Melco’s Macau casino draws $1.94bln bets in first month
Posted by Gavin Smith on 06 Jul 2009 at 15:07
Reuters have reported that gambling institute Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (MPEL.O) has not enjoyed the start to life that it had hoped.
Melco has drawn $1.94billion in their first month of operation, and have welcomed 1.2million players through the doors of their City of Dreams establishment in Macau, according to Melco International Development Ltd (0200.HK), their parent company.
That averaged out at 41,000 visitors every 24 hours, and 127 was the average number of VIP gaming or rolling chip tables in operation.
City of Dreams also recorded a mass-market table fall of around $100 million throughout June, and their seven-day total had increased by 12 per cent from the first week of June to the last, with an average of 376 mass-market gaming tables currently operating.
Machines for gaming brought in around $81 million, and they had around 1,320 gaming machines in operation on average, a statement from the Hong Kong-listed company read.
Melco International shares had dropped over five per cent in late morning trade, to HK$3.96. Earlier, Credit Suisse cut their rating on the stock, in addition to that on its 34.06 per cent-owned Melco Crown, from “neutral” to "underperform" in wake of the unexpectedly low inauguration of the new casino.
In addition, City of Dreams won just 0.8 percent of the bets in the first month, compared with an expected win rate of 2.85 per cent.
Credit Suisse analyst Gabriel Chan said: "Even having adjusted for the high-roller win percentage, City of Dreams' market share in June would have been 6.9 percent, still below a street expectation of 8-10 percent."
That led to a cut in the target price on the stock from HK$6 to HK$3.40.
