Opening of Sands Macau will test casino waters for city

Margaret Wong

Thursday, May 6, 2004 | 10:51 a.m.

MACAU -- New casinos are cropping up, the economy is booming in double-digits and this Chinese city is about to find out whether it made a smart bet by opening the doors to Las Vegas-style casinos ready to give longtime gambling tycoon Stanley Ho a run for his money.

Ho held a monopoly on gambling for more than four decades in this former Portuguese colony, but the competition starts rolling within days as The Sands Macau opens its door, led by the man who made a splash in Las Vegas with his casino-hotel replica of Venice.

Sheldon Adelson's Venetian group hopes to open the Sands on Monday -- though one casino executive acknowledged privately that the company is consulting with feng shui experts to pick a lucky day and that May 18 may be the right time to open. Anyway, construction isn't quite finished yet on the Sands property, slated to have 250 gambling tables and 600 slot machines.

But it will soon be followed by the Waldo Hotel, a smaller property with 38 tables and 100 slot machines that launches next month and will be operated by Hong Kong-based Lui Che-woo, who shares a casino license with Adelson.

Ho holds one of Macau's three licenses that were awarded in 2002, with the other held by Las Vegas gambling mogul Steve Wynn, who is hoping for reforms to the enclave's gambling laws before he commits further.

Critics say that decades as a monopolist gave Ho little incentive for innovation in a chain of casinos dominated by the flagship Lisboa, but he's scrambling now to become more competitive and predicts he'll beat out his new rivals.

Las Vegas may be known as the global gambling capital, but Ho spokeswoman Janet Wong says that in tiny Macau her boss is still the king.

"We are the only one that has its roots in Macau," Wong said. "We have more than 40 years of experience and a good network of hotels, retail and property businesses.

Some locals agree.

"Everyone knows about Mr. Ho and his Lisboa but nothing about those from Las Vegas," said Macau resident Ng Pui-peng, 42.

Ho, who is 82, recently spiffed up the Lisboa with bright neon lights reminiscent of the old Las Vegas Strip, and he's planning a 40-story expansion nearby, along with an amusement park and a culture village. Ho's operations brought in billions in revenue last year, paying Macau unprecedented taxes of $1.3 billion, a 31 percent increase from 2002.

The newcomers could be at a disadvantage because they need to start from scratch, but some customers say that may be a draw.

Ho's Lisboa is seen by many as indifferent to customers, who can be packed several deep waiting to bet at the smoke-filled tables during peak hours. Some call the ambiance downright seedy, with dozens of prostitutes prowling common areas.

"Lisboa is the worst of all," said 50-year-old Hong Kong retiree Judy Lau, an avid gambler who spoke to a reporter after dropping more than $640 in one of Ho's smaller casinos.

"In Las Vegas, you give the croupiers a tip of US $1, they will say 'thank you'; you give US $5, they will say 'thank you very much.' But here, they put up a long face -- almost like you owe them money -- when you give them HK $500 (US $64) or HK $1,000 (US $128)."

Wang Xuxia, 37, a pregnant tourist from the nearby mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen, is also ready to give the new casinos a shot.

"It's so crowded and suffocating in Lisboa," Wang said. "I will certainly check out the new attractions."

Macau is being transformed by the coming competition. The latest boom helped push Macau's economy ahead by a 15.6 percent last year, with growth hitting an astounding 21.1 percent in the fourth quarter.

Adelson's next stage of development will feature The Venetian Macau, a luxury resort hotel-casino similar to The Venetian in Las Vegas.

Developers envision it as part of a so-called "Cotai Strip," which will go up away from the main action in Macau with an estimated 60,000 hotel rooms. Adelson's company is touting it as "the Las Vegas Strip of Asia."

Meantime, Lui's next hotel-casino project, the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel, is coming soon, with the piling work set to begin by next month, company spokesman John Au said.

Amid all the sudden bustle of this former Portuguese colony returned to Chinese rule in 1999, American casino boss Wynn remains the wild card.

Wynn threatened in August to pull out of a planned venture if Macau failed to enact gambling reforms by the end of last year. It didn't happen, but Wynn didn't make good on his threat to bail out.

The tycoon recently showed a visitor in his Las Vegas office a mockup of a Macau property -- a smaller version of his $2.4 billion Wynn Las Vegas megaresort now being built.

Wynn is hoping for legislative changes in Macau that would let his company extend credit to gamblers, as well as tax reforms.

Macau lawmakers are working on allowing for casinos to lend money to gamblers, but one of them, Ng Kuok-cheong, said the bill stops short on tax concessions.