Australian casino operator Echo Entertainment is losing out to international VIPs at its Star Casino in Sydney and Jupiters Gold Coast.
At the firm’s yearly shareholder meeting November 4, Echo Chief Executive Matt Bekier said, “On an actual basis, we have experienced an abnormally low win rate for the international VIP business in the early part of this financial year,” with actual revenue from high rollers down 33.8 percent from the same period year-on-year, according to the Australian Business Spectator.
Seventy percent of the big winners were from Hong Kong, Macau and China, and the rest from Southeast Asia, the publication reported.
Bekier said high rollers flocked to the Star during Golden Week, the annual Chinese holiday in early October, but they didn’t play as much as they did in 2014. Those who played and won, however, had a real impact on the house.
“If somebody gets on a run and instead of winning 48 percent of the time, they win 52 percent of the time at half a million dollars a hand, it makes a difference,” Bekier told the Australian Associated Press.
