THE MACAU METRO MONITOR, OCTOBER 17, 2013
GAMING TABLES AND SLOT COUNT DICJ
At the end of 3Q, there were 5,748 gaming tables (+2 tables QoQ) and 14,775 slot machines (-535 machines QoQ).
DOUBTS ON FUTURE OF TAIPA CASINO'S TABLES Macau Business
Questions have arisen about the future of 80 gaming tables currently assigned to a Taipa casino and belonging to SJM. An executive connected with the New Century Hotel and Greek Mythology Casino has been arrested in Macau on suspicion of fraud. Chen Mei Huan – also known as Chan Mei Fun – was held on Sunday over the allegations, which involve 35 Macau and mainland Chinese investors and more than HK$300 million (US$38.7 million), said police.
SJM had previously stripped Greek Mythology of a third of its then 120 tables in August 2012 following a dramatic and bizarre series of events. They included an attack the previous June by masked men on Chen’s former boyfriend and business partner, the Macau junket veteran Ng Man Sun, and complaints from tourists that they had been locked out of their rooms at the hotel portion of the property.
In October last year Ambrose So, SJM CEO said that the 40 gaming tables previously confiscated from Greek Mythology had been transferred to Grand Lisboa and were operational.
PACKAGE TOURS AND HOTEL OCCUPANCY RATE FOR AUGUST 2013 DSEC
Visitor arrivals in package tour increased by 6.6% YoY to 973,766 in August 2013. Visitors in package tour mostly came from Mainland China (770,365), with 292,733 from Guangdong Province; followed by Taiwan (62,622); Hong Kong (38,586); and the Republic of Korea (32,706).
There were 97 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of August 2013, providing 27,761 guest rooms, up by 14.4% YoY, of which the 5-star hotels had 18,373 rooms, accounting for 66.2% of the total. The average length of stay of guests held stable as August 2012, at 1.3 nights.
