The Venetian Macao announced its new Cirque du Soleil show, Zaia, will be opening soon. I added some helpful links below…
Zaia announcement
Zaia homepage
Venetian Macao tickets page
Macau Daily Times announced that Cotai’s Grand Waldo Hotel will be opening a dedicated gambling room just for poker: Read the rest of this entry »
Cotai Casino News has a funny post about a Galaxy exec being quoted saying “Sex sells” and how they will use beautiful girls to get people to the resort. As the editor says, “meet me at the Cotai Mega Resort”.
The mystical creatures which include a white dolphin and peacock, will take to form of employees made up to look like the creatures. Read the rest of this entry »
Global Casino Boom reports that the City of Dreams near the Cotai Strip will be topping out. Check the last couple posts to see some details I have on the project. From the company’s announcement:
“Our dreams are taking shape. In approximately one year, City of Dreams will begin to welcome visitors from all over the world,” said Lawrence Ho, Co-Chairman and CEO of MPEL at the topping out ceremony. Read the rest of this entry »
Heres some more details I just found from the company’s press release about the City of Dream’s Dragone show. If you’ve nevr seen Dragone, then this is a must-see if you’re visiting Macau.
One of the iconic landmarks of City of Dreams will be a free attraction that will provide visitors with a totally immersive experience, unlike anything they have seen in Asia or elsewhere in the world. Housed in a unique dome-shaped theatre, the production will combine high-definition video content, a customized music score, thousands of theatrical lights and a variety of sensory effects to create a spectacular 10-minute visual extravaganza that is sure to become a must-see for every visitor to Macau.
Renowned for spectacular and imaginative productions, Dragone will stage a permanent show at City of Dreams. Founder Franco Dragone will personally direct the breathtaking water-themed show, created specifically for City of Dreams, which is due to open in Macau in the second half of 2009.
MacauDailyNews gives some details of the upcoming City of Dreams hotel casino being built by Melco PBL. The information was presented by the company for investors:
The first phase of the USD2.1 billion City of Dreams development, including the casino and the 330 room Hard Rock Hotel, including casino, and the 295 room Crown Towers Cotai is due to open in late March next year.
In total the project covers 110,000 square metres of land and will also see a two-tower Grand Hyatt and apartment complex due to be open by the end of 2009.
The resort is centred around a glass bubble rising out of podium which will combine “high definition video content …. thousands of theatrical lights and a variety of sensory effects to create a spectacular 10 minute visual extravaganza,” according to a press hand-out.
A 2,000 seat arena, also due to be completed by the end of 2009 will host a regular show performed by Dragone Entertainment which produced a number of Celine Dion’s Las Vegas shows.
Here is an aritcle by Macao’s MacauHub. SJM finally opens its books, and it looks like profit fell by 20% in 2007. The Cotai Strip and other new Macau casinos are the likely culprit.
Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, the gaming and gambling company controlled by magnate Stanley Ho, said Monday in Macau that profit in 2007 totalled 1.8 billion patacas (US$225 million), a fall of 20 percent against 2006.
According to information given to journalists by Stanley Ho and Ambrose So, both directors of SJM, the company’s turnover totalled 33 billion patacas and 12 billion patacas were paid in taxes to the government.
They added that 1 billion patacas would be distributed as dividends to the company’s shareholders. Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, the former holder of the monopoly in gaming and gambling in Macau, owns 80 percent of SJM.
SJM’s accounts were approved in a marathon of general meetings held Monday in Macau and which included several companies controlled by Stanley Ho via SJM and Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau.
SJM controls 19 of the 29 casinos in operation in Macau and is the only operator in the territory that is not, directly or indirectly, listed on a stock exchange.
Here is an excerpt from a Credit Suisse casino analyst. It looks like the guys at the Crown Macao really turned things around. Congrats!
“Thanks to A-Max’s junkets, Melco PBL’s market share improved substantially from 5.7 per cent in November to 18.1 per cent in February, making Crown Macau the busiest casino in the world in terms of betting volume. If we focus on market share in the high-roller segment alone, the improvement was even more astonishing with market share increasing from 6.6 per cent in November to 24.8 per cent in February.” Read the rest of this entry »
New Cotai Holdings announced last week that Mr Walter Power had joined the organization as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of its gaming subsidiary, New Cotai Entertainment. Here is the press release:
New Cotai Holdings, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, is one of the owners of Macao Studio City, a project being developed on a 32.3-acre site in the Cotai strip.
Mr Power, who has been in Macau for five years, joins New Cotai from Sands Macao, where he was Senior Vice President of Operations.
Bringing to the New Cotai team over 16 years of international gaming experience, Mr Power is recognised and well respected in gaming circles for his extensive understanding of the industry, having worked in the United States, Argentina, South Africa, the Philippines and Macau. Read the rest of this entry »
There was an article in the Sydney Herald talkinga about the boom taking place in Macau and Cotai Strip so I cut and pasted some of the numbers below. Everything looks strong, but let’s just hope it doesnt turn out like the Vegas bubble.
And on the all-important hotel sector, the report showed that average hotel occupancy rate was 83 per cent, despite the number of hotel rooms expanding by 24.4 per cent year-on-year to more than 16,000 to the end of December.
“The continuous arrival of new resorts and ongoing development of meetings, incentive tours, conventions and exhibitions industries remain the key factors for a positive outlook.” Read the rest of this entry »
About Cotai, The Cotai Strip®, and Macao 