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Viewing cable 08HONGKONG793, MACAU'S MORATORIUM ON NEW CASINOS LESS THAN MEETS

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08HONGKONG793 2008-05-01 08:12 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Consulate Hong Kong
VZCZCXRO2884
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHHK #0793/01 1220812
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 010812Z MAY 08
FM AMCONSUL HONG KONG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4767
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HONG KONG 000793 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM AND EEB/TPP/BTT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CH ECON ETRD MC EINV
 
SUBJECT: MACAU'S MORATORIUM ON NEW CASINOS LESS THAN MEETS 
THE EYE 
 
 
1. (U) Summary:  Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho, acting on 
"instructions", announced an immediate moratorium on new 
casino development in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) 
on April 22.  No new casino concessions will be granted in 
the near future, no new leases for casinos will be approved, 
and future land reclamation areas will be off limits to 
gaming businesses.  The government will not accept any 
applications for additional gaming tables at existing 
casinos.  Local observers and existing gaming concession 
holders welcomed the announcement, noting the need for Macau 
to improve its existing infrastructure to cope with the 
current rapid expansion of the tourism and gaming sector. 
While overall gaming revenues continue to rise to record 
levels, some casinos have begun to see slowing or even 
declining receipts as tourist growth slows and new 
competitors come on line.  Ho's announcement will not affect 
plans already approved by the government to add eleven 
additional casinos in the next three years.  Macau currently 
has 29 casinos which took in a record 29.8 billion patacas 
(apx. US$3.7 billion) in the first quarter of 2008.  End 
Summary. 
 
2. (U) Comment: Explosive growth since opening the gaming 
sector in 2002 has placed unavoidable strains on the people 
and infrastructure in Macau.  Most Macanese welcome the 
economic expansion that has allowed per capita GDP to surpass 
that of neighboring Hong Kong, but unquestionably that Macau 
could use some time to adjust to its new status as a global 
gaming and tourism capital.  The government has plenty of 
money but proposals to encourage students to stay in school, 
resolve transportation bottlenecks, and meet increased demand 
for health care will take time to implement.  Despite Chief 
Executive Ho's announcement, the pressure on Macau's 
infrastructure is not going to abate any time soon.  Eleven 
new casinos, including several "mega-resorts" are slated for 
completion by 2010.  Tourist arrivals were virtually stagnant 
in the first quarter of 2008, but the number of Chinese 
tourists continued to increase, suggesting reported visa 
restrictions are not having much effect.  Macau risks 
becoming solely dependent on tourism and gaming and could be 
vulnerable to a sudden slowdown due to an economic, health or 
security-related event.  The "moratorium" will not slow 
gaming growth in Macau in the near term and leaves unanswered 
the question of how to diversify Macau's economy.  End 
Comment. 
 
============================================= ===== 
Ho Announces Freeze on Additional Gaming Approvals 
============================================= ===== 
 
3. (U) Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho, in an April 22 
question and answer session with the Macau Legislative 
Assembly, announced an immediate freeze on approvals for all 
new casino developments in Macau.  Macau will not accept land 
lease applications from gaming companies and will not expand 
the number of gaming concessions from the current three 
concessions and three sub-concessions "for a certain period 
of time."  Ho added that future land reclamation areas will 
not be available to gaming operators.  These decisions were 
based on "instructions" from Chinese President Hu Jintao in 
March, during a meeting on the margins of the National 
People's Congress, said Ho.  (Note: Macau has the highest 
population density of any territory in the world, with almost 
540,000 residents living on just 29.2 sq. km.  Land 
reclamation has long played an important role in Macau's 
development; the territory of the SAR has grown by 22.6 
percent since 1999 and Macau recently submitted reclamation 
plans for five additional sites to Beijing for approval.  End 
Note) 
 
4. (U) Ho told legislators that the Macau government is 
currently conducting a study on the need to control the 
number of casinos, gaming tables, slot machines, and junket 
operators.  He added that slot machines would be moved away 
from residential areas and that applications from existing 
gaming companies for additional gaming tables or gaming 
facilities would be rejected.  Licenses for new junket 
promoters will not be approved, pending release of a study on 
the proper supervision of the sector.  The government will 
also draft a bill to limit the maximum commissions allowed 
for gambling promoters, said Ho. 
 
