A senior SJM executive explained the company’s marketing ambitions for Casino Oceanus at the official, if slightly soft, opening of the new Macau property last week.
“We want to keep them [the players] here for three to four hours,” he suggested cheerfully.
The reason for the upbeat mood is that SJM reckons that four hours is sufficiently long to relieve most day-trippers of the bulk of their gambling budget for that particular trip. Oceanus is—as the name suggests—only a short jog, power walk or waddle (depending on your age group) away from the main Macau Maritime Ferry Terminal, which daily disgorges thousands of day trippers from Hong Kong, Mainland China and beyond into the casino city. Even better, it is served by a direct walkway conveniently funnelling visitors away from the waiting free shuttle buses of rival operators wishing to snatch punters from under SJM’s nose.
One casino executive has already been quoted suggesting Oceanus is the casino for the gambler who wants to spend his money before his wife even knows he’s in Macau. Ignoring for a moment the moderately sexist tone of this comment, it’s worth remembering that day-trippers still make up the bulk of Macau’s visitors, despite the best efforts of some of the world’s finest hotel brands to push up the average length of stay in the city.
Whenever a new property opens in Macau, Las Vegas and beyond, industry leaders make ritual statements about new product being good for the whole market. Macau may not be a zero sum game, but LVS’s Sands Macao—formerly the nearest post-monopoly mass market casino to the main ferry terminal before the arrival of Oceanus, must be paying close attention.
Another gaming executive told Asian Gaming Intelligence: “If I were the Sands Macao management I’d be triple pointing [upping the player loyalty points of] my customers right now, but I don’t think they are.”
