Too early to tell effect on VIP gaming revenues: Melco Crown

Saturday 5th of November 2016

Melco Crown Entertainment says it is being “extra cautious” to comply with laws on marketing in China in the wake of the arrest of 18 Crown Resorts employees.

“I think Melco Crown and our efforts in China, our marketing efforts, has always been in compliance with the rules and regulations,” Melco Crown chairman and chief executive Lawrence Ho said on a conference call last week.

“And of course with the latest incident with Crown, we have been even more mindful, and we have relooked at all of our standard operating procedures to make sure we are extra cautious and careful.”

Last month, 18 Crown Resorts employees were arrested for allegedly promoting its gambling services to VIPs in China.

The crackdown is said to have a likely effect of VIP gaming revenues in Australia and potentially other gaming markets in Asia.

“In terms of whether the Crown incident will affect our VIP customers and how they feel towards gaming and travelling, it’s too early to tell.” said Ho.

“I would sense there will be some hesitation from some of our customers, but it’s too early.”

The casino operator posted Q3 results earlier in the week, posting a 22 percent increase in revenue to $1.15 billion, above estimates for $1.1 billion.

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