Macau: Casino revenue on the rise, Stanley Ho seeks durian fruit prize

It’s all happening in Macau by the sounds of things.

The woes of the GFC and tighter visa restrictions for mainland Chinese seem to be fading into a distant memory.  So much so that gaming analysts at Deutsche Bank and CLSA are forecasting July 2010 revenues to be 72% up on the same month last year!

Where on earth did all that money come from all of a sudden?

According to a Business Week article it’s come from China’s renewed credit boom which has turned the high roller tap on once again for Macau’s junket operators.

Whatever the reason, it’s happy days for casino businesses in the world’s gambling capital.  And none could be happier than the man with more operating concessions than anyone and whose name is synonymous with Macau…Stanley Ho.  And he’s celebrating the good times with fruit.  Not just any fruit.  The king of tropical fruit.  The stinky prince.   The Musang King Durian.

You don’t find Durian fruit in most parts of the world, including Macau, so Ho sent his minions on a quest in the private jet that lead them to Singapore where they successfully procured 88 (the number 88 is no coincidence) of the succulent but apparently very smelly fruits.

They cost $1,505 (plus associated jet fuel, pilot and other staff wages, airport fees etc) and were distributed to Stanley’s nearest and dearest including billionaire Li Ka-shing – who by the way has a pretty cool name for a billionaire (Ka-Ching!)