"I don't now if it's a short-term or long-term issue. If we were only in the slot machine business, I'd be concerned."
A hotel and casino building boom is under way in Macao. That ended a four-decade gambling monopoly six years ago, and the city soon moved past Las Vegas in terms of gambling revenue in 2006 and is predicted to take in $14.6 billion this year.

Slot machines account for just 4.6 percent of Macao's gambling revenues, compared with about 80 percent in Las Vegas.

Casinos typically keep 2.5 percent of what gamblers spend on tables, but 8 percent of the money poured into slot machines.

But mainland Chinese gamblers crossing into the former Portuguese enclave love baccarat, a card game where the winning hands are totals closest to nine. High rollers, who gamble upward of $100,000 a visit, account for 75 percent of casino income.

But, a recent move by the Crown Macao casino , owned by Melco PBL Entertainment, to drop 350 slot machines to make room for tables raises doubts over forecasts that the number of slot machines in Macau wills more than triple in three years, to 35,000.

With tour operators seeking to grab new gambling customers, casinos are setting aside tables for high-roller groups.

"There's a different mindset here; tables are where the money is," said Matthew Ballesty, head of slots operations at the Crown Macao. "But it certainly can change."

Gaming machine makers are hoping that the completion of hotels, casinos, shops and entertainment venues on the Cotai Strip - a planned "neon alley" on reclaimed land that fuses two islands - will turn Macao into a Las Vegas-style mass market destination.

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With perhaps $500 million of contracts in Macao up for consideration, the machine makers argue that casinos should use slot machines to counter a squeeze on table margins by tour operators and increased competition.
Casinos slated for countries like Singapore, Vietnam, India and Cambodia could also raise sales for slots makers.

"No doubt the market has become very competitive," said Ken Jolly, Asia Pacific general manager at the Australian machine maker Aristocrat Leisure.

Having sold nearly 2,600 machines to the Las Vegas Sands' Venetian casino in Macao, his company has a 55 percent share of the Macao slot market .


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