A guerra da família Ho no Financial Times

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(Financial Times, January 26, 2011)

Chegou a concorrência

Em Maio de 2008, estive lá e fotografei o que então era apenas um gigantesco estaleiro de construção. Parece que o mega-resort de Sheldon Adelson em Singapura foi, finalmente, inaugurado. O magnata do jogo passa a jogar em dois tabuleiros no Sudeste Asiático. Quais as consequências para Macau?


Jardins suspensos em três torres marcam novo resort de Singapura
Fugas
17 de Julho de 2010

Quartos: 2561, dos quais 230 suites de luxo. Funcionários directos: 10 000. Capacidade diária do casino: 25 000 pessoas. Visitantes esperados por ano: mais de 18milhões. Investimento: 4765 milhões de euros. Os números chegam para impressionar, mas o Marina Bay Sands Resort não se ficou por aqui e transformou-se no mais recente ex-líbris de Singapura. A imagem da cidade está agora marcada por estas três gigantes torres de vidro, unidas por uma megaplataforma com o formato de um convés de um luxuoso navio-cruzeiro. Trata-se de um SkyPark, de 1,2 hectares, que integra uma impressionante piscina infinita de 150 metros e um restaurante com a assinatura do conceituado chefe Justin Quek, tido com um dos maiores de Singapura. Mas há mais: Mario Batali e Daniel Boulud, ambos de Nova Iorque, Wolfgang Puck, de Los Angeles, Santi Santamaria, de Barcelona, Guy Savoy, de Paris, e Tetsuya Wakuda, de Sydney, prometem em conjunto criar um destino gastronómico ímpar. Além dos mais de cinquenta restaurantes disponíveis, o resort, que foi inaugurado oficialmente a 24 de Junho, inclui ainda 75 000 metros quadrados de área comercial (onde não faltam marcas de topo: Cartier, Chanel, Fendi, Prada ou Yves Saint Laurent), teatros com um total de quatro mil lugares, um museu e um pavilhão de cristal. Não esquecendo, claro, o já mencionado casino — ou não se estivesse a falar de um empreendimento da norte-americana Las Vegas Sands, gigante americano de casinos —, que só por si deverá gerar receitas anuais de quase sessenta milhões de euros.

A concorrência (que virá) de Singapura

Singapore casinos to raise the stakes
Big-budget resorts bet on 'wow' factors such as theme parks to lure punters from Macau

Neil Gough, in Singapore
South China Morning Post
November 02, 2009

Macau may be Asia's Las Vegas, but Singapore is lifting the ante in a matter of months with the opening of two of the most expensive casino resorts in the world.

The final budget has not yet been set for Las Vegas Sands Corp's 2,500-room Marina Bay Sands, due to begin opening in phases from early next year. But at about US$6 billion, the latest cost estimates make it more than twice as expensive to build as the company's 3,000-room Venetian Macao and five times as much as rival Wynn Macau.

Trailing not far behind by project cost is the 59-hectare Resorts World theme park resort on Sentosa Island being built by Malaysia's Genting Group, the second half of the rising Singaporean duopoly.

Genting's resort will cost an estimated US$4.7 billion at current exchange rates - still almost double the cost of the Venetian Macao, the world's largest casino.

However, in addition to hefty project budgets, which are being financed largely by loans from Singaporean banks, a number of challenging regulatory and strategic questions remain over exactly how the city state's twin casinos will stack up against Macau and other destinations in competing for Asia's gambling dollars.

Both the city state's casino developers are betting big that "wow" factors such as a 200-metre-high "skypark" or a 24-ride Universal Studios theme park will lure punters, business travellers and holidaymakers from across Asia to their Singapore resorts.

"It's going to be a destination by itself," says Marina Bay Sands' executive vice-president of operations Ronen Nissenbaum. "People will come to Singapore to be at this site and say: 'I've been there, I've done that, I've got the T-shirt'."

The three 55-storey towers of Marina Bay Sands have already topped off and construction workers last week were busy installing a labyrinth of ventilation ducts. The resort plans to go from 350 staff to 10,000 as it opens in phases from early next year.

The roof of the towering project will feature a "skypark" that is longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall and includes a huge swimming pool, viewing platform and a number of bars and restaurants.

Also on offer will be six celebrity chef restaurants, more than 300 retail shops including a "Louis Vuitton Island" accessed by underwater tunnel, a convention centre and two theatres that will open with Disney's Lion King stage musical as one of the resident shows.

The casino at the resort will span 15,000 square metres of gaming space over four floors, including two floors dedicated to VIP gaming. The property will employ 4,500 casino-focused staff, according to executives.

The hotel will feature just under 2,500 standard rooms and, for the ultra-big spenders, 230 suites that range from two to 10 rooms and cover 743 square metres. "Our rates are going to be the highest in the market," Nissenbaum said.

Genting's Sentosa project is set to open early next year with the Universal theme park and rides such as duelling roller coasters, a Jurassic Park-themed water ride and a Shrek-themed fantasy land. It will also launch with the casino, a theatre, restaurants and four of six hotels that will total 1,800 rooms.

"There will be gaming, definitely. But in terms of positioning, we see that we are going to be different from Macau," said Edward Koh Boon Wee, the Singapore Tourism Board's chief representative and regional director for Greater China. "Singapore has always been perceived as a very family-friendly destination and we want to continue with that image."

In terms of pure casino economics, Singapore should be extremely competitive in luring high rollers, which account for about 65 per cent of all casino winnings in Macau.

The effective tax rate on VIP gaming revenue in Singapore is 12 per cent, compared with 39 per cent in Macau. This means casinos in Singapore are free to pay out higher levels of rebates to high-stakes players, a common practice in the industry.

Likewise, casinos will be able to pay higher commissions to VIP junket agents, the marketing middlemen that in Macau and other Asian gaming jurisdictions function as bankers to high rollers.

Junkets bring high-stakes players to casinos, issue them credit for gambling and collect their debts - often through extrajudicial means in places such as China, where gaming debt is not enforceable through the courts.

