Venetian Macau Feels the Financial Pinch

Five hundred workers at the Venetian Macau, the world's largest casino, have been laid off, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The casino's parent company, Las Vegas Sands Corp, let go of 100 managers as part of the move. The layoffs amount to two percent of the company's total Macau staff.

In somewhat contradictory news, the gloom facing casinos in Macau was offset by figures released by the Chinese Special Administrative Region Tuesday, which show that visitor arrivals in Macau are actually increasing.

There were 2.53 million total arrivals in the Asian casino hub in November, up three percent on the figure of 2.46 million from a year earlier, the government's Statistics and Census Service said.

Arrivals from mainland China rose 4.2 percent to 1.46 million for the same period.

Macau gaming revenues were actually up 45 percent for the first nine months of the year when compared to the same period in 2007, news agencies reported. However, overall revenues for 2008 are not expected to show an increase on 2007.

Not so cheery news for mega casinos such as the $2.4 billion Venetian Macau, which only opened its doors in August 2007.

It would appear, however, that some online gambling providers are escaping unscathed from the global crisis. Tel Aviv, the online gaming hub, home to super-brands like 888, Playtech and Mansion Poker seems to be riding through the economic downturn.

Casino Affiliate Convention organizer, Marc Lesnick, says: "Everyone I have met is telling me the same thing. They are not seeing any downturn in business even with the bad economic conditions worldwide."

Encouraging news for the online gambling market, and an indication that, in these unceratin times, online is the place to be.