Mocha Clubs—the Macau slot parlour operation owned by Melco Crown Entertainment—opened its tenth venue today at the SJM-licensed Casino Golden Dragon on Macau peninsula. The launch comes only days after the Macau government confirmed Mocha will be required to close one of its downtown Macau venues to comply with a new policy curtailing gaming in predominantly residential areas.
The new site covers 20,000 square feet on three floors and has 300 machines. The choice of Casino Golden Dragon as a venue partner will be considered particularly auspicious in the local market. It comes on the eve of the Year of the Dragon falling on 23rd January—a year already adjudged by Chinese to be exceptional for good luck. That could translate into a high volume of foot traffic and high daily win for the Mocha venue in the opening phase. That would be a good result for the slot segment, which only accounts for around 5% of annual gross gaming revenue in the tables-focused Macau market.
Mocha Golden Dragon is likely to benefit from high footfall without the need for a big marketing spend in terms of shuttle buses and flyers. It is only a short walk from the Macau Maritime Ferry Terminal and from the mass-market focused SJM core property Casino Oceanus. To give an idea of the importance of the Year of the Dragon, birth rates in China tend to surge during the lunar year. And in the week preceding the Lunar New Year holiday, local people lined up before opening time at local banks to exchange up to a limit of 500 patacas for the equivalent in new 10-pataca Year of the Dragon commemorative notes, which have lucky dragons printed on them. Those notes have then reportedly been changing hands for thirty patacas each, and in some cases for as much as 100 patacas, according to Inside Asian Gaming’s sources.
The opening of Mocha Golden Dragon comes only days after the Macau government confirmed that one of the company’s sites—Mocha Marina Plaza on Macau peninsula—will have to close down to comply with a policy of reducing the amount of gaming in residential areas. Mocha originally positioned itself as a locals-focused slot operation to distinguish itself from the casinos’ offer. That positioning involved offering some of the most competitive return to player percentages in the territory.
Now that the political climate is growing cooler on locals-focused gambling, there are signs that Mocha Clubs is repositioning itself. It’s doing that in two ways. The first is increasingly to work as a slot operations manager within existing casinos—it’s doing so at MPEL’s Altira Macau property and now at Casino Golden Dragon, an SJM-licensed casino with a third party ownership in the heart of downtown Macau (both those properties are acutely VIP-baccarat focused, and appear to prefer outsourcing the management of their slots in order to concentrate on their core business). The second is to go after more affluent customers. Mocha Macau Tower, which opened at the famous local landmark in September, is the first of the company’s venues to have dedicated parking and is on the edge of one of Macau’s most affluent neighbourhoods overlooking Nam Van Lake. Casino Golden Dragon—one of Macau’s so-called legacy casinos, is traditionally a VIP table games venue and has handy parking nearby. The player awards on offer at Mocha Golden Dragon on opening day included iPads; hinting at the desired positioning of the new venue. In some other locals-focused slot venues in Macau, the player rewards have in the past included supermarket vouchers.
Macau’s new slot parlour policy states they must be located within a 500-metre radius of a casino, or be located in existing commercial buildings. The two venues scheduled to be closed under the rules are Mocha Marina Plaza and SJM Holdings’ Yat Yuen Canidrome Slot Lounge, at the territory’s dog racing track. Both sites are on Macau peninsula. Mocha Marina Plaza was only opened in December 2008—and has recently been listed as having 260 machines. No date has yet been announced for the closure of Marina Plaza. Mocha Clubs is a unit of Melco Crown Entertainment, jointly chaired by Lawrence Ho and James Packer.
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