However, many of the VIP junket agents that operate in Macau may not be licensable in Singapore because of "suitability" requirements, which are expected to be enforced stringently. While both casinos say they plan to open around the first quarter of next year, Singapore has yet to publish detailed regulations on junkets or to begin the licensing process.

"We have reasons to believe that very few, if any, junket reps, particularly of the Macau style, will be allowed or will want to be licensed in Singapore," Las Vegas Sands chairman and majority shareholder Sheldon Adelson said last week on an investors' conference call.

As a result, Marina Bay Sands plans to partially cut out the junket middlemen and will issue credit and rebates directly to players. "We are gearing up for very strong direct credit and direct play," Adelson said.

Perhaps more important will be the mass market, or non-high rollers: the businessmen, tourists, shoppers and local punters who are expected to fill hotel rooms, shopping centres and theme parks and account for most of non-credit casino play.

But Singaporean locals will face an entry fee of S$100 (HK$555) for a single visit to the casino. Problem gamblers will be able to voluntarily add themselves to a list of people excluded from entering the casinos, as in some Western jurisdictions (but not in Macau). But Singapore has taken this concept a step further - allowing concerned family members to add gamblers to the blacklist.

"There's no doubt that an entry fee is a certain barrier; the question is whether it is one that can be easily overcome or not," Nissenbaum said.

"You have to start from a pretence that Singapore did not decide to open these two resorts to make them unsuccessful."

Indeed, when it comes to luring mass-market tourists from the mainland and Hong Kong, Singapore hopes to compete against Macau by selectively targeting bigger spenders.

"Macau and Hong Kong attract more than a million mainland visitors every month and we only attract a million mainland visitors a year," said Koh of the tourism board, which oversaw the casino resort tendering process. "We are reaching out very carefully to the higher-yield markets of the mainland."

And what if Beijing chooses to restrict visas on mainlanders travelling to Singapore? The central government has done as much in regard to Macau since last year in an attempt to control runaway expansion of gambling among mainlanders.

"If the central government felt that there was a threat to [Macau's] gaming revenue or its position as a destination resort, they could change the visa programme for Singapore in 10 seconds," Wynn Resorts chairman Steve Wynn said last week on a conference call.

"Singapore can be very successful in its own right," said Wynn, who withdrew from bidding for a Singapore gaming licence in 2006 and last month listed his Macau business on the Hong Kong stock market. "But it being a threat to Macau is not a thing that we're worried about," he said.

Os casinos mais rentáveis de Macau

(Jornal Tribuna de Macau, 3-9-2009)

Macau à noite

O fim de uma era?

Macau's leading light dims
Stanley Ho's extraordinary run as the 'king of gambling' is ending and his former fiefdom is facing a new future

Fox Yi Hu
South China Morning Post
August 25, 2009

Stanley Ho Hung-sun has run Macau as its unofficial king for years, apparently with a finger in almost every business pie in the special administrative region, at times accounting for half of its economy and, as befits a king, openly keeping concubines.

Mr Ho's dominance, and often monopoly, have been long-standing facts in the former Portuguese enclave, where anyone who decided to avoid spending money at any of his businesses and properties would find life difficult.

Under his name are 19 casinos, the two tallest Macau buildings, horse and dog-racing tracks, a large jetfoil fleet, a helicopter service, five hotels, department stores, and residential and commercial property, all in the 29-square-kilometre SAR.

Then there are casinos in Portugal, Vietnam and North Korea, as well as 169 Hong Kong company boards on which he serves as director. One of the busiest boulevards in Macau is called Dr Stanley Avenue. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and of the election committee that chooses Macau's chief executive.

Mr Ho has four beautiful "wives", including one who has passed away, and has 17 children. And as the 87-year-old lies in hospital after brain surgery to remove a blood clot, Chinese gossip magazines are busy running cover stories of another woman in her 20s rumoured to be his fifth "wife".

But no king can stay in power forever. Mr Ho's four-decade Macau gambling monopoly was broken in 2001 when Beijing opened the market to foreign investors. In 2004, Sheldon Adelson's Macau Sands opened its doors, leading the charge of US casino giants and heralding a sea change in the SAR's economy and culture.

Mr Ho fought back and regained some lost ground but now, with him apparently severely incapacitated, there is growing speculation that his reign is ending.

A post-Stanley-Ho era is taking shape and Macau is emerging from the shadow of monopoly. Whether residents like it or not, life in the fast lane is becoming inevitable.

"Gone is the era of Stanley Ho as his economic power gets diluted by US casino investors," said Larry So Man-yum, a political commentator at Macau Polytechnic Institute. Macau residents were kissing goodbye to a leisurely past, Professor So said, and learning to cope with greater competition.

An influx of workers from the mainland, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia is threatening job security. Small local firms are struggling against large casinos and Hong Kong companies. Hong Kong's top real estate agencies have increased their presence there, eating up many smaller fish in the pond. On a grimmer front, loansharks from the mainland and elsewhere in Asia have been squeezing the profit margins of local competitors.

And regardless of whether Mr Ho recovers from his illness or not, the tycoon will eventually have to divide his business empire between his three wives and 17 children. To date, no succession plan has been made known.

Mr Ho has largely handed over day-to-day control and management of his two most prominent companies - Hong Kong-listed Shun Tak Holdings and SJM Holdings. Mr Ho remains chairman of both companies which have a combined market capitalisation of HK$27.6 billion, based on August 21 closing share prices.

Shipping, real estate and hotel developer Shun Tak has since 1999 effectively been run by three of Mr Ho's daughters, including Pansy Ho Chiu-king as managing director and Daisy Ho Chiu-fung as deputy managing director and chief financial officer.

The management of flagship SJM Holdings is largely in the hands of veterans from the earlier days of Mr Ho's former monopoly in the industry. Between them, SJM chief executive Ambrose So Shu-fai and chief operating officer Louis Ng Chi-sing have clocked up 64 years of service in Mr Ho's casino business.

