Macau Revenues Continue to Rise

With the state of gambling in the United States in disarrays following serious crackdowns by the authorities, it’s good to know that gambling in other parts of the world is doing well.  The one region in the world where investors can continue to count on the success of their businesses is Macau, which is, according to one analyst, “unbelievable”.  During the last few years, with the financial depression around the world, Macau profits slipped slightly, but it seems that financial woes have now been forgotten if the latest numbers are anything to go by.

One of the main reasons that Macau is doing so well is that there has been a huge increase in demand for quality gambling opportunities from the Chinese mainland. As Macau is the only legal place to gamble in China, it comes as no surprise that locals flock to this peninsula to try their luck on the slots or at the blackjack tables.

One chain doing particularly well in Macau these days is Wynn Resorts. The group operates two resorts in Macau and has recently received permission from the Chinese government to open a third.  Construction, according to sources, is set to begin “any day now”. Building the new resort comes with a hefty price tag – between $2 billion to $3 billion – however, if Macau continues to attract high rollers the way it is right now, Wynn Resorts will soon be seeing income pouring in.

Wynn has been doing particularly well in Las Vegas as well, where is runs another two hotels. An analyst for Morningstar said that Wynn “had a much higher than normal win percentage in Las Vegas – 30.5% versus last year’s 23%.”

“That’s basically pure luck,” said the analyst.

The group raised its room rates in Las Vegas by 10%, which also brought in excellent revenue.

Wynn continues to look around for online gambling opportunities, following the dissolution of a strategic alliance that it entered into with Poker Stars, before this giant online poker room was stung by the FBI and had its domain names seized. The short lived alliance was quickly broken off by Wynn, after the group rushed to disassociate itself from a site that had indictments served against its founders.