Tsang forecasts surge in rolling chip turnover
Macau junket operator Tak Chun Group has opened a new VIP club at the Four Seasons Hotel, located on the Cotai Strip. Tak Chun CEO Levo Chan says the company is also planning to open a VIP club in the city in July.
Chan said he’s feeling bullish about the market and the VIP sector, both of which continue to come back strong following the 2014-16 decline.
“Both segments, mass market and VIP, will improve this year,” he told Macau Business. “The growth rate of VIP will be more or less the same as last year, or a bit better than last year.”
Tak Chun Chief Financial Officer KH Tsang said the company’s VIP business “is performing better than the overall market” and mass is going strong as well, reported Asia Gaming Brief.
“There will be a few more VIP clubs to open in the future and we will focus on the local market,” said Tsang. “We might open one to two more VIP clubs in the second half of this year.”
His “conservative estimation” is for “at least a 10 percent to 20 percent growth in rolling chip turnover. This matches the estimate of the market and that of the major investment analysts. With more customers and higher betting amount, it feels like the growth has returned to that in the 2013 and 2014 period before the fall of the market.”
In 2013, gross gaming revenue in Macau grew 18.6 percent year-on-year, mostly due to high roller play, according to data from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. The following year was expected to continue the expansion, but 2014 ended up slightly negative year-on-year after a 30.4 percent GGR contraction in December 2014, reported GGRAsia. For the next two years, GGR tumbled in response to an anti-corruption campaign that originated in Mainland China.
The new VIP club is Tak Chun’s 18th location—including 15 in Macau and three “overseas,” the company stated.
