Estoril-Sol Revenues Climb with Casino Lisboas Success
Estoril-Sol, a Portuguese company controlled by Macau gaming magnate Stanley Ho, boosted its shares of the Portuguese gaming and gambling market in the first half of this year due to its opening of Casino Lisboa.
Casino Lisboa, which opened in May, in two and a half months of activity generated revenues of 14.57 million euros.
Contrary to what was expected, the revenues at Casino Estoril, on the outskirt of Lisboa, fell only marginally, by 0.62 percent to 61.44 million euros.
According to figures published by the gaming general-inspectorate, published by financial daily Diaro Economico, Estoril-Sol's market share reached 61.6 percent in the first six months of the year, almost three percentage points more than in the same yesr-ago period.
In total, Portugal's casinos had revenue of 166.35 million euros in the first half, 12.2 percent more than in the same period of last year.
The casino at Povoa do Varzim in northern Portugal, which is owned by the same group, had revenue of 26.38 million, or a rise of 6.51 percent.
Portugal's second largest gaming group, Solverde, saw its market share fall by 1.7 percent, to 29.4 percent, despite all its casinos having shown an improvement.
Four new casinos are due to open in Portugal by 2008 - in Troia (Amorim Turismo), Chaves (Solverde), Sao Miguel (ASTA) and Porto Santo (Siram).