The Macau Metro Monitor, May 23, 2013

SOARING BET SIZES 'BAD FOR REPUTATION': SJM CFO Macau Business

Bob McBain, CFO of SJM, urged the government to require casino operators to provide a minimum number of low-bet live-dealer gaming tables.  McBain said most of Macau casinos today charge at least a HK$500 (US$64) minimum bet.  “If it were up to me, if I were advising the government, I would say ‘Why don’t you require some HK$50 tables?’ They want to build general tourism after all,” he stated.

He added that what was good for all operators’ profitability – high minimum wagers in the high-margin premium mass market – wasn’t necessarily good for Macau as a holiday destination.

MGM COTAI ON TRACK TO COMPLETE BY MID-2016: CEO Macau Business

MGM Cotai on track to be complete in mid-2016 said CEO Grant Bowie.  “We’ll have the foundations finished by the end of this year… and with the contractor now on board we can obviously start building the infrastructure in 2014," he added.


China State Construction International Holdings Ltd has signed a HK$10.5-billion (US$1.35-billion) deal to act as the main contractor for the project.  Bowie said there was no need to again revise the resort’s US$2.6-billion budget.

VISITOR ARRIVALS FOR APRIL 2013 DSEC

Macau visitor arrivals totaled 2,398,340 in April 2013, up slightly by 0.7% YoY.  In April 2013, visitors from Mainland China increased by 10.4% YoY to 1,536,262, mainly coming from Guangdong Province (647,340) and Fujian Province (65,463); Mainland visitors traveling under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) totaled 613,876.  Visitors from the Republic of Korea (30,616) and Thailand (27,173) increased by 8.9% and 20.0% YoY, while those from Hong Kong (538,663) and Taiwan (81,607) decreased by 17.7% and 4.8% YoY, respectively.

The average length of stay of visitors stood at 1.0 day in April 2013, down by 0.1 day YoY.

THE M3: BET SIZE; MGM COTAI; VISITOR ARRIVALS; S'PORE GDP - V

SINGAPORE'S EXPANSION REDUCES PRESSURE TO EASE POLICY: ECONOMY Bloomberg

Singapore 1Q GDP rose an annualized 1.8% in the three months through March from the previous quarter, when it grew 3.3%, the Trade Ministry said in a statement today, revising an earlier estimate for a 1.4% contraction last quarter.  The median in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 1.2% decline.

On a YoY basis, GDP expanded 0.2%, better than the 0.6% contraction estimated previously.  The Trade Ministry reiterated its forecast for a 1-3% expansion in 2013.