Las Vegas Review Journal – Anytime the investment community gets downwind of a potential hiccup in the Macau gaming market, a slash-and-burn mentality sets in. The victims are often MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. The Las Vegas-based companies have subsidiaries listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and those stock prices usually take a beating. Sometimes, the companies’ share prices on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq suffer collateral damage. In April, skittish investors worried about deteriorating liquidity in the high-end wagering credit market. A month earlier, it was fear that gamblers would…

Investors – Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts International and others with casinos in Macau could be negatively affected by a slowdown in gambling revenue in the Chinese gaming hotspot. Wells Fargo analyst Cameron McKnight said in a report Monday that channel checks show April gaming revenue in the former Portuguese colony, now the top global casino gambling destination, is trending between 5% and 10% growth, well below the bank’s earlier midteens estimate. McKnight had earlier said he expected a slowdown in Macau gaming revenue in mid-2014, due to a possible slowdown in the high-roller “VIP” segment gaming that…

QUARTZ – SJM Holdings, the casino company founded by billionaire Stanley Ho, broke ground this week in Macau on a three hotel, 2,500 room casino complex that is modeled after Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles. The Lisboa Palace will have 700 gambling tables, a wedding complex and three hotels, including one designed with Italy’s Gianni Versace fashion house. SJM Holdings managing director Angela Leong, one of Ho’s four wives, was inspired to include a Versace hotel in the complex after staying at a Palazzo Versace in Australia in 2003 (she was there to escape the SARS outbreak). Subtle, it’s not….

Reuters – It’s being touted as China’s answer to Orlando, a $5 billion resort and theme park complete with a mega rollercoaster and a whale shark tank situated on a sleepy southern island next to the world’s biggest gambling hub Macau. Chimelong, which is set to partially open next month, is the linchpin of China’s ambitious plans to expand Hengqin into a leisure hub similar to the coastal U.S. city globally renowned for its natural attractions and theme-park resorts by Walt Disney Co and Universal Studios. And while some extravagant infrastructure projects in China have turned into white elephants, the…

From iGaming Business – Macau recorded an annual 20% rise in gambling revenues for the month of July to US$3.7bn thanks to a boost in stakes and numbers of mainland Chinese visitors to the gambling hub. The amount was the third strongest figure for 2013 and was achieved thanks to a rise in middle-class gamblers visiting Macau who balanced out high-roller activity. Analysts suggested a slowdown in China’s economic growth had kept away some wealthy customers, who often spend up to US$160,000 on a single bet according to local media, but Macau’s gambling venues had benefited from China’s large and…

From Reuters – Macau’s gambling revenues defied China’s economic slowdown and rose 20 percent in July year-on-year, boosted by an increase in the number of Chinese visitors to the country’s only legal casino gambling hub as well as the size of their bets. July’s 29.5 billion patacas ($3.7 billion) revenue was the third strongest figure this year, according to government data released on Thursday, as more middle-class gamblers visited Macau, eclipsing the growth in the number of high-rollers. Analysts had forecast July growth in the world’s biggest gambling market to rise between 18-21 percent. The slowdown in China’s economic growth…