You must give it to the Dr Stanley Ho who is a healthy 85-year old and still is calling the shots in Macau. He just opened two casinos in the last two months, first in December 2006, the Babylon Casino followed yesterday by The Grand Lisboa. If that is not enough he is hoping to follow up with Ponte 16 Casino later this year as he wants to give the foreign invasion a run for their money, well I guess we just have to wait and see!

But, meanwhile at his palatial homes across Hong Kong, he bows to his wives.

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Posted in Babylon Casino, Casino Ponte 16, Grand Lisboa, Macau Casino, Stanley Ho No Comments »

As Macau will be busting at it’s seams, according to Forbes it is now the 3rd most congested city in the world, and we take note and like to make the following observation. Just let’s do the numbers here, 502,000 registered residents, about 100,000 workers, about 60,000 visitors a day, totals 682,000 people. Spread this out over 28.2 square kilometer that equals some 24,000 people per square kilometer, we now can see why Macau is busting at it seams.

And this is just the start, add another 100,000 workers at the Cotai Strip, the another expected 100,000 visitors per day, it may well become the number one most congested city in the world.

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Posted in Babylon Casino, Crown Macau, Economy & Business, Galaxy Entertainment, Grand Lisboa, MGM Grand Macau, Macau Business, Macau Casino, Macau General, Social and Politics, Stanley Ho No Comments »

And so the story goes on…

The last round saw Madame Winnie Ho victorious, so obviously she believes she is riding high and is ready for the next punch! Apparently Dr.Stanley Ho, through STDM, which owns about 80% of SJM casinos, owns Winnie Ho a cool US$385 million, this is part the last 5-years dividends due to her as she is 8% shareholder in the Macau company.

As I like doing the numbers, let’s work out STDM |SJM profits for the past 5-years, well it’s about US$4.8 billion, or about US$1 billion per year. Now, you can see why everybody is falling heads over heels to join the game in Macau.

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Posted in Babylon Casino, Grand Lisboa, Macau Business, Macau Casino, Macau Gaming, Macau News, Stanley Ho, Winnie Ho No Comments »

The Babylon Casino on Fisherman’s Wharf is do to open December 23, 2006. Details are a bit sketchy, but we do know that it was originally planned to be a nightclub to be called the Babylon Nightclub. But as the number of visitors to Fisherman’s Wharf was disappointing and as it did not meet Dr. Stanley Ho’s Company’s expectations it was decided to build a casino instead.

Late September it was reported that Fisherman’s Wharf was up for sale, we still don’t know if that includes the casino. The Babylon Casino will be a small one with about 80 gaming tables.

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Posted in Babylon Casino, Construction, Macau Business, Macau Casino, Macau Gaming, Macau News, Macau Property, Macau Tourism, STDM | SJM, Stanley Ho No Comments »

James Packer’s Melco PBL missed out on the Singapore Casino bid. This is not a surprise really as I always believed that Genting was going to be the winner. After all this is Asia and Singapore must have seriously considered this. I always have believed that James Packer should turn his Burswood Casino into a first class destination resort. The Asians love Australia and Perth is only a 5-7 hours flight away.

The hot topic in town is the arrest of Macau’s Secretay of Transport and Public Works, Mr Ao Man Long. He was to spend his 50th birthday in Coloane prison, whilst awaiting further charges. With all this huge multi billion dollar projects going on in booming Macau, there is a lot at stake for businesses. The Secretary was involved in the infrastructure and development project for the East Asian Games. I suspect a dispute was the cause for his arrest.

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Posted in Babylon Casino, City of Dreams, Cotai Strip, Economy & Business, Entertainment, Fishermans Wharf, James Packer, Macau Business, Macau Casino, Macau General, Melco Crown, Social and Politics No Comments »

As Steve Wynn now has opened his Wynn Macau and the Galaxy Entertainment Group continuing to roll out casino’s, it is not surprising that all eyes are now on our new kid on the block James Packer. After Babylon Casino by Dr Stanley Ho, Crown Macau is the next in line to open in early 2007, to be followed closely by MGM Grand Macau. See latest construction pictures here at our Forum.

So by the end of next year all concession holders will have their casino’s operational, but at the same time another 2-3 new casinos will open. This is by then going to be a tough and competitive market.

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Posted in Babylon Casino, City of Dreams, Cotai Strip, Crown Macau, James Packer, MGM Mirage, Macau Business, Macau Casino, Macau News, Macau Property, Melco Crown, Stanley Ho No Comments »