Mr Ho's fourth "wife", Macau legislator Angela Leong On-kei, also serves as an SJM director. She has cultivated strong relationships among VIP junket agents and franchise casino operators.

Affairs at Mr Ho's 32.2 per cent-owned conglomerate, Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau (STDM), of which he is managing director, are less straightforward.

STDM ultimately controls most of Mr Ho's casino, property and transport businesses and remains SJM's biggest shareholder with a 61 per cent stake. Its 44 disparate shareholders include the Henry Fok Ying-tung Foundation, with a 26.58 per cent stake. New World Development and Chow Tai Fook Enterprises chairman Cheng Yu-tung has a 9.6 per cent interest. Mr Ho's estranged sister, Winnie Ho Yuen-ki, holds a 7.35 per cent stake. Ms Leong and third wife Chan Un-chan hold equal 0.235 per cent stakes, while Pansy Ho holds direct and indirect interests in the firm.

Mr Ho helped two of his children win two of Macau's six casino licences to start their own gambling businesses. Pansy Ho has entered the industry in competition with her father's SJM via a joint venture with MGM Mirage of Las Vegas. Likewise Mr Ho's eldest living son, Lawrence Ho Yau-lung, owns two rival casino resorts in Macau in a joint venture with Australian James Packer.

Professor So said it was unlikely that anyone could repeat Mr Ho's dominance in a post-Stanley Ho Macau. "It's hard to imagine someone as strong as Stanley Ho will appear when the economic and political powers are increasingly fragmented in Macau," he said.

Economist and gambling researcher Zeng Zhonglu, also of Macau Polytechnic Institute, agreed.

It was not unusual for Macau businessmen to have highly diverse portfolios in the past, but competition was forcing them to change, Professor Zeng said. "As Macau opens up and competition hots up, one needs to stay focused on a limited number of fields to be competitive."

Professor So said the Las Vegas Sands had brought to Macau a more efficient management style and local companies such as SJM had been forced to follow. The gambling business had become more regulated and transparent.

When Mr Ho finally leaves SJM, Professor Zeng says, the company may lose some lobbying power with the mainland and Macau governments, but it could still do well because it had matured as a listed company and adapted.

Mr Ho's casino monopoly, which he won in 1961, was frequently associated with organised crime, but he has always denied he has triad links.

Some analysts believe the government's move to end the gaming monopoly is partly designed to limit the influence of organised crime related to the VIP gambling halls. There are worries that as Mr Ho's power diminishes, triad gangs living off gambling money may wage bloody street warfare like they did before the 1999 handover.

But Professor Zeng said the Macau government was stronger than the Portuguese administration in the 1990s and mainland authorities would help ensure order in Macau.

There may not be anyone to replace the legendary casino king, but there may not need to be. Macau looks set to do as well, or even better, in a new era of market competition.

O império de Stanley Ho

Stanley Ho holds the trump cards in sprawling empire
Lieutenants run day-to-day affairs but tycoon wields control

Neil Gough
South China Morning Post
August 10, 2009

Twenty years ago, in a speech during a dinner banquet in Hong Kong, casino magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun laid out the order of things in his characteristic, only-half-joking style: "If I claim to be No 2 in Macau, nobody dares to claim to be No 1."

Indeed, as news broke last week that the 87-year-old billionaire had undergone surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain, serious questions were raised about what Macau might look like if both its top slots sat empty.

Among four wives (three are living), 17 children and a stable cadre of long-time lieutenants, Mr Ho has yet to anoint a clear successor.

To date, any succession plans he has made remain known only to him and, perhaps, a trusted few.

The flamboyant tycoon, who once said he wanted to retire by 55, remains today firmly at the helm of a sprawling business empire that has expanded exponentially since he struck out on his own as a kerosene supplier in Macau in the 1940s.

Companies registry filings list Mr Ho as a director of 169 firms, and that is only in Hong Kong.

His often disparate investments range from a wind energy park in Jiangsu to banking in Mozambique to a casino in North Korea.

Still, affairs at Mr Ho's two most prominent firms are relatively established and straightforward.

While he remains chairman of locally listed Shun Tak Holdings and SJM Holdings, which have a combined market capitalisation of HK$25.7 billion, based on Friday's closing share prices, he has largely handed over day-to-day control and management of the companies.

Shipping, real estate and hotel developer Shun Tak has since 1999 been effectively run by three of Mr Ho's daughters, including managing director Pansy Ho Chiu-king and deputy managing director and chief financial officer Daisy Ho Chiu-fung. The management of SJM Holdings, which debuted on the Hong Kong stock market last summer as the vehicle for Mr Ho's Macau gaming licence and the Grand Lisboa casino hotel, is largely in the hands of veterans from the earlier days of Mr Ho's former gaming monopoly.

Between them, SJM chief executive Ambrose So Shu-fai and chief operating officer Louis Ng Chi-sing have worked in Mr Ho's casinos for 64 years.

Mr Ho's fourth wife, Angela Leong On-kei, also serves as an SJM director and is a sitting legislator in Macau. In the years since the 2001 shift from a gaming monopoly to oligopoly, she has cultivated strong relationships among the VIP junket agents and franchise casino operators that account for a large swathe of SJM's market share in Macau.

Instead, the most probable conundrum to result from Mr Ho's absence would centre on the ownership and direction of Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau.

STDM is the private Macau conglomerate that has ultimately controlled most of Mr Ho's casino, property and transport businesses since 1962, when he won the gaming monopoly along with co-founders Henry Fok Ying-tung, gambling expert Yip Hon and race car aficionado Teddy Yip.

Today, STDM remains SJM's biggest shareholder, through STDM-Investments, with a 61 per cent stake.

The firm also holds separate stakes in casinos in Macau, Portugal, Vietnam and North Korea, as well as investments in five Macau hotels, real estate, department stores, the Macau airport, a fleet of corporate jets, a cross-border helicopter service, shipping and dredging operations and the Macau horse and dog-racing tracks.

STDM's 44 disparate shareholders include the Henry Fok Ying Tung Foundation, whose 26.58 per cent stake is looked after by Mr Fok's younger son, Ian Fok Chun-wan.

