Gaming growth slows in 2012

The growth of the local gaming revenue slowed down during the first week of this year, according to analysts. But the market still believes a rebound will start as Chinese New Year approaches.
“January 2012 started slowly with the first eight days suggesting the market gross gaming revenue was up 15 percent year-on-year,” HSBC Global Research’s analyst Sean Monaghan wrote in a note to investors, quoted by Macau Business.
Last month the gaming sector gained 25 percent to MOP 23.6 billion, the lowest growth in more than two years, fuelling fears that a cooling Chinese economy could impact the territory’s main industry.
“This looks low versus our expectations of 30 percent [growth] for January and could reflect a lull before the start of the all-important Chinese New Year, which starts late January versus February in 2011,” Monaghan conceded.
But HSBC decided to maintain its forecast of 16 percent growth for the local gaming revenue during the whole of 2012.
Meanwhile a subsidiary of gaming operator Melco Crown Entertainment will open another Mocha Club slot parlour at Hotel Golden Dragon. The venue is likely to replace Mocha Marina Plaza, located in Rua de Pequim, which should fall foul of the long-awaited bylaw that removes slot machine parlours from residential areas.
The bylaw should be ready by the end of March, the head of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, Manuel Joaquim das Neves, wrote. He added that the government would work with the gaming industry to set a schedule for the removal of all parlours operating in residential areas.
The government says there are only two slot machine parlours in residential areas: the SJM Yat Yuen Canidrome Slot Lounge in Fai Chi Kei and Mocha Marina Plaza. The chief executive officer of SJM Holdings, Ambrose So Shu Fai, has said the company is opening to closing the Canidrome parlour.