Board
nice figures there
Well done.
Looking like Atlantic City.
The world is now a rigged casino - fraud is such a faster, easier way to wealth as the levitation of stocks in the land of the free has proven.
What, a US sponsored casino for money laundering?
Unpossible!
Manhattan Real Estate works better.....
Sum Ting Wong
The difference between a casino and stawks is that one is rigged, has hidden profit skimming, pays for exhorbitant life styles, caters to high tollers, and crushes the little guy. The other serves you free drinks.
+100
Well said
My broker often asked if i wanted something to drink.
let me guess Kool Aid ??? lol
If Vegas is happy to launder the money of filthy-rich Chinese, then maybe Macau is happy to launder ill-gotten gains of filthy-rich Americans.
What's good for the goose ...
Hopefully Adelson gets what he deserves. He is scum like Soros.
My banker cousin once invited me to Macau for his bachelor party. I had ~$50 to my name, being recently out of college. I think I spent it on Sierra Nevada Pale Ales. Ha ha.
Gubmints get a little pissed when you horn in on their action, without giving them a proper cut. No ones steals more or better than big nanny.
Don't like to bad we'll just make up a new law.
Just have to pay off the right guys, and bidness as usual!
The Federal Reserve created this mess. They have no nice way out.
Now the big trading firms can capitalize on stealing money from the newbies. Force huge swings and back up trades so these gamblers lose the money big.
The FED's answer is to dance faster and hope nobody notices the ship sinking...
Heres a thread jack with good reason, you think casinos mean owt?
Lets just take a step back here and understand the fucking criminals that run our collective fucking nightmare we live as a life.
Take where I live, once the most powerful, most brutal, most commanding empire the world had ever seen, ruthless, intimidating and unstopable in its global conquest for world domination. And look at us now, eh?
Look at the three om-ni-shambles than run the three main political parties here, the Clegg, the Cameron, And the fucking marxist clown Miliband. And these three fucking idiot clowns wonder why the UKIP is picking up voters left right and centre? Have you even taken stock just how far we the west has fallen? We are ruled by child molesting fucking con-men, Apart from the three fucking idiots mentioned lets take the boy 'O', lets look at Hollande in France, and that fucking bloke who runs Germany?
You have to be taking the piss, we are a laughing stock on the world stage, the entire west for that matter.
This is going to end in violence. The people are fucked off, me included.
And you give a shit about casinos????? Its falling apart around our lugs and folk are bothered about fucking casinos?????
Back on the glue then.
;-)
I spent 6 nights in hospital between Xmas & New year - having a nsstily smashed up lower leg pinned back together. Very grateful to have been in the capable hands of some very skilled people. What really struck me was how many examples of 'the people are fucked off' I was given. A UK NHS (public hospital) is a high density cross section of society - from minimum wage cleaners and tea ladies all the way up to the consultant surgeons. They all give the impression of having worked out that we are badly getting the shaft from the political/ corporation power matrix. Listening to the scorn and disgust our 'leaders' are regarded with was odly cheering. The tea ladies heckling Clegg etc fumbling through a TV interview was an eye opener. As was the high earning aneathatist who described our economy as 'the ponzi'
I was in a bay of 6 men, all having orthopedic surgery. 2 beds along was a 92 year old who had been part of a Lancaster bomber crew in the 1940,s Word must have got around because 3 or 4 times a day hospital staff would come and find him to thank him for fightingfor his country.
I left with a lot more confidence in my fellow countrymen than I went in with.
Speedy recovery wished your way Reload mate.
Its nearly every person I speak to now friend that either understands they are fucked, or has an idea they are.
Me personally? I have withdrawn my consent. Let them come and get it mate.
All the best to you and yours, and watch that leg.
;-)
Thanks , and all the best to you & yours for 2015.
Take care mate,
And watch that leg. Cheers
96
> Its nearly every person I speak to now friend that either understands they are fucked, or has an idea they are. <
Friends in Gosport (right next door to Portsmouth) are certain a nuclear WW3 is around the corner. Their tower block residence has pretty wonderful waterfront views of HMS Nelson (1200m away), and their plan is to "enjoy what's left" since a nuclear strike on the Naval Base = instantaneous annihilation for everyone that close.
If I was in their place, I'd probably do the same.
> 2 beds along was a 92 year old who had been part of a Lancaster bomber crew in the 1940's <
The Aunt's first husband was a WOP-AG (Wireless Operator - Air Gunner) flying Halifaxes in 1942. Conscript of course, and their only memory of him is a few faded photographs, and "just another name" on the Driffield War Memorial.
THIS is the reality of war for "the common man" - i.e. us. "Maybe" a name on a forgotten "War Memorial", whilst the likes of Obama (and ALL his "executive"), Merkel, Cameron, Clegg, Hollande . . . . . . are ALL certain that they will survive, and survive comfortably, no matter how extreme the conflict they have provoked.
THIS is the "Quality" of our "modern" Western Political class. Public "Servants" by name, Public Overlords by action.
Look up Cameron's wiki. His klan has worked for the Red Shield funding wars for centuries. He is not really English or Christian. POS like Milliband.
