Retendering21-22

 may25 Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Chairman and CEO Robert Goldstein has bemoaned the lingering impact of the US-China trade war, as well as increased domestic and regional competition and the rise of online gambling across Asia for sustained flatness in the Macau market. Goldstein also expressed a desire to improve the performance of his company’s Macau subsidiary, Sands China, which he said had not lived up to recent expectations  not lived up to recent expectations despite those expectations being dampened due to a raft of substantial renovation projects that have limited its hotel room supply. The long-time LVS executive was speaking at Bernstein’s 41st Annual Strategic Decisions Conference where he observed that one of the main challenges facing the Macau land-based gaming market in 2025 was falling spend per customer – a trend he attributed to a series of macro factors. “Spend is different than it used to be,” Goldstein said. “Visitation used to be equivalent to the spend but ...

 may25 T he  non-gaming investment plans for 2023 by the city’s six gaming concessionaires generated over MOP30 billion in gross production value for Macau’s economy, according to Secretary for Economy and Finance Anton Tai Kin Ip. In a plenary session of the Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday, lawmaker Ron Lam presented an oral inquiry urging the government to strengthen supervision of non-gaming investment plans by gaming concessionaires and implement robust employee protection measures for their workforce. In response, the Secretary emphasized that the government has consistently maintained clear mechanisms for monitoring both the pre-implementation and post-implementation phases. “The [gaming concession] contract terms also require approved companies to submit detailed annual project implementation reports to the government, which must include information on the specific implementation status, amounts invested, timelines, and outcomes,” he said. While acknowledging that t...

out25  luxury segment The average hotel room rate in Macau declined for a third consecutive month in August, driven by a continued slide in prices at five-star properties, even as mid-tier hotels posted gains. According to the latest data from the Macau Hotel Association, published by the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO), the city’s average hotel room rate dipped 0.4 percent year-on-year to MOP1,461.3 (US$182.1) in August. The softness was most pronounced in the luxury segment. The five-star hotel rate fell 1.9 percent from a year earlier to MOP1,615.5, marking the 14th consecutive monthly decline since June 2024. In contrast, the average price of four-star hotels rose 1.8 percent year-on-year to MOP1,230.9 in August, while three-star properties saw a 2 percent drop with the average nightly rate falling to MOP1,015.8. Driven by a surge in tourist arrivals, hotel occupancy in Macau remained strong in August, averaging 96.6 percent across the three hotel categories, up 0.4 perc...

out25 Availability of side bets in live-table baccarat  in the Singapore  and  Macau operations  of Las Vegas Sands Corp have moved baccarat from being “a boring game” with “no juice in it”, to being more analogous to sports betting with its proposition bets and side bets. That is according to Rob Goldstein, chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands. The group operates casinos in Macau via its Sands China Ltd unit, and the Marina Bay Sands property in Singapore via its Marina Bay Sands Pte Ltd subsidiary. Mr Goldstein added that the introduction in both markets of ‘smart tables’ with their automated record-keeping and player-rating capacity had undoubtedly assisted operations. He was speaking on the parent’s Wednesday call to discuss its  third-quarter earnings  announced that day. “What’s changed in baccarat is not the smart table, that’s the scorekeeper. What’s changed is the game itself,” via side bets, “offers a lot more opportunities to gamble di...