Gaming taxes collected by the Macau government rose 13.4 percent in the first three quarters, as Chinese tourists flocked to the city following the opening of its first Las Vegas style casino in two-and-a-half years.
Direct gaming taxes collected from the city's six licensed operators rose to 14.19 billion patacas (US$1.77 billion) in the first three quarters, compared with 12.51 billion patacas a year earlier, according to statistics released on the Financial Services Bureau Web site.
Casino companies have been investing in the former Portuguese colony since its government opened its gaming market to foreign operators, betting Chinese gamblers will flock to the only place casino gaming is legal in the country. Wynn Resorts Ltd launched a US$1.2 billion hotel-casino on Sept. 6, and Las Vegas Sands Corp opened the city's first Las-Vegas style casino in 2004.
On Thursday, a Hong Kong company became the first Asian firm to open a US-style casino in gambling haven Macau, fast becoming the Las Vegas of the east.
Starworld Hotel, the flagship of the Galaxy group, is the second Las Vegas-style hotel-casino complex to open in the territory. The first, the Wynn Macau was opened last month just metres away from Galaxy's towering new complex.
Macau's century-old gaming market was given a boost in 2001 when the removal of a 40-year gambling monopoly from tycoon Stanley Ho (
With annual gambling receipts expected to near US$7 billion by the end of the year, the city is already believed to have overtaken the earning power of the Las Vegas Strip's casinos.
Such growth -- in excess of 25 percent last year -- has been fuelled by a sudden surge in tourist arrivals since travel restrictions were lowered in China.
The number of visitors to Macau rose 14 percent during China's National Day holiday from Oct.1 to Oct. 7, according to government statistics. Wynn Macau resort took in about US$900 million in chip sales in its first 13 days of operation, the Las Vegas Sun said in an Oct. 1 report, quoting chairman Stephen Wynn.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
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