The government of Macau has caused the financial world a mild heart attack. They have announced that they were going to raise the minimum entry and employment age for the casinos from 18 to 21. They also announced a cap to the total number of gaming tables in Macau and also relocated slot machines to commercial areas. By the middle of this year, there were 4390 gaming tables in Macau. A bill to raise the age limits wills be submitted to the Legislative Assembly within a few months.
The Secretary for Economy and Finance for Macau, Francis Tam Pak-yuen stated that the changes had been discussed with the six gaming concessionaires and had their blessings. But the problem wasn’t with them, but with the investors. SJM Holdings shares fell as much as 8.5 percent, before closing out the day at HK$4.43, down 3.7 percent. Melco International Development closed down 4.3 percent, at HK$4.93.
In the U.S., Las Vegas Sands shares fell 1.8 percent to close at $17.72 and Wynn shares went down 2.9 percent to $65.88 in trading in New York on Monday.
Some stock analysts say that the changes are not all bad. And that they will recommend to investors to buy on the dips. Many agree that overexpansion of the gaming industry in Macau would harm it. With so many gaming tables in Macau, many are sitting unused and employees have been laid off because of it.
It is now a wait and see, game between Macau, China, the investors and the gaming public
Cherry AB (STO:CHER-B), the owners of Yggdrasil Gaming and ComeOn Casino announced today that they have decided to exercise their option to purchase up to 100% of the shares of internet marketing and affiliate company, Game Lounge Ltd.
Cherry Malta Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary, already purchased 51% of the company in January 2015. The present purchase represents 44% more which will give them a then current total of 95% of all shares.
A total of 17 months of negative growth is what Macau has been seeing now that the Chinese have been cracking down on public officials getting in on the action. It was predicted that a decline somewhere between 26 and 29 percent would happen in October, and that's exactly what happened with a 28.4 percent drop. Total revenue came at about 20.06 billion patacas, and this is compared to the 28.03 billion that was seen in October of last year. This year's revenues were worth about $2.
This week Caesars Interactive Entertainment, the Montreal-based subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment, announced it was designating a social poker development studio to grow its play-for-fun World Series of Poker franchise through its Playtika division. Caesars acquired Playtika in 2011 as a way to broaden its social gaming platform, and now Playtika is responsible for all of CIE’s social and mobile gaming.
