2011-05-23 15:23

Diversifying approaches

As a pillar industry of Macao, gaming sector contributes about 35 percent of their income in gaming taxes.

According to official figures, Macao's total public revenue for the year of 2010 reached 79.63 billion patacas ($9.95 billion), with gaming taxes ($8.12 billion) accounting for 81.6 percent of total.

Out of concerns that Macao's overwhelming reliance on gambling may squeeze other local industries and make Macao's economy more vulnerable to gaming-related risks, the government has vowed to "appropriately diversify" the city's economy by consolidating its position as a world-class tourism center.

Casinos moved to diversify, as well, to attract more visitors as competitions for gaming windfall intensified.

GEG, whose 550,000-square-meter casino resort Galaxy Macao opened on Cotai Strip, mentioned less about its casino business. Instead, it promoted heavily three five-star hotel brands and a spectacular 52,000-square-meter Grand Resort Deck with a 4,000- square-meter rooftop Wave Pool, the world's largest of its kind.

"We are determined to reshape Macao's hospitality scene and build a new momentum not driven by gaming culture," said Lui Che- woo, Chairman of GEG.

Wynn, who expected the new Cotai project to begin soon, said it will be "a departure in many aspects" from the existing casino resorts.

Commenting on the newly-opened Galaxy Macao, Wynn said GEG did "a terrific job", adding that he "saw a couple of things at Galaxy the other day that made me take another look at some stuff that I had drawn myself."

"The pace of things around here and the need to be clever and original and express yourself in new ways has become urgent," said Wynn. "I was very happy to see...Galaxy responded intelligently and clearly to that kind of challenge. As long as that happens, Macao will never be over-built."