Maybe the English might realize that Nigel is one of them before it is too late.
You dont need to tell me nowt about Cameron and his coke addicted wife Freddie mate.
Same as the American lot, corrupt to the fucking core, that serves the crown.
Isnt it about time we stopped this shit?
Taking the fucking piss my friend, that is exactly what they are doing.
;-)
Gambling is a tax on people who are poor at math.
Stock trading is a tax on people who are low on common sense.
Time to institute the cheap buffet and some zip lines!
The Chinese are playing the US stock market instead of gambling.
That says a lot about the nature of investing.
Where the fuck is Donald Trump? Send his ass over there to finish the job. If anybody knows how to bankrupt a casino its got to be him.
And poor Gilbert Gottfried is going to work off his debt to society over some very funny tsunami jokes.
Even celebrities are slaves to the Man.
The other day I read an article about china's stock market rise, and there was a quote from an investor who essentially said, "the chinese economy doesn't really matter in terms of the stock market, because the stock market has nothing to do with the economy." Wish I could find it. Anyway, that pretty much sums it up.
Hey, Just like the US.
I'm so glad I never got into gambling. My family does, but I didn't get the 'gene' I guess. The last time I was in a casino, my Dad stopped at the blackjack tables to "pick up a few bucks", and 15 minutes later he walked away 500 dollars richer...How does he DO that? (He does that shit all the time...)
I'd love to see his 'lose' pile..
Unverified, self-reporting of gambling gains and losses might not tell the whole story.
He slowly increases his bets then walks away with a big win...a real gambler would just use it to bet bigger all the time tring to quasruple the win.
Let me guess, your dad served in the military and had some spare time on his hands. OR he learned in college...
The Chinese love to gamble..they do not care what in...and they cheat like hell...I have some copper in a warehouse I can loan you.....
Nice. I see the Jews have been left alone here ..... so far ....
the chinese are the jews' comeuppance. part of the reason for the conflict with china is the chinese is could give a shit about jew money unless they are extracting it. ask sheldon about that.
Ho Lee Fuk
This is gonna hit Adelson where it hurts - in the wallet.
You really want to know the precise reason why Macau overtook Vegas in terms of gambling revenues and net income in just short ten years? Evan Osnos, who speaks Chinese and lived in China as a journalist for New Yorker for nearly a decade, worte the book titled Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, that won 2014 National Book Award Nonfiction Award. In the book, he mentioned the primary source of income for those casinos in Macau is the money that the Chinese officials bring there; on average, each official brings in $3 million USD income per visit and many thousands of those them had visited each year. When Xi started to wipe out corruption, no one would dare to risk his political career by visiting Macau.
Vegas was packed on Christmas I picked up a friend on the Strip Flamingo and Las Vegas Blvd was a parking lot. Poorly lit gambling parlors or fart joke level archetecture? Hey we've got those for rich and poor alike!
Cunt is still cunt, free drinks are a matter of personal presentment. What's not to love about a dying gambling town?
Joe Buttcrack spent his squatter's rent in 2012 on an iPad, and cannot make it rain anymore.
Well, I can say something?
I grabbed the bike and I attended the inauguration of President Dilma in Brasilia, is 140Km (km) from where I live.
On the way back I stopped at a buteco for a beer, took about six beers.
I found a "China" who spoke very well Portuguese and Cantonese.
It was precisely Macau!
The guy was amazed that here no frills those not smoking, do not show every time a police documents appear in front etc. .
Showed ZeroHedge page for him, was interested.
The guy was hired by a Chinese industry as a translator.
If we did not have so drunk might say a few more impressions to you.
I'm with him WatZap on my phone, we were talking about dogs to eat any Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk day!
A trip to do in 1 hour and 40 minutes, made in 1 hour on the way back, do not even remember how I got home.
hehe.
Low fat and high protein fiber is essential to brain health when you're working a mark! Eat a barley and whole milk meal before such ops and you won't get quite so overdrunk.
~ The More You Know (Copyright NSA Publications LTD)
"Few people in Brazil know, Iguape is part of the first gold cycle (first discovered gold between Apiaí and Iporanga, he went down the Rio Ribeira and the Crown created a registry in what is now the registry of town on the edge of the BR-116 (where only gives Japanese because of the KKKK (Kaigai Koshio Kabushiki Kaisha- pre Japanese Immigration Company World War II).
Iguape had the first Mint in Brazil, there were minted the first MOP.
Iguape declined when they discovered gold in Minas Gerais. "
I wrote this in 2011!
A Pataca in 1650 was this:
http://www.bcb.gov.br/htms/album/16.jpg
Pataca was gold.
Perhaps the only Portuguese colony that has kept the currency of the nomenclature is Macau.
Sweet irony?
I do not believe but fate make things return.
hehe.
There is no identifiable playfield at all. You engage in checkers or chess while the rest of the world watches your spasms, an epileptic in a dirty street, fluffing froth and appearing helpless until an authority grabs you and takes you away to a hospital where they can bill you for the favor.
