Adelson wants more casinos in Asia

Earlier this week, Macau, the only place in China where gambling is legal, saw another large casino open its doors. The casino called the Parisian – Macau, is the fifth on the list of properties that Las Vegas based casino Mogul Sheldon Adelson has opened in the region. The grand opening of the Parisian also comes in just a little over a year since Adelson’s first venture in Macau under his Chinese wing of casinos- Sands China.

Macau has had its ups and downs. In fact, since the time Adelson built his first casino to present day, the industry there has grown to a peak $45 billion and then shrunk to a $30 billion market whichis where it is now. Macau, in spite of all those ups and downs, still rakes in well over three times as much as the entire state of Nevada does in a year. That includes Las Vegas. While the fall of Macau has been sudden and steep, it still rakes in over $2 billion every month. That is only a little less than a third of the amount of winnings Las Vegas takes in throughout a whole year. Macau finally broke out of a slump over the last month, halting a 26 month downward spiral. Despite the uptick, Adelson still thinks that the market is quite mature at this point with not much in terms of growth potential here.

Adelson, who spoke on the occasion also was heard saying that the move to build more and in various other parts of Asia are strong and the lobbying is aggressive. A good portion of the Asian markets remain untapped in terms of large casinos. Markets like Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, and Japan are still untouched by casinos. In all, over the 26 month slump, a little over $20 billion has been injected into Macau. Experts and analysts predict that the growth will resume, but only after a slow 2017.