Jockey club annual loss over MOP100 mln

The Macau Jockey Club is expected to have recorded a loss of over MOP100 million (US$12.5 million) for the whole year of 2016, said the company’s executive director and chief executive Thomas Li Chu Kwan.
According to local broadcaster TDM English News, the executive explained that the significant loss was due to ‘the general economic environment’ where all gaming operators have seen adjustments in their business performances.
The expected loss for the year represents an increase of at least 13.6 per cent compared to the company’s loss of MOP88 million in 2015.
According to the official data of the Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau, total revenue generated from horserace-betting amounted to MOP141 million for the whole year of 2016, a decline of 15 per cent from MOP166 million in 2015.
In fact, the horserace-betting operator has failed to make an annual profit since 2005. As at the end of 2015, its accumulative losses totalled MOP3.96 billion for the past decade, according to the company’s 2015 annual report.
Having held the monopoly for the horseracing and betting business in the city since 1978, the company will see its current horserace-betting concession expire on August 31 this year, but Mr. Li said the operator is confident that it will obtain an extension of its business license from the government.
“We have been in talks with the government over how to better our operations, such as stables and track conditions. Many of these facilities need refurbishment to make the Jockey Club more competitive. This industry requires time to get better. It does have a market,” Mr. Li is quoted as saying by the broadcaster.
The company executive added that he is putting efforts in to changing the company’s image to a leisure attraction by upgrading facilities and holding international-level competitions.