Word: vip
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Melco Crown swiftly closed the gap. Its market share of 16% in the first half of 2008 was just a whisker behind Wynn with 17% and Las Vegas Sands at 21%, according to Citi Investment Research. More impressively, the Crown has become Macau's top casino for VIP high rollers. "A lot of people were surprised we turned it around so quickly against the big boys," Ho says...
...Melco Crown ripped out slot machines and low-end gaming tables and expanded its VIP casino. But more importantly, Ho outmaneuvered his competitors by coming up with an unusual arrangement to ensure a steady flow of big fish. Macau casinos attract most of their wealthy clientele by working with junket operators, companies that function like specialized travel agencies. By maintaining close ties to high-end gamblers and often providing them with credit to bet, junket operators funnel traffic to the casinos, which pay them commissions. Macau has scores of independent junket operators, making business unpredictable. Ho figured...
...gambit worked. In July, according to Citi Investment analysts, Melco Crown may have claimed the largest share of Macau's VIP market. Now Ho's challenge is staying on top. The Macau government has announced that it intends to cap commission rates paid to junket operators as part of a larger effort to bolster regulation of the industry. That could reduce Ho's leverage, but analysts say Amax's financing power still gives him an advantage. "Once you've got the kind of critical mass Ho's got, it will be difficult to dislodge him as a true contender...
...carrying it for another Venezuelan passenger on the Cessna Citation that landed in the wee hours of Aug. 4, 2007, at Buenos Aires' Aeroparque Jorge Newberry - and that he wasn't aware of its contents. But Maria del Lujan Telpuk, the agent who stopped Antonini inside Newberry's VIP sector, says he became visibly nervous when she asked him to open the bag. "I had to insist," says Telpuk, who recalls the dollar bills "literally spilling out" when Antonini unzipped it. (Telpuk, 28, has since parlayed her new fame and good looks onto the cover of the Argentine edition...
...suite; champagne upon arrival, in your limo and at breakfast; a private shopping tour of Miami's hippest boutiques to pick out the evening's killer outfit; a session with a top makeup artist; a photo shoot to record you in your finery; the services and presence of a "VIP Nightlife Guide"; a 14-seat Hummer stretch limousine; and VIP admission to and preferred seating at clubs like S.E.T., Mokai and Aerobar...