============================================= === 
Moratorium Helps Revenues, Won't Slow Development 
============================================= === 
 
5.  (U) Although the timing was a surprise, observers and 
 
HONG KONG 00000793  002 OF 003 
 
 
existing casino operators in Macau were generally pleased 
about Ho's announcement.  Paul Tse, President of AmCham Macau 
and CEO of property development company Ocean Gardens, 
predicted the moratorium would be welcomed by Macau 
residents.  With 2007 GDP growth over 27% and 27 million 
visitors last year, Macau's transport and social services 
infrastructure is feeling the stress.  The SAR needs time to 
absorb the current expansion before encouraging additional 
gaming sector growth, he said.  (Note: Macau played host to 
7.5 million tourists in the first quarter of 2008, almost 
unchanged from Q4 2007.  Chinese tourist arrivals increased 
slightly, but were offset by fewer tourists from Hong Kong, 
Taiwan and Southeast Asia.  End Note)  PBL/Melco's Crown 
Casino Chief Financial Officer Keith Heise noted that the 
moratorium isn't as stiff as it sounds.  Macau currently has 
29 casinos with over 4,300 gaming tables.  The eleven new 
casinos already under construction are not affected by the 
freeze.  Several of these will be very large, including 
Crown's own City of Dreams, Galaxy's Cotai Mega Resort, the 
Four Seasons and Sheraton Hotels, and the expansion of the 
Venetian.  These projects are all scheduled to come on line 
no later than early 2010, bringing the total number of 
casinos in Macau to forty. 
 
============================ 
A Very Expensive Golf Course 
============================ 
 
6. (U) University of Macau legal scholar and gaming 
regulations expert Jorge Godinho also supported CE Ho's 
announcement.  He was not surprised that existing concession 
holders would welcome the moratorium on new casinos, noting 
that the share prices of the listed gaming companies active 
in Macau had all risen on the news.  Godinho suggested that 
the current concession-holders may have been lobbying Ho to 
announce a freeze on new concessions.  U.S. gaming and 
entertainment company Harrah's paid US$578 million for the 
Oriente Golf course in Macau in September 2007, giving rise 
to rumors that the government might consider allowing another 
gaming concession.  One Wall Street analyst reportedly 
speculated at the time that Harrah's had either purchased a 
"very expensive golf course or a very affordable piece of 
prime casino-resort land in the world's largest gaming 
market."  Ho's reference to his conversation with Chinese 
President Hu in his announcement short-circuited any 
opposition to the freeze and illustrated just how closely 
Beijing is watching events in Macau, said Godinho.  Harrah's 
responded to Ho's announcement with a press release 
reaffirming their plans to run "a world-class golf course in 
Macau." 
 
============================================= ===== 
Is Competition Starting to Squeeze Casino Margins? 
============================================= ===== 
 
7. (U) Casino receipts in Macau rose by 62 percent in the 
first quarter of 2008, reaching a record 29.82 billion 
patacas (over US$3.7 billion).  Despite the record quarter, 
some casinos have reportedly begun to see revenue growth slow 
or even drop slightly.  The Chairman of Hong Kong-based A-Max 
Holdings, a junket operator listed on the Hong Kong Stock 
Exchange, told the press that Ho's announcement reflected the 
government's realization that the gaming sector is reaching 
saturation in Macau.  He added that some casinos are starting 
to have problems attracting gamblers and predicted that some 
may scale down or close in the near future.  Heise said that 
Crown saw a slight drop in the number of gamblers in March 
2008, but attributed the slowdown to changes in Chinese visa 
policy and seasonal factors rather than competition from 
other casinos.  He noted that the new casinos in Macau are 
being built around tourist and entertainment amenities (Macau 
will soon host three permanent Cirque du Soleil shows) that 
invariably cut into gaming company profit margins. He 
welcomed Ho's announcement that the MSAR would consider 
limits on junket commissions; these commissions are another 
dent in casino margins. 
 
===================================== 
Casinos Hoping for More Foreign Labor 
===================================== 
 
8. (U) With transportation and social services sectors are 
already under significant strain, the eleven projects 
currently underway may be too many, said Godinho.  Lack of 
human resources remains the biggest obstacle to Macau's 
continued growth.  Macanese worry that allowing foreign 
workers into Macau will suppress wages, but casinos claim 
 
HONG KONG 00000793  003 OF 003 
 
 
additional foreign laborers, including Chinese, are urgently 
needed to fill vacant positions.  Macau's current 
unemployment rate has fallen below 3 percent, suggesting the 
casinos may have a point. 
 
9. (SBU) Heise separately noted that Crown is having 
difficulty filling skilled positions like accountants and 
auditors in its current operations.  Crown's human resources 
managers prefer to hire a significant number of overseas 
workers because their visa status makes them less vulnerable 
to poaching by competitors.  He lamented that current Macau 
regulations make it difficult to recruit Chinese workers to 
fill positions in the casino as dealers or security officers. 
 The Venetian has already established a dealer training 
school in nearby Zhuhai, just across the border in Guangdong 
Province, in preparation for the lifting of the prohibition 
on non-Macanese dealers, said Heise. 
Marut