Casino News: Breaking up Partnership Between Branson &Tabcorp

There is strong news in the air that the existing relation between Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group & Tabcorp group from Australia has ruined recently. Leading news agencies like Reuters, Agence France Presse and the English-language daily, South China Morning Post have collected this information from an anonymous source.

The contact between these two companies was considered to be worth $3 billion. Both of them teamed up to set up casino in Macau situated in Southren China. But an unidentified source reported to the South China Morning Post English-language daily, "We can't see that partnership going anywhere”. The source also confirmed that the breaking of partnership is still on a preliminary stage and added,” These things happen all the time".

Richard Branson of the Virgin Group visited Macau with Matthew Slater of Tabcorp group last month before making the deal with Australian gambling company on the US$3.0bn project.

The happening casino is planned to fit perfectly in Cotai Strip. Cotai Strip is planned to be a glamorous gaming district with all modern amenities which is being constructed on a 100 000 square meter land reclamation. This place is believed to be comparable with casino hotspot Las Vegas only. Australian gambling outfit Tabcorp was supposed to play the pivotal role in developing, designing and supervising the total project retaining the Virgin brand.

Casinos in Macau’s have already pulled in more money in compare to Las Vegas' famous strip. The amount was hopping - $7.0 billion approximately in the year 2006.

According to the source, Virgin Groups is keen to cash in on a loophole that permits foreign operators to run casinos in Macau even without a license. The unidentified report also added that Virgin Group is now looking for new partners.

Meanwhile, both Virgin & Tabcorp refused to make any comment on this issue.

Macau is the only place in China where casinos are legal. This city has opened its doors to international gaming firms such as Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts after the gaming monopoly by casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun expired in the year 2002.

Last four years in mainland China experienced a drastic rise in Gaming revenues .The hike was US$7 billion in the year 2006(a sensational 23% increase) to overtake the US$6.69 billion of "gaming wins" notched up by Strip in Las Vegas.

There is a proposed schedule of opening up six new casinos in Macau in the year 2007. So, it is really a happening session out there in Macau. According to media reports, one strong competitor will be Stanley Ho.