Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

Tony Tong, Chairman and CEO of PacificNet, said although the company cannot divulge the specifics on these sales "due to the highly competitive current market in Macau," he does want to convey the company's "rapid progress in the Macau gaming market to our shareholders and the gaming world." Initial sales and acceptance of installed units are showing that PacificNet's machines are "right for the Macau market," according to Tong, adding "we are happy to see that our multiplayer EGM installation base is seeing steady growth in Asia." According to recent Reuters reports, multiplayer gambling machines have proven to be very popular in Macau, as the trend is away from traditional, individual terminal games towards multi-player, shared experience games. Electronic adaptations of popular table games are proving exceptionally popular, both by gamblers and casino operators. Gamblers like a private betting terminal over a crowded table while casino operators enjoy greater accuracy, dealing speed, and cost savings of not having a human dealer. "A powerful and developing trend over the next two years will be the movement toward multi-station, communal play gaming devices," said Merrill Lynch analyst David Anders in a note quoted by Reuters. Last week PacificNet Inc. announced it has acquired an additional six percent interest in PacificNet Games Limited (PacGames). Prior to this, in connection with the acquisition of Able Entertainment previously announced during the Q3 earnings conference call, PacificNet owned 45 percent of PacGames. PacificNet now owns 51 percent of PacGames. Tony Tong, Chairman and CEO of PacificNet, said in recent board and management meetings "we evaluated the early success of our gaming technology operation and were very satisfied with the rapid progress and financial performance of the gaming operation. The board of directors and management team has approved our new strategy to focus on the rapidly growing gaming market in greater China, Macau, and Asia." In September 2006, PacificNet opened an office in Macau to focus on the rapidly expanding gambling and entertainment industries in that region.

Macau is one of the fastest-growing gambling markets in the world and is predicted to surpass Las Vegas in total revenues by 2007. According to recent statistics provided by Macau government, in 2005, Macau's gambling revenues reached $5.8 billion, second only to Las Vegas gambling revenues of $6 billion.

Macau borders Zhuhai City of Guangdong Province of China, one of the country's wealthiest and most developed regions and is an hour away from Hong Kong via ferry. The number of tourists visiting Macau reached 18.7 million in 2005, of which 56 percent or 10.5 million visitors were from mainland China. By 2010, the number of tourists is expected to double to nearly 30 million visitors per year.