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MacauCasinoWorld's First Newsletter is Out!

Vol 1 No.1 - Casino Lisboa's Geomancy

New blog URL: www.pretogrosso.com

Hi all

I've shifted everything to pretogrosso.com
Will update future new posts at this site :)

Thanks!

Martin X

Changing to New Website soon

I'm in the process of shifting to blogharbor and mapping it to my own pretogrosso.com domain.
It need about 24hrs-48hr for the DNS cache to expire.

Will update the correct link and update once avail soon :)

Coffee & Macau

It seems that the Chinese(China,HKG,Macau) don't have a strong coffee-drinking culture. I suspect one of the main reason that there are over 40 Starbuck Coffee in HKG (HK Island, Kowloon, New Territories) is due to the expat community + tourists. There's even one at The Peak (Pacific Coffee).



However, there is only one in Macau.
Yes, 1 , satu, numero uno, um ! Starbuck landed in Macau in 2002 and as of writing, there is only a single outlet at Senado Square.



Fast growth is the company's modus operandi. But facing an immature coffee culture in China, Starbucks has moved less aggressively there than in other markets. Building brand and consumer awareness in Macau take time! In other words, it also means that there is no market for Macau with only a pathetic showing of 1 outlet since 2002 :( Actually, even my Macau father/mother-in-law don't drink coffee leh.

"Loh Sai, bei or yat pui Kopi-O ah!~"

Views of NAPE, Macau

Here some views of NAPE. It is rectangular plot of new reclamed land with neat row of condo/hotels. The land price in the NAPE area, where a majority of new casino hotels are located on the Macau Peninsula, will possibly rise to 2500 MOP (US$320) per square foot!.




Inner view. The end view is the Guangyin statue.


A good overview of NAPE. This photo must have been taken a few years back as the right bottom plots of land of picture are now filled with building.


Shot from the middle from Guanyin Statue. The road name is 新海湾大马路。

My Olive Tree mentioned in Simon World !

A bit of good news :) Got mentioned in the famous Simon World site! Hope more reader can post comments and advise on my article posting.



The Zhuhai Special Economic Zone town of Gongbei (拱北). Above picture is Macau/GongBei immigration & customs checkpoint at the Barrier Gate (Portas Do Ceros) isthmus, northern-most of Macau. Once you are out of Macau custom, you will travel to Gongbei Custom for entry and you're in China mainland! Singapore passport holder has 14 visa-free stay in China.

It is one of the world's most heavily used border gateway and the only land gate linking Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) with China's inland areas, reported a record of more than 37 million passenger entries and exits in the year 2000.

The figure was nearly 25 percent up from the previous year. The Macao customs, named Gongbei Customs at the opposite side in Zhuhai City, handled 1.91 million vehicles last year, also an annual record in the history, according to sources with Barrier Gate Customs. Macao resident flocked to the inland to do shopping and visit their kith and kin, especially during traditional Chinese holidays such as the Spring Festival and the Qingming Festival.



If you have a Macau-China(Guangzhou) permit, processing time to Gong Bei would be much faster; compared to International passport visitor. I recalled that my wife was waiting for me & daughter for half-an hour to clear customs, during this Chinese New Year trip to Gongbei & Zhongsan.

We finally meet Big Brother "大哥G" at Gongbei and not Macau. He and wife was 1 and half hour late! By then, we had already finished our dimsum (relatively cheap and nice). Let just say that he is Big Brother lah.

You can shop in Gongbei or take frequent coach services to various cities e.g Zhongsan(中山). It was about an hour ride to the City of Zhongsan and very cold! But it was worth it.

"Think For Yourself"

"If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary"
Malcom X

US$1.5b to create Macau Las Vegas

Full article on this link.
Excerpt:


Adelson said the Venetian and the hotel chains will together open at least 12,000 rooms and one million square feet of gaming space within seven or more hotels in 2007. In one blow, that would more than double the number of hotel rooms in the territory.

Sands Macau & The Big Baccarat Gamblers

Sands sets sights on big spenders at the baccarat tables

Zach Coleman (The Standard)
March 04, 2005



Excerpts:

The Sands Macau casino has raised the ante in Macau's highest-stakes game, the competition for higher rollers who wager hundreds of thousands of dollars on single hands of baccarat.

