In Macau, it's a matter of how poker will make money

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Macau

Yi Lin's mind so focused she seems unperturbed by passersby or anyone playing at adjacent tables.

She is seated quietly, her drink on her left.

Each time the dice roll her way, she quietly picks up her chips. But quite often she has to drag her own up to the center of the table, her expression unchangeable -- win or lose.

Occasionally she turns to talk to her companion and only now and then, Yi's eyes take in the span of the Grand Waldo Casino -- a spacious gaming facility regarded today by locals and international visitors as one of the world's latest first-class gambling destinations.

But most tables -- and there are some 50 -- are empty, attended only by idle, vaguely expectant croupiers.

Only a few put their money toward baccarat, the most popular game in Macau. Almost all of 350 slot machines, which generate only up to 2 percent of the club's daily revenue, are vacated.

"We have a busy time normally during October and during Chinese New Year," General Manager Gary Woollard told The Jakarta Post.

With its casinos becoming attraction for tourist, Macau is hailed as the "Vegas of the East". The Chinese special administration area even overtook Las Vegas' total gaming revenue, according to Woollard.

Macau's gambling and tourism industries makes up almost 40 percent of its GDP. These two industries provide more than 100,000 jobs and account for more than one-third of Macau's total employed population.

But for Grand Waldo Casino, the gambling market has widened, competition has increased, and more casinos are popping-up every day -- it already boasts 27 houses.

"Generally, in the past," says Wollard, "casinos did well, but with more casinos everyday, it is hard for us to generate the money we used to."

Confidentiality prevents Wollard from discussing the revenues from his cash tables or machines.

But his next pundits today are not playing the Taia dice game Lin and her companion enjoy. Nor are they betting on roulette, Sic Bo or baccarat, the last contributing the most to the casino's revenue.

Woollard can turn to poker, which is not a cash game in Macau's casinos, after the Grand Waldo Casino hosted the inaugural PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour last weekend.

The 350 participants came from 35 countries across the globe, showcasing prizes worth some $HK 6 million.

Contenders included Canada's runner-up of this year's World Series of Poker Tuan Lam, 2005 WSOP champion Joe Hachem of Australia, 1998 champion Scotty Nguyen of United States, and two women's poker stars Vanessa Rousso from the U.S. and Isabelle Mercier of Canada.

The best bets from Asia are represented by Bertrand Grospellier, a French national living for the past six years in South Korea, and Masa Kagawa of Japan.

However, the eventual champion is Dinh Le, a Vietnamese who has lived in Britain for the past ten years. He beat Zong Wei "Ivan" Tan of Singapore in the final.

The four-day tournament, which ended on Nov. 25, was part of the four-series poker tour across cities including Manila, Seoul and Sydney, which is set to stage the grand final in the next two weeks.

"Our objective is to help stimulate (the) growth of poker culture in Asia," APPT President Jeffrey Haas said.

Successful players stand to earn huge money.

Jerry Yang made some US$8.25 million from winning this year's World Series of Poker (WSOP). His rival, Tuan Lam, whom he beat, pocketed $4.8 million.

Lam, who has resided in Canada since 1987, began his poker career with a job of dealing cards at a social club before turning pro in 2003.

Joe Hachem, a Lebanese-Australian, said he did not climb the poker ladder from the casino ground up, however.

"I never did gamble," he says. "I don't gamble in casinos -- but hopefully more people in Asia will play poker, for fun, and in competitions."

In Macau, a good poker player might come from cash games in casinos in the future when the games is legalized to become a cash game.

However, that possibility, for Wollard, weighs on how poker generates money for casino.

"Poker is a social game. Players play among themselves. The host only provides table and staff. With that in mind, poker probably would not give as much money as ... say baccarat," he said.

News Added: 02 December, 2007

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