The opening of Galaxy Entertainment's new Galaxy Macau resort may pose a number of labour challenges for the Chinese enclave's gaming industry but is unlikely to impact other casinos' revenues.
With its 450-table gaming floor, Galaxy Macau brings the total number of table games in the enclave to approximately 4,900 - 600 short of the government’s cap of 5,500 through to 2013.
Jeff Ortwein, partner at Deloitte and Touche, told InterGaming that finding adequately trained staff for the new casino may prove something of a headache for the operator.
"Currently regulations require that dealers at the casino be Mecanese, so as new properties open, issues may arise with regards to getting the appropriate gaming staff hired," he said. "As the various properties are competing for employees, meeting this requirement will inevitably increase payroll costs.
"For non-gaming employees, future challenges could be with timely issuance of work permits by Macau. This could impact not only the non-gaming operations employees at the casinos but also current and future construction employees."
The new casino, which features a host of non-gaming resort-style amenities, will not have a detrimental effect upon neighbouring properties’ gaming revenues, he explained.
"As far as impact to other casinos’ gaming revenues, there is always the question will a new casino take away customers and revenues from the other casinos but I don’t feel that this is much of a concern in this case, as the Macau market continues to grow with each month being a record month.
"Also, as commissions on junkets are capped, competing casinos cannot offer more lucrative deals to junket operators."
