The Macao Gaming Show 2014 WrapUp news update!
The official opening ceremony, which was attended by guests and members of the world’s media, featured prominent gaming dignitaries, representing influential organisations including MGEMA, Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), Macao Foundation, Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), General Association of Administrators and Promoters for Macau Gaming Industry, Associação de Mediadores de Jogos e Entretenimento de Macau, Macau Jockey Club, Macau Slot, and Macau (Yat Yuen) Canidrome Company.
A busy stream of visitors in the first hour of the exhibition opening kept everyone on their toes; this included a record 146 exhibiting companies occupying more than 13,000 sqm of stand space, which is a 30% increase on the 2013 figures. Gaming professionals represented a variety of nations, making MGS a high multi-cultural experience, with nations including Vietnam, the Philipines, Japan, Cambodia, Unied States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
The show included six product sectors: Gaming Equipment & Accessories, Gaming Promoters & VIP Clubs, Casino Fixtures & Fittings, Promotional Services & Memorabilia, Food & Beverage and Entertainment & Performance.
It also featured the Macao Gaming Summit, a three day conference programme focusing on key gaming topics and how they impact both established and emerging gaming jurisdictions including Japan, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, Sri Lanka as well as Macao.
Reflecting on the exhibition, Jay Chun said: "Macao Gaming Show has made significant progress over the last 12 months. This week, we have welcomed a strong contingent of international visitors to Macao Gaming Show and delegates to our co-located Macao Gaming Summit which has debated the key topics impacting gaming in Asia.”
“MGS is the only show that is truly representative of the Asian gaming industry. Our task is to build on the success of 2014 and continue the development of MGS as one of the worlds ‘must attend’ gaming events.”
Speaking at the co-located Macao Gaming Summit, Bloomberg Intelligence’s Margaret Huang opened the Summit with a keynote speech that laid out the company’s detailed analysis of Macau’s gaming market. Her presentation revealed the figures behind the recent changes in revenue figures, highlighting a changing landscape with a bright future. Her presentation confirmed that the shift away from VIP revenue remains the primary reason for adjusting growth in Macau, but highlighted deeper analysis which reveals that the current movement was caused in part by a big push for mass market visitors on the part of most of the major casinos.
Huang projects that although this new strategic direction may result in continued cooling through early 2016, the future remains positive for Macau. An uptake in available rooms by around 40 percent, along with an increasing amount of casino floor space dedicated to popular mass market games, leads Bloomberg to project strong growth to return before the end of 2018.
Later in the Summit, Dr Kazuaki Sasiki, Dr Day-Yang Lui and Eugene Christiansen spoke on a panel moderated by Asian market expert, Mikio Tanjo of Gaming Capital Management, to give their insight into the future of large-scale casinos in Japan and Taiwan, and how the opening of these markets would impact Macau.
Nihon University Professor Sasaki discussed the gambling landscape in Japan, currently dominated by pachinko, and how this would evolve with addition of casinos. Lamenting the slow progress towards casino laws on the part of the Japanese government, he characterised the process as, “three steps forward and two steps back,” but was buoyant on the future of integrated resorts in Japan.
Meanwhile, Dr Liu, director at the Center for the Study of Lottery and Commercial Gaming at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, revealed that progress towards casinos in Taiwan’s outer islands was altogether more concrete, with an optimistic assessment that a casino law will be passed in the first half of 2015. He also confirmed suspicions that Taiwan would be competing for visitors with existing markets in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Macau.
Taking up this theme, Christiansen, founder and chairman of Christian Capital Advisors, looked at how the emergence of casinos in Taiwan and Japan would impact Macau. He suggested that the era of companies with large debts and low equity was over, with new financial models required for operators to prosper. He also touched on the difference in gaming predilections among the region’s visitors - noting that while baccarat is king in Macau, roulette is the game of choice for Japanese players.
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