Gambling-related crimes up

More than 200 casino-related crimes reported in the first three months of 2011 In the first quarter of 2011, Macau authorities reported a total of 217 casino-related crimes, the secretary for security, Cheong Kuoc Vá announced last month. Of those, 186 took place inside casinos. Loan sharking was the most common crime detected (35 cases), followed by pick-pocketing (29). Although he didn’t provide detailed figures, Mr Cheong admitted that casino-related crimes have increased. “Gaming revenues have been very strong over the past five months, meaning that a lot of people have come to Macau to gamble. The crime derived from surrounding the casinos certainly increased proportionally,” he said. Viva Pataca retires Stanley Ho Hung Sun’s horse Viva Pataca has retired after six years of running. On his record, the nine-year old horse has 44 starts for 13 wins, five seconds and 10 thirds and has won HK$83 million ($11 million) in prize money. Viva Pataca is Hong Kong’s greatest money earner in horse racing. David Green talks about gaming The British Business Association of Macau has invited gaming expert David Green to talk about the future of the city’s biggest industry at a luncheon at Mandarin Oriental, on July 27. He is managing partner of Newpage Consulting. Prior to founding Newpage, the Australian was a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Macau, and later director of the firm’s gaming practice. Mr Green has advised on casino regulation in a number of geographies, including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Macau and Taiwan. Macau Business is a co-host of the event. Casinos boost ad spending in Hong Kong Galaxy Macau’s opening HK$28 million advertising campaign accounted for 57 percent of hotel advertising in Hong Kong in May. It was the largest-recorded advertising campaign spending in Hong Kong for a casino hotel opening, beating the previous HK$13.12 million record established by Venetian Macao in August 2007, according to media-monitoring firm admanGo, South China Morning Post reported. That helped lift hotel advertising spending in Hong Kong to HK$49.03 million in May, up 228 percent year-on-year. Occupying the following four spots on the ranking were Macau hotel-casinos: MGM Macau (HK$11.23 million), Venetian Macao (HK$1.87 million), L’Arc (HK$1.03 million) and City of Dreams (HK$640,000). Hong Kong is the second biggest supplier of tourists to Macau, after the mainland.