New World Development and Chow Tai Fook Enterprises chairman Cheng Yu-tung, who acquired much of co-founder Yip Hon's stake in 1982, has a 9.6 per cent interest and serves as the chairman of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, SJM's main Macau subsidiary.

Mr Ho's estranged sister, Winnie Ho Yuen-ki, holds a 7.35 per cent stake and has filed dozens of lawsuits against her brother alleging unpaid dividends and challenging the composition of STDM's registry of shareholders.

Ms Leong and third wife Chan Un-chan hold equal 0.235 per cent stakes, while Pansy Ho holds direct and indirect interests in the firm. Both Ms Leong and Pansy Ho are directors of STDM.

Foremost among all is Mr Ho, who serves as managing director of STDM and a unifying presence among an otherwise somewhat disjointed roster of shareholders.

His 32.2 per cent stake in STDM is the largest, and he is the last surviving founder of the firm.

For now, nobody else would dare to claim to be No 1.

Turistas em queda

Beijing travel curbs, swine flu blamed for Macau visitor slump

Fox Yi Hu

South China Morning Post
June 26, 2009

The number of mainlanders visiting Macau independently last month fell by half from a year ago, a drop officials attribute to Beijing's travel policies and the swine flu scare.

A total of 791,394 mainland residents visited the city in May, down 26.8 per cent from a year ago, the Statistics and Census Bureau says. Those arriving through the Individual Visit Scheme, which allows travel independent from tour groups, dropped by 50.9 per cent to 316,111.

The bureau said swine flu had affected the total number of visitors last month, which fell 20.4 per cent to 1.59 million, a 17-month low.

Andy Wu Keng-kuong, president of the Travel Industry Council of Macau, said the flu scare was the main reason behind the drop in visitors. He said the number this month would probably remain as low as for May.

But economist and gaming analyst Zeng Zhonglu of Macau Polytechnic Institute said the flu scare was only a minor factor compared with Beijing's travel curbs on mainlanders visiting the city. He added that the shortening of the seven-day May holiday to three days also affected appetite for travel.

"Last May, travel restrictions on individual visitors had not been tightened," Professor Zeng said.

Beijing began to tighten restrictions on mainlanders visiting Macau last June in an apparent effort to stop civil servants gambling away public money.

From June 1 last year, Guangdong residents were restricted to visiting Macau once a month instead of once a fortnight. The travel limit was further tightened to once every two months in July and three months in October.

Since September 1, travellers to Hong Kong have had to get a separate permit to visit Macau.

Guangdong is a major market for Macau's gaming industry, accounting for 70 to 80 per cent of all Individual Visit Scheme travellers.

Beijing never formally announced the travel curbs and the press could only gauge their intensity through information travel agents and travellers provided. The strictness with which the curbs were enforced also seemed to vary from city to city.

This year, the curbs have shown signs of letting up for ordinary Guangdong residents but many civil servants are finding it more difficult to visit.

A government employee in Guangzhou, who declined to be named, said his Macau visits had been limited to once a year and any visit must be approved by his department head. A newly retired civil servant in Shenzhen said that despite his retirement, he was not allowed to visit Macau even once a year.

But some residents in Guangzhou and Zhuhai, who did not work in the government, said they had been given visas about a month apart.

Despite the low number of May visitors, Macau's casino revenue last month seemed to have held up well at 8.8 billion patacas, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa.

The monthly income figure represents a 10 per cent decline from a year ago. Professor Zeng said the sharp decline in tourist arrivals and the slight contraction in gaming revenue showed that mainland visitors were spending more money on gambling per trip.

"Given the difficulty of coming to Macau, visitors tend to gamble away more money to satisfy their desire for gambling," he said.

Professor Zeng said Macau's VIP gaming market was recovering from the blows of the travel curbs and a credit crunch for junket operators - middlemen who bring in high-rollers and often extend credit to them.

The recovery was partially due to adaptation by high-rollers and junket operators to the travel curbs, he said. "People have gradually adapted and found ways around the restrictions."

Professor Zeng added that the mainland's huge stimulus plan, which pumped liquidity into the market, may have made it easier for gamblers to borrow.

Casinos e justiça privada

Legal issues cited as problem in high-end gambling segment

Neil Gough

South China Morning Post
May 4, 2009

Inadequate regulation in Macau and loopholes in mainland law are partly to blame for criminal behaviour stemming from Macau's junket-dominated VIP gambling segment, according to a report.

A total of 151 firms and individuals were officially registered as junket operators in Macau as of the end of last year. But a report on Macau's VIP junkets commissioned by the Hong Kong Jockey Club and obtained by the South China Morning Post cited previously undisclosed official estimates that 10,000 individuals may be involved in the junket business.

"At some point you have to ask if the junket-licensing system is really doing what it was intended to do, or if it is really just window dressing," one industry insider said.

The report said gaps in the mainland's legal system allowed money to be moved and gambling debts to be collected via ties between junket operators and triads.

The US consulting firm Spectrum Gaming Group's report, which was completed in April last year, said: "Because the court system in China cannot be used to resolve gaming-debt issues, as is the case in almost all other jurisdictions, the collection of gaming debt is left to the junket operator to resolve.

Junket operators are the middlemen who bring high rollers to casinos, issue them credit to gamble and collect debts.

The report estimates 4,000 junket "collaborators" are registered with the government.

But registration falls far short of licensing, and the report said the term collaborator was "less than clear" as it may apply to a wide range of interests or individuals, including "junket operators, sub junkets, loan sharks and tip hustlers".

Casino revenue in Macau grew 31 per cent to 108.77 billion patacas last year, overtaking the Las Vegas Strip and Atlantic City combined. But despite the opening of glitzy and more tourist-oriented casinos in Macau, the junket-dominated VIP gambling segment accounted for 67.8 per cent of total revenue last year.

