If entertainment in the world of gambling resorts be the sound of love and money–think Elvis–then Jackie Cheung is the crooner who’s called the punters back to Macau.
Unless you’re from China you may not have heard of him but in Asia the 64-year-old Hong Kong singer and actor is the biggest thing since, well, glass noodles.
Following a dire Q1, marked by falling GGR and a string of draconian anti-gaming legislation imposed by the mainland powers-that-be, Macau, the world’s biggest gambling hub, is returning to its best.
God of Songs
And much of the credit is being laid at the feet of Cheung, widely-regarded as the “Heavenly King of Cantopop”–as in Canton, the former name of industrial powerhouse Guangzhou–and often dubbed, more prosaically, as the “God of Songs”.
Thanks to Cheung’s mini-residency at Macau’s Galaxy Arena in June, gambling GGR in the former Portuguese enclave rose a spectacular 19 percent to Macau Patacas 21.06 billion, the equivalent of £1.95 billion (US$2.6bn), which followed a more modest rise of five percent, year-on-year, for the previous month, May.
Cheung–who looks like an older, younger Justin Bieber, without the ink, if you get my drift–is the catalyst of the Macau revival that’s set to run in August and well beyond, say analysts.
GGR for August is expected to rise by some 15 percent, y-o-y, observers concur.
May’s GGR of Patacas 21.19 billion (£1.97bn/US$2.62bn) was almost 13 percent up on April – and the best month since Covid19 travel restrictions between the Special Administrative Region (SAR) and China mainland were lifted at the start of 2023.
Xi’s Mood Music
Continuing to build on the winning entertainment factor, even more events and concerts are planned for Macau this month.
Unlike its great rival and inspiration, Las Vegas, which has seen a significant decline in visitor numbers and spend, “visitation growth remains robust and spend-per-visitor is improving”.
According to a report in today’s English-language Macao News, the SAR could welcome more visitors this year than ever before – beating even the pre-Pandemic peak of 39.4 million tourists recorded in 2019.
This upswing in visitor numbers has undoubtedly boosted gaming revenues but tellingly–and in line with the current Central Government’s determination to move Macau away from its gambling axis–average non-gambling consumption now outpaces gaming-related spending.
Jacky Cheung or no Jacky Cheung, it is China’s all-powerful Xi Jinping who sets the mood music in his latter-day domain.
