Las Vegas Weekly

October 3, 2008 · 6:08 PM

Chinese government tightens more Visa restrictions to slow Vegas interests in Macau money market

By Robin Leach

For the third time in just five months the Chinese government has tightened visa restrictions in an attempt to slow down the vast sums of money being gambled with the Vegas owned casinos there. When Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson and MGM Mirage opened their casinos on the island off the coast of Hong Kong the Chinese allowed Guangdong residents unlimited visits to play table games.

Fortunes poured in overnight for the Vegas operators. Now the noose keeps on tightening as some concerned business executives and investment bankers had first worried. Chinese government officials cut visits to just one a month, then one every two months and now the latest is one every three months. Fear is that it might eventually get trimmed to just one visit every six months as has been openly discussed.

The cutbacks of visitors have sent the Macau economy into a tailspin and American stock prices spiraling downwards. One Wall Street banker told me: “The additional restrictions put significantly more strain on an already reeling Macau gaming market and will create significant problems for operators. We are urging investors to stay on the sidelines until the pace is allowed to pickup again.”

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