"The Hong Kong VIP market is the second-most-important market in Macau and has been increasing, but not nearly as rapidly as the [mainland] Chinese market," the Spectrum report said. It estimated Macau's revenue from Hongkongers at HK$13.5 billion, or 25 per cent of total VIP revenue in 2007. That calculation was based on the fact that 25 per cent of arrivals in Macau came from Hong Kong during the year.

But "Hong Kong probably accounts for a higher proportion of Macau's VIP revenue because people have higher ratios of disposable income than on the mainland, and because gaming debt is legally enforceable in Hong Kong," the insider said.

Jogadores de Hong Kong "sangram" em Macau

HK gamblers losing billions in Macau's VIP rooms

Neil Gough
South China Morning Post
May 4, 2009

A confidential report commissioned by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to assess the impact of VIP gambling junkets to Macau has estimated that between 4,000 and 8,000 Hongkongers make 10 to 25 such trips to the city each year.

The report, by US consulting firm Spectrum Gaming Group, estimates that Hong Kong people lost about HK$13.5 billion in Macau's private VIP gambling rooms in 2007.

Macau's VIP junketing boom in recent years has meant negative fallout for Hong Kong in areas such as gambling addiction, loanshark activities and the growth of organised crime locally and, more significant, on the mainland.

"At the minimum there is a relationship between the junkets and triads related to moving money and the collection of gaming debts," the report says.

"The lack of an effective legal process for recovering gaming debt in China has led to an extrajudicial system where debt is collected via intimidation, threats, disruption of business, kidnapping of family members and other strong-arm tactics," it says.

A copy of the 52-page report - commissioned by the Jockey Club to highlight the growing threat of competition from Macau and completed by Spectrum in April last year - was recently acquired by the South China Morning Post.

"We did commission a confidential report last year on casino junkets to assess their impact on the Hong Kong community," said a spokesman for the Jockey Club, who declined to confirm whether the document in question was the Spectrum report.

"We do commission and conduct various gaming-related researches from time to time, and share key findings with the relevant government authorities."

A Bangkok-based director at Spectrum's Asia unit said: "We never comment on specific assignments."

The Jockey Club, which monopolises local betting on horse racing, soccer and the Mark Six lottery, has in recent years expressed growing unease at the explosion of casino gaming in Macau.

The Spectrum report refers to this: "The trend of casinos and horse racing competing against each other has not boded well for the horse-racing industry over the years in the United States, Canada and Australia."

In many US states, horse racecourses have been transformed into "racinos" via the introduction of slot machines or similar electronic gambling machines in an effort to compete with the growth of nearby casino-style gaming.

The Jockey Club is unlikely to offer slot machines. Instead, the Spectrum report is believed to have been circulated among members of government and the Home Affairs Bureau's Betting and Lotteries Commission in advance of last week's public consultation on adding five more race meetings to Hong Kong's annual horse-racing calendar.

The Spectrum report cites data from a Home Affairs Bureau survey estimating that about 80 per cent of Hong Kong people engaged in some form of gambling.

In its description of junket operators in Macau, the report refers to a number of publicly listed Hong Kong companies, including Dore Holdings, A-Max Holdings, Neptune Group and Golden Resorts.

However, the report goes on to say that its descriptions of illegal practices during junkets are "not otherwise intended to suggest, infer or imply that all junket operators or their employees or agents engage or participate in such activities".

O reverso da medalha

Busted Flush

Joyce Siu
South China Morning Post
April 6, 2009

Rebecca Kuok Sok-i couldn't have timed her documentary any better. Her crew started shooting Gold Rush, a film about the impact of the casino business in Macau, in June - about the time Beijing introduced travel restrictions that choked the flood of mainland high rollers to a trickle. Filming ended in January, as the financial crisis that began in the US spread across the globe.

By interviewing croupiers, gambling addicts, residents and social workers, Gold Rush captures Macau's widely envied gaming boom turning to gloom.

The 60-minute documentary is a first for Kuok, a frontline social worker specialising in youth problems, and was screened on Saturday at the Macau International Film and Video Festival.

Kuok, 31, decided to take on the project after observing a surge in problems such as gambling addiction, drug abuse and domestic abuse as Macau's gaming industry went into overdrive after the casino monopoly was dismantled in 2002.

"I wanted audiences to realise the side effects of gaming and rapid development in Macau when its infrastructure and people are not yet ready," Kuok says. "I hope it can broaden Macau residents' minds when they see how our young people react to the city's changes."

Social problems that are surfacing, including family violence arising from quarrels over gambling debts, reveal the cost of Macau's five-year gold rush, she says.

There's no denying that the slew of new, internationally run luxury casino and entertainment resorts such as the Venetian have raised corporate benchmarks in Macau. However, a small but swelling chorus, including Kuok, argue that the severe slowdown is a warning to the government and people of Macau to rethink their reliance on one sector. Legislators such as Au Kam-san have called for a diversification of the economy, putting greater emphasis on cultural attractions and family-oriented entertainment to draw visitors who aren't just interested in gambling.

The gaming industry now accounts for about 40 per cent of Macau's gross domestic product. Gaming taxes made up more than 60 per cent of government revenue during the past four years, contributing 29.3 billion patacas in 2007 and 39 billion patacas last year.

During the boom, tens of thousands of young people queued to work in newly opened casinos, from international operators such as Sands to locally operated Galaxy, lured by attractive wages. Card dealers started with pay of between 12,000 patacas and 16,000 patacas a month - almost double the salary of a clerk and similar to that of a secondary school teacher.

The result was students dropping out of school to work in casinos, even if in mind-numbing jobs. Sometimes they dropped out at their parents' request, says Gloria Lin Lai-kuan, a school teacher.

Teachers often despaired at the short-sightedness, materialism, distorted values and lack of respect for education that the gaming bubble has brought to the surface. And it wasn't just among youngsters who were faring poorly in school, but throughout Macau society. Lin, 25, says one former pupil left university after six months to become a card dealer. Some of her classmates also pursued casino jobs, instead of teaching, after graduation.

"Fewer people were willing to take up teaching; a teacher was no longer regarded as a profession that deserved respect," she says.