And who the fuck are you again?
sheldon adelson must not understand why the chinese could give a shit about a rich israeli when he is so used to carte blanche in the usa.
BTFD'ing ain't gamblin.
"Baccarat (the preferred game of China's rich)"
The ultimate suckers' game, trying to find a winning pattern in what is demonstrably a random card sequence.
Maybe not bad for money laundering though, if you keep your bets small. And unlike an electronic game no one in the back room can manipulate it.
Hmmm.
http://gaming.nv.gov/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=9611
CURRENT MONTH SUMMARY - NOVEMBER, 2014 | THREE MONTH SUMMARY - 09/01/14 TO 11/30/14 | TWELVE MONTH SUMMARY - 12/01/13 TO 11/30/14
TOTAL GAMING WIN | 869,122 0.01% | 2,670,346 -3.55% | 11,036,593 0.47%
https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-changes-outlook-on-US-gaming-indu...
New York, June 30, 2014 -- Moody's Investors Service has revised its outlook on the US gaming industry to negative from stable. The negative outlook reflects recent declines in comparable monthly gaming revenue for most jurisdictions, as well as the flat revenues that preceded them, outside Nevada, over the last year and a half.
"The fact regional gaming revenues excluding Nevada remained flat, despite further improvement in the economy and additional regional casinos throughout the US, is a strong indication that US consumers will continue to limit their spending to items more essential than gaming, even as the US economy continues to improve," says Moody's Senior Vice President Keith Foley in the report "Outlook Update US Gaming Industry: Moving to Negative Outlook on Weaker-than-Expected Gaming Revenue."
The recent overall decline in total gaming revenue was not severe -- 1.8% in April and 0.8% May for the 15 out of 18 jurisdictions that have released May results. Moody's had expected, all else equal, that the month-on-months comparisons would post small gains.
Moody's currently estimates that total US gaming revenues reported by state gaming authorities will decrease at a rate of between 3.0% and 5.0% over the next 12 to 18 months, translating to a decrease in overall industry earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of between 4.5% and 7.5%. Because gaming involves relatively large fixed assets and costs, Moody's expects earnings to decline at a faster rate than revenues. Moody's had previously expected gaming revenue to increase between 0% and 2% and for EBIT to increase between 0% and 4%.
Moody's says the Las Vegas Strip continues to perform relatively well in terms of gaming revenue, a trend the rating agency expect to continue. Although a large market -- Las Vegas Strip gaming revenue for the latest 12-months ended April 30, 2014 was about $6.4 billion -- it accounts for less than 20% of total gaming US gaming revenue. Therefore, it is not the primary driver of the US gaming industry outlook.
The outlook expresses Moody's expectations for the fundamental business conditions in the industry over the next 12 to 18 months.
Multilateral Investment AGreement in 1995 between the US And China was an epic disaster- Thanks Clinton!~
Wall Street should've done what Hollywood did to get their way into the Chinese market to sell their products. INstead the boomer idiots voting/fiscal majorities decided to flip houses with counterfeit subprime backed teaser rate loans to rob people during high unemployment and start UNNECESSARY wars to prop up energy prices so that petrodollars can prop failed bank liquidity.
Because of this investment deficit, CORRUPT Washington is WAY overleveraged via. US Treasury holdings by foreign governments vs. the private sector which has really screwed up our country. THey're WAY out of control.
< stock market crash in 2015
< stock market crash neh-vuh
the stock market is no longer gambling. mr. yellen et al have guaranteed that it only goes up forever. the only people who lose are those who don't own any bullshit stawks.
Casinos v Stock Markets. Can someone highlight the difference?
You stand a better chance in a casino these days and it's usually not to hard to find out what the payout percentages are for a casino. Now the stark market or even a savings account has much worse odds it seems. You can BTFD an hope you can bail before the other muppets but the insiders have way, way, more edge.
Back in the Day it was noticed the Chinese of Hong Kong liked to gamble, but the thing was when they made an big win they tended to do things to preserve it rather than throw the whole wad away on continued gambling. One story that went around the English gossip circuit was a poor Hong Kong gentleman who hit a big score on the lottery. He bought a plastic injection molding machine, put his relatives to work running the machine, trimming flash, and doing assembly work as a subcontractor. He'd still buy a lottery ticket.
There are no Chinese in that picture.
This is just another episodeof the convergence between Asian single-minded determination and Western getting rich no matter what.
She's gonna blow.
A serious continuing effort at containing corruption results in decline in gaming revenue in Macau. Isn't this evidence that anti money laundering practices have been a joke ? AML practices continue to be undermined with flows to Las Vegas.
What about all these offshore tax havens (HK, Singapore, etc). What filths lie there ? Not moralizing but only muppets sleep where the lices are.
This article is utter bollox.
sure may of the factors are there, but the real reason is the business owners and factory owners have realised the shit is hitting the fan and the gravy flow is coming to a very rapid halt.
They are far more concerned with preserving what they have instead of gambling it away in the knowledge that coffers will be filled tomorrow.
That fantasy world came to end last summer and it isnt going to stop just yet.
Sell short any Macau casino or anything else based there thats listed