Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2011 36 that all have junket partners. The gross gaming revenue generated at MBS by the VIP and mass-market live tables combined in the period was US$450.4million. A further US$201.5 million came from slot revenue, giving a total casino revenue of US$651.9 million, split 69% to 31% in favour of live table gaming over slots. MBS’s market rival, the Singapore-listed Resorts World Sentosa, doesn’t give a breakdown of how its gaming revenues are derived, but some analysts estimate the live table to slot revenue split as at least 60:40 in favour of live table play. In the Macau market as a whole, the revenue split was 96% to 4% in favour of live tables over slots during 3Q 2011. At Marina Bay Sands, the average daily win per table (before discounts and commissions) in 3Q 2011 was US$13,205. At The Venetian Macao during the same period it was US$11,705. Over at LVS’s Las Vegas properties it was US$5,267, though the Asian property averages are skewed by the volume of high roller play. VIII. Silent Partners The growth of the VIP market in Macau is a testament to the efficiency and efficacy of the third-party promoters and junket operators at bringing in high rollers from mainland China and beyond. That in turn has helped to stimulate and service the investment of billions of US dollars in the local gaming infrastructure. VIP baccarat is by far the biggest contributor to gross gaming revenue in the territory. It accounted for MOP135.6 billion of the MOP188.3 billion (US$23.5 billion) gross generated from games of fortune last year—a whopping 72% of the tally. As early as September this year, cumulative GGR for 2011 passed the all-time record achieved in 2010. Mostly that was due to VIP baccarat. The junkets and their agent partners are the industry’s most lucrative link with mainland China, from where most of the new VIP players come. In China, casinos are technically forbidden by law to advertise and market their services. In addition. gambling debts are technically not enforceable and there are limits on cross-border currency movement. In a moment we’ll discuss why—as so often in China—there tend to be exceptions to these supposedly hard and fast rules. Marina Bay Sands—revenue split roughly 70:30 in favour of table play