Galaxy Entertainment Eyes Macau Market

The company expects its newly opened flagship, the StarWorld casino hotel, to be the main revenue earner among its five casinos in Macau, which appears to have dethroned the Las Vegas Strip as the world's gambling capital.

"We held 22 percent share of Macau's gaming market by gaming revenue for January based on our own estimate," senior vice president John Au said on Friday.

He expected Galaxy Entertainment's market share to rise to 25 percent by year end.

The company's share rose rapidly from just 7 percent of the market in the first quarter of last year to 18 percent in the fourth quarter, Au said.

Galaxy is vying with the dominant gaming company, the Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, controlled by tycoon Stanley Ho. Its other rivals include U.S. gaming kingpins Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd.

Galaxy's new flagship, StarWorld, has received one third of the total number of visitors to the city -- about 20,000 people a day -- since it opened in October, the company said.

The company, controlled by Hong Kong tycoon, Lui Che-woo, operates four other casinos in the former Portuguese enclave, the only place in China where casinos are legal.

Macau's government hasn't released January gaming revenue figures, but a Morgan Stanley report said gaming revenue in the first month of the year was over HK$6 billion ($768 million) -- up 70 percent from same period a year earlier.

Macau apparently edged out the Las Vegas Strip in revenue in 2006, raking in $6.95 billion. The Las Vegas Strip's $6.69 billion was a record, but not enough to stay ahead of Macau -- the only place in China with legalized casino gambling.