Macau Casino Revenues Soars 42% To $33.5bn In 2011

The world’s biggest gambling destination of Macau, has released its casino figures for December 2011, showing a 25% increase in revenue to $3 billion.
In total, the former Portuguese colony has now recorded a 42% rise in its casino revenue to $33.5bn for the whole of 2011. Despite being lower than the 57.8% growth rate set in 2010, the casinos take was still higher than the amount taken last year of $23.5 billion.
Commenting on the latest impressive figures, Aaron Fischer from Asia’s leading investment group CLSA, said:
“Following the 57 per cent growth in Macao’s gaming revenue in 2010, nobody expected the market to grow at the rate that we have seen. At the beginning of 2011, we were expecting a 20 per cent growth for that year, and we were among the most bullish in the sector.”
Initially, during the year there had been concerns that gambling in Macau could suffer from a slow down in the Chinese economy, which has led to a credit squeeze, a slowdown in exports, and a negative effect on businesses and the property market.
However, Macau emerged unscathed from the economic situation with Chinese mainland visitors still prepared to travel to the country’s only legal gambling resort. Mr Fischer also speculated that a Chinese punter was likely to wager up to ten times more than his US counterpart, and commented:
“At the heart of Macao’s phenomenal growth was the Chinese people’s penchant for games of fortune. Revenues in the city’s casinos could eventually exceed the whole of the US market, which currently yields $60bn in a year.”
Looking ahead to 2012, analysts are envisaging a slow down in growth to between 15% and 25%, due to the already huge size of the market, as well as concerns as to whether high-roller customers will receive credit lines