But the deepening economic gloom has given Lin a good opportunity to bring home the lessons of piling willy-nilly into the gaming business. When she highlighted the consequences of skipping school two years ago, students shrugged off her advice. "All they cared about was which casino offered the highest salary," she recalls.

Now there is no shortage of real-life examples: many students have relatives working in casinos who were laid off, or had their pay cut and forced to take leave without pay.

"It's easier for me to get them thinking, whether working as a card dealer is as rosy as they think," Lin says. "Casinos tend to hire young people but it's also those in their 20s who get the boot when the economy gets worse. The career of a card dealer can be really short."

A number of young people who jumped into the gaming business with just a basic education are starting to feel trapped. Chan, a 23-year-old card dealer, is among them. He got the job two years ago, but quickly wound up with gambling debts of more than 100,000 patacas.

"After seeing people gamble all day, it's natural for us to be hooked on gambling as well," he says. "Also, we don't have anything to do after finishing our shift at night."

Chan has since settled his debts but was hit by a big salary cut; without other skills, however, he is just praying that he will keep his dealer's job.

Another dealer, Ah Chuen, also regrets leaving school early. "The job is monotonous. I wanted to quit after a few months, but couldn't resist the salary," he says. A dealer for more than two years, he considered taking evening courses to improve his options, but constantly changing shifts made it difficult.

The preoccupation with gaming has also hurt other businesses. A number of small and medium-sized firms had to close because they were unable to hire people and could not afford surging rents, says Agnes Lam Iok-fong, a founding member of lobby group Civic Power.

This affects the stability of Macau's economy because smaller businesses are built on domestic consumption, unlike casinos which largely rely on foreign investors and tourists, says Lam. Without these companies, Macau has less of a buffer against external factors.

Advertising director Catarina Lio Weng-kei says her agency was badly affected during the past two years, when young designers were lured away to work for casino operators. Often, junior designers with just six months' experience wound up in middle-management jobs in the resorts, she says.

Although some companies offered competitive pay to retain trained personnel, young people preferred to join casino operators which they saw as cool and trendy, Lio says. Agencies such as hers have to recruit talent from Europe and Hong Kong to fill the vacancies.

The flood of talent into the gaming sector has reversed as casino operators abandoned new projects and redundancies widened in the slump. But Lio says many young people have yet to adjust to life in the "real commercial world" where they're required to multitask.

Larry So Man-yum, an associate professor of social work at the Macau Polytechnic Institute, says it's too early to determine if young people will return to school or university.

So far, young workers have collaborated with unions to call for restrictions on hiring foreign staff at all levels. "They want locals instead of overseas people to sit in managerial positions too," So says. "Young people still think working in casinos is their only way of survival."

But to sustain long-term growth, Macau must stop relying on a single sector, So says, citing the city's mixed east-west heritage and cheaper tickets for film and arts festivals as potential avenues that haven't been fully explored. Its competitive prices and proximity to Zhuhai also puts Macau in a good position to develop conference business, he says, although the city must raise its English standards to compete with Hong Kong.

As Lam sees it, the city should take advantage of lower rents and wages during the recession to nurture cultural and creative ventures. It does Macau no good to be associated so closely with the casino industry, she says. "We need to create a diverse and vibrant image to attract different types of tourists."

For long-term development, So says Macau must invest in building its talent pool. "This all comes down to education," So says.

"Right now young people are still too closed-minded and lack an international scope. Their vision is focused too much on Macau and the casino business."

Grand Lisboa

O hotel Grand Lisboa visto do Largo de São Domingos. É, pretensamente, o 112.º edifício mais alto do mundo, com 52 pisos e 258 metros de altura.

Apontamentos

Nuno Lima Bastos

Jornal Tribuna de Macau

5 de Fevereiro de 2009

1. Na minha anterior crónica, tive oportunidade de manifestar alguma estranheza pela generalização das reduções de horários de trabalho e, correspondentemente, de vencimentos que tem vindo a assolar a indústria do jogo de Macau nas últimas semanas. Recorrendo aos valores provisórios das receitas do sector em 2008, interroguei-me se não haveria alguma precipitação (melhor dizendo, aproveitamento) na forma como os efeitos da crise estavam a ser transferidos para o elo mais fraco da cadeia produtiva.
Como também disse e repito, sou um leigo nestas matérias. Certo é que a Wynn Macau acaba de anunciar que não vai proceder nem a despedimentos nem a cortes salariais entre a sua força laboral do território, apesar de o estar a fazer nos seus casinos de Las Vegas, onde pretende poupar até cem milhões de dólares em custos operacionais para não ter que dispensar ninguém. Steve Wynn parece, pois, ter decidido não repercutir nos seus subordinados locais os problemas originados nos investimentos que mantém em outras latitudes – ao contrário do que sugerem as decisões dos seus concorrentes...
Entretanto, o complexo City of Dreams, da Melco Crown, vai lançar uma campanha de recrutamento de sete mil trabalhadores no próximo fim-de-semana. Ora, se me não falha a memória, o Hotel Crown foi, nem mais nem menos, o pioneiro dos recentes emagrecimentos de jornas entre nós. Estou, por isso, bastante curioso para ver se a Crown tenciona dar preferência aos seus colaboradores que queiram mudar-se para o novo empreendimento à procura de recuperar um posto em full time.
O mesmo se diga da mão-de-obra dos outros operadores de jogo que foi afectada pelas reduções salariais: vai ou não aproveitar a oportunidade e comparecer na acção de recrutamento (tanto mais que, pela sua experiência profissional, deve ser o alvo natural desta iniciativa)? E se o fizer? Se algum casino perder largas centenas de funcionários, irá repor os vencimentos dos demais que se lhe mantiverem fiéis? Em bom rigor, deveria fazê-lo. Caso contrário, haverá motivos para se começar a questionar a boa fé de alguns dos argumentos que o sector tem vindo a aduzir junto da Direcção dos Serviços de Assuntos Laborais...