Sex and the gambling man

The full article from The Standard of emerging niteclubs scene in the vice-driven economy of Macau.
Excerpt:

According to EastWeek magazine, a sister publication of the Weekend Standard, turnover in the Macau nightclub business was up 30 percent in the last six months of 2004, with almost all of the increase coming from mainland visitors. There are 20 licensed nightclubs in Macau and each makes a net profit of between HK$3 million and HK$6 million a month, the magazine says.

Banks in Macau

Here are some of the banks website for your references.













國際銀行

Tiger Airway flying direct to Macau!

Finally, after the withdrawal of SIA & Silkair, there is a direct flight to Macau from Singapore again! This time, it's Tiger Airways and cheap cheap promotion hor! Starting from 25 March 2005. At least 5 x weekly flight.



SIN-MCA 0700departure - 1030arrival
MCA-SIN 1115departure - 1510arrival
Frequency: Sat/Sun/ Mon/Wed/Fri

So no need to connect via HK airport and 1hr JetFoil Ferry service. Yipee!

HorseBetting Outlet Map

This is quite nice map of Macau main island with various horsebetting outlets indication. For those observant reader, there is a red perimeter which is the GrandPrix circuit.

Macau is very small area with population of around 460k!

One of my father-in-law's apartment (2 room 1 dinning area) is around top row, third square from left. It is very near the Barrier Gate Border (entry to GongBei, China 拱北。Actually, can view the city of Gongbei from our window!

Real Estate ala Macau

Here are 5 Macau real estate website for research into the resale & rental markets of Macau.

The size of the apartment are quoted as square foot. The conversion is equivalent to 0.1 sqm for Singaporean's comparision.

http://hengveng.com.mo/
http://cs.com.mo/
http://ieongmeng.com/
http://www.kuncheong.com.mo/
http://topone.com.mo/



Taxes for housing includes:
a) Housing Tax (not sure how it is calculated. from the Finance Bureau)
b) Property Tax (usually a few thousand MOP annually)

物業有關稅種

1) 物業轉移稅 (現稱印花稅) ---- 物業發出買賣時需繳納的稅，現稅率為3%。

2) 房屋稅 ---- 每個物業每年均需要向政府財政局繳納之稅項俗稱業鈔，其計算約為年租16%左右。

3) 地稅 ---- 每年物業之土地的屋權如屋政府地則需繳交稅率相當低，一般每年只是壹佰至數佰元以下。

Monthly Rental of an apartment in Macau Peinsula : MOP$3.5-4.6k

Converstion rate :

60萬 = S$130k
70萬 = S$150k
80萬 = S$172k
90萬 = S$193k (equivalent of a 3room HDB resale)
100萬=S$215k (the min sum to get a Macau temporary resident permit)
114萬=S$245k (equivalent of a 4room HDB resale)
150萬=S$323k



Prime Rate for Mortgage Loan - To Research

Macau Investment Residency Law

投資移民政策須調整

Macao Daily.com

Based on this article, there may be a a need for the Macau Government to revise the Investment Residency decree. In another article, there are calls for revision of law to increase the minimum investment of a real estate from the current 1million MOP to 2million MOP (roughly around S$430k). Pls note that investment via real estate is just one of the option under this law. Do take time to read the link if anyone is interested.

Fotologues - Macau

These are from Flickr.com public photos on Macau. Very recent.

Quasimime/Macau Slideshow/




"Narrow cobbled alleys, grand baroque churches, balconied colonial mansions, open plazas and Mediterranean-style cafes filled with palm-readers, caged birds and pipe-smokers." (Lonely Planet's description of Macau)

This is also around the same period I visited Macau. But her photos are betters!

Littlepillow/Macau Slideshow/



Coincidentally, this set of pictures are taken on the same day! Feb 05 2005 as Quasimime!

Ixab.001/Macau Slideshow 2003/



There is actually beauty in this chaos. Compared to the orderly facade of Singapore HDB well-maintained, pristine and thou-shall-not touch appearance. It feel more real. HDB too hollow for my liking (after my enlightenment). Before that, I will compare it to Singapore so mightlily clean and neat HDBs. I was wrong to compare apple and durian. I prefer apple, thank you very much!