SunCity feels impact of declining gaming revenues

By
Joao Santos Filipe

Gaming promoter SunCity Group has been affected by declining Macau gaming revenues, the president of marketing strategy Choong Yoon Ming said yesterday on the sidelines of a press conference announcing the World Series Baccarat Championship organised by the company.
“In percentage terms the drop is not that much. Gaming depends on the market and sales but as far as it concerns us, we feel the impact”, Mr.
Ming said. “We have got to take a different approach. Got to be more careful about the market. And of course we’re diversifying; we’re not only in gaming but also in development and entertainment.”
Choong Yoon Ming also revealed that the group is interested in starting to operate in City of Dreams, Manila and that this operation may be concluded within this year.
Yesterday, SunCity hosted the final leg of the World Series Baccarat Championship tournament that set two new Guinness World Records for the ‘greatest prize money for a baccarat tournament’ and the ‘greatest prize money for a baccarat tournament – individual’ with prizes of HK$119 million and HK$100 million, respectively. The previous records were US$5 million (HK$39 million) and US1$ million (HK$7.6 million). The CEO of the company, Alvin Chau, and Guinness World Records Great China Adjudicator Lisa Hoffman also attended the event.
“This tournament shows that entertainment is really an important business for SunCity. We hope this will help us make SunCity a big brand internationally and we expect this tournament to continue in the future”, Choong Yoon Ming said of the event.
Concerning other non-gaming events, he said that the company is interested in continuing as one of the sponsors of the Macau Grand Prix, which takes place in November. Last year, the company was the main sponsor of the event.
“We have not decided yet if we’re going to be the main sponsor this year. But we are interested in continuing to be one of the sponsors of the Grand Prix. We want to contribute to the development of Macau,” he said.
J.F.S.