2. Acaba de ser divulgado que a balança comercial de Macau encerrou 2008 com um saldo negativo de 27 mil milhões de patacas, tendo as exportações caído para 16 mil milhões de patacas, menos 21,6% do que no ano anterior e o valor mais baixo desde 1996.
Estes números fazem-me recordar as recentes palavras de Xi Jinping, Vice-Presidente da China, quando defendeu entre nós a necessidade de diversificação da economia local, propondo o reforço da cooperação inter-regional como uma das soluções possíveis para Macau atingir esse desiderato. Concretizando, parece que a nova panaceia é a Ilha da Montanha. Tanto que até a Universidade de Macau já fala em expandir o seu campus para lá...
Ora, ainda me lembro dos tempos em que o ex-Secretário Vítor Pessoa “ligava o gravador” e repetia até à exaustão a “cassete” da plataforma giratória, debalde. Assim como me recordo de Stanley Ho revelar, em entrevista à CNN, que cada novo governador que aqui aportava o chamava e lhe pedia que diversificasse os seus investimentos no território, de modo a diminuir a dependência do jogo – contrapondo, de seguida, que Macau era demasiado pequeno para viabilizar investimentos de relevo em outras actividades produtivas.
Não sei se o emblemático tycoon tinha razão, mas a verdade é que veio o retorno à pátria, vieram com este a abertura do jogo, a fartura dos vistos individuais, a especulação imobiliária importada (em boa parte) do continente, a zona industrial transfronteiriça Macau-Zuhai, a cooperação com os países de língua portuguesa e os excedentes orçamentais recorde, está a chegar o décimo aniversário da RAEM e continua tudo na mesma...
Será desta?

À margem das festividades

Nuno Lima Bastos
Jornal Tribuna de Macau
30 de Janeiro de 2009

Contrastando profundamente com o ambiente festivo que se vivia no território, as notícias que me iam entrando em casa sempre que ligava o televisor nos primeiros dias deste Ano Lunar do Búfalo mostravam um planeta em aparente caos, entre guerras, intolerância política, racial e religiosa, criminalidade violenta, corrupção, falências, desemprego, fome, doenças e tantas outras maleitas – umas que parecem recuar até onde a nossa memória alcança e ainda e sempre sem fim à vista; outras bem mais recentes, mas não menos chocantes.
Neste contexto, Macau assemelha-se a um pequeno oásis de segurança e estabilidade, se bem que não para todos. Aliás, o boom económico dos últimos anos trouxe, como se sabe, o efeito reverso de agravar as dificuldades de muitos residentes, acentuando as desigualdades sociais entre nós – uma circunstância tão estranha como censurável numa região que registou, nos primeiros onze meses de 2008, um saldo positivo nas suas contas públicas de mais de 86 milhões de patacas diárias!
Entretanto, a crise financeira internacional também nos começou a bater à porta e agora os gestores públicos e privados parecem ter encontrado o argumento ideal para recuarem na partilha da riqueza aqui gerada com quem deveria ser o seu principal beneficiário: a população activa do território.
Já nem falo nos despedimentos em massa na construção civil, pois compreendo que, se obras de grande monta param, não há como manter os milhares de trabalhadores que nelas laboravam. Dizem os manuais de economia que uma das reacções mais adequadas é fortes investimentos em obras públicas e é isso mesmo que está anunciado.
O que me faz uma certa confusão é que uma indústria como o jogo, que cresceu 31% no último exercício anual, careça tanto de cortar de forma imediata e generalizada nas remunerações dos seus colaboradores para se manter competitiva ou simplesmente à tona de água, como alegam os seus responsáveis. É certo que fontes reputadas como o Deutsche Bank, o Morgan Stanley ou o Credit Suisse têm avançado previsões de queda das receitas do sector entre os 4% e os 14% em 2009, mas estamos a falar de uma autêntica máquina de fazer dinheiro, que encaixou quase 110 mil milhões de patacas no ano transacto. Ora, se nem assim há margem suficiente para resistir aos primeiros avisos de abrandamento deste comboio de alta velocidade, então alguma coisa vai muito mal neste reino do vício! Excessiva exposição ao risco, com a construção simultânea de vários projectos de larga escala em Macau, Singapura e Estados Unidos, dirão alguns accionistas que querem processar a administração das Las Vegas Sands. Seja! E a concorrência, que justificações concretas tem para apresentar?
A um leigo na matéria como eu, inebriado por tantos dígitos à esquerda das casas decimais, fica a sensação de que, mais do que uma imposição imediata e inevitável da crise que vem de fora, o que há, neste momento, é o aproveitamento de um pretexto que estava à mão de semear, penalizando, como sempre, o elo mais fraco da cadeia produtiva. Os números dos lucros do jogo nos próximos meses encarregar-se-ão de me desmentir ou não.
Neste cenário, a política laboral do Governo também não é isenta de críticas, quando devia ser um farol para todos os agentes económicos: confrontado com sucessivos recordes de receitas públicas e sem imaginação para aplicar os excedentes orçamentais acumulados ano após ano, o Executivo preferiu generalizar o trabalho precário na administração pública, recorrer aos contratos individuais de trabalho para atalhar benefícios sociais, aumentar os ordenados abaixo do nível da inflação e não actualizar devidamente os diversos subsídios, além de não modernizar o regime de carreiras. Até a única medida positiva relevante avançada neste domínio – o alargamento do regime de previdência – ficou seriamente inquinada por uma lógica de funcionamento irrealista, que pretendeu transformar à pressa o mais humilde dos serventes em gestor de fundos de investimento da finança internacional.
Fruto de tudo isto, vivem-se hoje situações perfeitamente escusadas de iniquidade na administração pública, onde, por exemplo, muitos trabalhadores auferem apenas onze ou quinze dias de férias anuais remuneradas, quando o «Estatuto dos Trabalhadores da Administração Pública de Macau» fixa esse número em 22 dias, assim como só começam a beneficiar de assistência médica e medicamentosa gratuita ao fim de seis meses ou de um ano de trabalho, e exclusivamente para os próprios, quando o mesmo diploma determina a sua concessão ab initio ao trabalhador e respectivos membros do agregado familiar.
Agora, com a crise, os nossos governantes dizem que têm que poupar dentro de casa, não aumentando os vencimentos em 2009. Isto, depois de uma inflação recorde de 8,61% no ano passado – superior, portanto, aos 7,27% da última actualização salarial – e de mais um fantástico superávite orçamental, que ia quase já nos 29 mil milhões de patacas no final de Novembro. Na pública, como na privada, o elo mais fraco da cadeia produtiva é quem paga as favas. Mesmo quando ainda não há favas...

