Macau gamble - Fairfax - 3rd October 2008

Was it only a year ago that the Las Vegas and Macau casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson said he had been given assurances by Macau government officials that the success of the casinos was important to both local and Chinese governments?

Because on Wednesday the mainland authorities "quietly extended the clampdown on Guangdong and Shenzen residents visiting Macau", according to the South China Morning Post. Residents can only travel to Macau once every three months compared with the limit of once every two months which has been in place since June.

The paper quoted a tour manager saying the number of visitors had slumped by nearly half in September compared with the month before. "There used to be more than 10 buses a day taking Guangzhou residents to Macau but now there are only about three," the agent said.

James Packer's Macau casino, Crown Macau, will suffer from the clampdown, given most gamblers come from Guangdong and Shenzen, two of the richest regions in China. Shares in Crown were down 3 per cent yesterday to $8.40. Meanwhile, Packer's larger US rival, Adelson, is busy pumping $US475 million into his majority-owned casino company, Las Vegas Sands, to avoid breaching loan covenants.

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