ToCasino.net Online Casino

Macau gaming witnessed its worse year ever. And Beijing’s crackdown on casino biz corruption is being blamed for its only decline in 12 years. The decline in shareholder value is likely to hold in the first quarter, analysts say.

Macao is like Las Vegas back in the days of the Jewish and Italian mob. The former Portuguese colony turned Chinese sin city saw its annual casino revenues decline by 2.6% to $44 billion, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said on Friday. It was the first time in year ending data since 2002. Industry groups cited the Chinese government’s corruption crackdown as putting an end to overbuilding, believed to be spurred on by money laundering operations.

Macau said that December casino revenues fell by a record-breaking 30.5% year-on-year to $2.9 billion. It was the seventh consecutive month of decline and the biggest drop since Macau began recording monthly revenues 10 years ago.

Barclays Capital analyst Phoebe Tse said China’s high-profile corruption crackdown was a major factor pushing down casino earnings in 2014.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bid to catch mobsters in an anti-corruption drive was no match for mainlanders phenomenal adoration for high stakes gambling. The crackdown has deterred high rollers — who account for two-thirds of Macau’s casino receipts — thus taking out about $73 billion in market value of companies like Wynn Macau Ltd.

“The VIP heyday is over,” Philip Tulk, an analyst at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong told Bloomberg on Friday. “The anti-corruption crackdown doesn’t look to be a short-term phenomenon.”

New hotels will open in Macau’s newest Cotai strip later this year. That could pull some of Macau’s casinos out of the mud.

Macau Legend Development (HKG: 1680), owners of The Landmark, is down 64.58% over the last 12 months. MGM China Holdings (HKG: 2282) is down 42.37%. Galaxy Entertainment (HKG: 0027), which is building Galaxy I, Galaxy II and Galaxy III casinos on the Cotai strip, is down 39%. Both multinational casino operators, Wynn China (HKG: 1128) and Sands China (HKG: 1928) are down slightly over 40% in the same 12 month period with price to earnings multiples of around 14 times.