O novo guia do povo chinês

Painel do casino Venetian Macau: ainda se vêem uns livrinhos vermelhos do Grande Timoneiro, mas as "verdinhas" estão bem lá em cima. Como aqui escrevi há uns meses, «esta China, mais do que vermelha, é verde – verde-dólar, a cor que move o mundo».

A abertura do Wynn Macau

A construção do Venetian Macau

Depois de um vídeo sobre Macau há duas décadas, nada mais contrastante do que este:

Estranhos despedimentos

Nuno Lima Bastos
Jornal Tribuna de Macau

3 de Julho de 2008

O despedimento, no início da semana, de 270 trabalhadores da Galaxy Resorts (550, segundo Ng Sek Io, presidente da Liberty Joint Association of Gaming and Construction Workers) dá que pensar, particularmente por acontecer num momento em que a indústria do jogo de Macau continua a bater recordes. Afinal, ontem mesmo, a comunicação social avançava que as receitas dos 29 casinos actualmente em operação no território tinham ultrapassado em 18% as dos seus cerca de 260 concorrentes do estado norte-americano do Nevada no primeiro quadrimestre de 2008. Os casinos locais arrecadaram 58 500 milhões de patacas entre Janeiro e Junho deste ano, um aumento de 54,1% em relação às receitas do período homólogo de 2007. Ora, se até num cenário destes há despedimentos colectivos, o que será quando o crescimento das receitas abrandar ou estas estabilizarem?
A Galaxy contra-argumenta com maus resultados em diversos dos seus espaços – em especial, nos casinos Grand Waldo e President (era Presidente antes do handover, mas deve ter-lhes soado mais cosmopolita deixar cair o “e”...) –, que terão sofrido uma quebra de receitas na ordem dos 55% no primeiro trimestre do ano, aparentemente não compensada pelo aumento de 28% nas receitas do Starworld. Em todo o caso, estamos ainda a falar de lucros do grupo, embora, pelos vistos, não suficientemente elevados para demover os seus responsáveis de procederem a algumas “reestruturações”. Mas será mesmo assim?
Algum tempo depois de o Sands começar a funcionar, foram também dispensadas algumas dezenas de trabalhadores, alegadamente por “inaptidão funcional”. Na altura, fontes que reputo de bem informadas insinuaram que aquele operador contratara deliberadamente colaboradores em demasia, com a intenção de os seleccionar mais tarde em função do seu desempenho concreto e depois despedir os menos capazes, estratégia que os restantes novos operadores iriam, com grande probabilidade, adoptar. Até hoje, ninguém fez prova disso, mas a decisão da Galaxy avivou-me a memória... A ser verdade, é obviamente grave; quanto mais não fosse, porque muitos destes trabalhadores abandonaram outros empregos e carreiras para se juntarem aos novos patrões.
Depois, há a velha questão da hipotética preferência pela mão-de-obra importada. Não sendo fundamentalista na matéria, considero ponto assente que o crescimento económico deve beneficiar, em primeiro lugar, os residentes de Macau, não só porque se trata da terra onde nasceram ou criaram raízes, nela fazendo a sua vida permanente, mas também porque são eles que, por isso mesmo, sofrem irreversivelmente as maleitas desse crescimento desenfreado e desregrado à sua volta. Diferentemente, o não residente, por definição, vem a Macau apenas para trabalhar em projectos concretos e depois regressa a casa ou parte para outros destinos. Não deve ser indevidamente discriminado por isso – de modo algum! –, mas também não pode servir como arma de arremesso para baixar o custo razoável da mão-de-obra local.
Ora, ainda me lembro do que começou a suceder em algumas fábricas de vestuário da zona norte nos últimos anos da administração portuguesa, quando a crise asiática nos bateu à porta: despediam trabalhadores residentes que auferiam 5000 patacas mensais, para os substituírem por mainlanders que se contentavam com um terço desse vencimento, além de serem mais submissos (até por força da sua não rara condição de ilegais).
Nos dias que correm, a opinião pública de Macau está mais politizada e as diversas associações mais activas e atentas, pelo que é arriscado tentar trocar trabalhadores locais por não residentes de forma tão ostensiva. Então, o que pode fazer uma grande empresa? Suponhamos que tem 1500 postos de trabalho para preencher: comunica às autoridades competentes que precisa de, por exemplo, 1800 trabalhadores e só consegue recrutar metade no território, pelo que vai ter que “importar” os outros novecentos. São-lhe atribuídas as necessárias quotas e contrata, então, metade cá e metade fora. Mais tarde, invoca que, afinal, tem gente em excesso ou com fraco desempenho e despede, claro, trezentos empregados locais (ou, vá lá, 270 locais e trinta forasteiros, para compor um pouco as coisas junto dos críticos). Fica, assim, com os 1500 colaboradores de que, na realidade, carecia, mas só seiscentos deles são de Macau, ainda que houvesse novecentas pessoas disponíveis no mercado local para aqueles lugares. E poupa imenso dinheiro em salários, claro está.
Parece-lhe complicado? Olhe que não, olhe que não...

Vem aí a concorrência!

Neste estaleiro de obras em Singapura, está a ser construído o Marina Sands, o novo complexo turístico com casino de Sheldon Adelson, o dono do Sands Macau e do Venetian Macau. Na foto do lado, pode ver-se como vai ficar o projecto, com inauguração prevista para o próximo ano (o que, olhando para o estado actual das obras, me parece um calendário demasiado optimista...).