Macau betting suffers 46pc slump

[Scarper]

Monday, June 3, 2002
Macau betting suffers 46pc slump
HARALD BRUNING in Macau
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The Macau Jockey Club blamed Hong Kong's new anti-gambling law, the World Cup and bad weather for almost halving its betting turnover yesterday.
"Our turnover fell nearly half this Sunday compared with last Sunday," said a spokeswoman for the club, adding that the "three adverse factors" had caused the 46.7 per cent decline.
Yesterday's race meeting on Taipa Island was the first affected by Hong Kong's new anti-gambling laws, which prohibit phone and Internet betting with any organisation other than the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
While turnover plunged, the number of punters attending the meeting at the Taipa racecourse rose from 2,746 last Sunday to 3,242 yesterday.
"More punters from Hong Kong came over for the meeting in Macau since they are no longer allowed to place telephone or Internet bets," the spokeswoman said, adding the Macau Jockey Club was studying measures to counter the Hong Kong gaming law, such as offering discounted or free ferry vouchers to Hong Kong punters. Macau Jockey Club chairman and casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun has described the new law as totally unacceptable, saying it would hit Macau's economy and rob hundreds of people of their jobs.
He said that in a worst-case scenario the club, which employs about 2,000 people, may collapse.
Betting turnover totalled $178 million yesterday, compared to $334 million last week.
Spokesmen for Macauslot, which offers football and basketball lotteries, and the Macau Greyhound Racing Company, said yesterday that their turnovers had also fallen by 50 and 40 per cent respectively.
"Our turnover has dropped by about half because of that new law in Hong Kong," said a spokesman for Macauslot.
A spokesman for the Macau Greyhound Racing Company cited the same reason for its decline.
All betting operations in Macau, comprising horse and dog races and a string of sports and other types of lotteries, are run by companies associated with Mr Ho.

[Scarper]

I went over to macau yesterday, and it seemed the ferries were busier than usual, and that most of these people were making the trip to macau to legally bet on the football matches at the many football betting centers.

[hobbes]

Betting turnover totalled $178 million yesterday, compared to $334 million last week.
are those #'s even close to correct? last time i can remember reading about t/over figures for macau they had inched up from about 20m to 30m per meeting around 7 years ago.
if incorrect tis just another example of totally incompetent SCMP reporters.

[Scarper]

id would be 99% sure they are out by a factor of 10. the last time i looked the t.o was maybe 2.5 to 3m per race

[shapke]

Hobbes, did you see the report last week that had William Hill turning over $HK 5 trillion annually?
________
condo Pattaya (http://pattayaluxurycondos.com)

[poledancer]

Just ballpark
Midweek - 30 million
Weekend - 50+ million

[gelded]

They left out the decimal points!!!
Turnover yesterday was 17.4 million.
Mid-week usually 30-33 million. Weekend meeting is 35+ million.

[hobbes]

no shapke i missed it. hk$5 trillion is a bit hard to get a grip on so tried to convert back to US when suddenly it hit >> i assume the trillion should read billion which would then indicate us$640m approx. typical SCMP.
not too shabby but of more interest would be the current betfair t/over which is a bit hard to visualise given they count both sides of a bet in their numbers.

[Scarper]

not too shabby but of more interest would be the current betfair t/over which is a bit hard to visualise given they count both sides of a bet in their numbers.
SO THIER REAL T/O IS HALF WHAT THEY CLAIM!! ANOTHER CASE OF ARTISTIC ACCOUNTING.
[ June 03, 2002: Message edited by: Scarper ]

[imaufo]

Hobbes, did you see the report last week that had William Hill turning over $HK 5 trillion annually?
Maybe its time to move up the truck and and move to Beverley..( London that is...swimming pools...movie stars...)

[hobbes]

SO THEIR REAL T/O IS HALF WHAT THEY CLAIM!! ANOTHER CASE OF ARTISTIC ACCOUNTING.
don't know that that is fair as they don't advertise it as t/over but more as "matched bets". may be much less than half; as 1 unit on a 50/1 shot will get counted as 51 in matched bets. same with soccer where 1 unit on senegal at 11.00 may have been counted as 11 in matched bets.

[shapke]

The Macau club topped $HK 4 billion in annual turnover for first time last year...which works out at more like $HK 40 million a meeting and that is more likely. Don't know where the hell the SCMP got that figure of $300 mill plus for the weekend before last
________
Bong reviews (http://glassbongs.org/)

[shapke]

Maybe Harald was including the illegals...then I think he might be close to the truth!!
Be disappointing if illegal betting turover dropped like that just because of some new law - lawbreakers today....tch tch tch
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GIMMESEX CAM (http://camslivesexy.com/cam/gimmesex)

[gelded]

Starting next month, staff will have to take either 5% or 10% paycuts, depending on their position in the club.
Ouch!!

[Scarper]

5 or 10% pay cuts!
if the pools rebound after the WC finishes, i expect DrHo will have some angry staff.

[masun]

if the pools rebound after the WC finishes, i expect DrHo will have some angry staff.
But will Dr. Ho care as he has plenty of angry staff in his casinos already.

[hobbes]

i first visited the lisboa a little over 22 yrs ago and the staff were the greediest in the world then and the casino a cesspit. i doubt it has improved since. ( but the rest of macau has --- why not lisboa ? ).

[masun]

first visited the lisboa a little over 22 yrs ago and the staff were the greediest in the world
Not very surprising because the staff were paid only a pittance salary. Can't remember the exact figure but it was around $10 a day or something like that so their livelihood depended entirely on the "tips". Believe things changed only recently with the new casino licences but the staff still hardly paid a king's ransom.