NEW Macau regulations to cap the number of new casinos and gaming tables will help ease competitive threats for its six casino operators, Jefferies & Co's Lawrence Klatzkin said yesterday.

"It's good for Macau," Klatzkin, a New York-based analyst, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday. "Having an orderly way to grow and putting some rules in place - it's all good for the existing operators."

Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho said the city will stop approving land for new casinos and stop granting new casino licenses. It will also limit the number of gaming tables and slot machines by existing casino operators.

The number of casinos in Macau, the only Chinese region where they are legal, has more than doubled to 29 since the government ended billionaire Stanley Ho's 40-year gaming monopoly.

The new regulation may help Las Vegas Sands Corp and Hong Kong property tycoon Lui Che-woo's Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, which have the biggest land reserves already approved for casinos among the six, as they won't affect projects under construction or already approved, according to Billy Ng, a Hong Kong-based analyst at JPMorgan & Chase Co.

In 2002, Macau awarded gaming licenses to Las Vegas gaming tycoon Stephen Wynn and a partnership between Las Vegas Sands and Lui. Sands and Lui's partnership eventually split up, prompting the government to allow each license-holder to issue a so-called sub-concession.

Wynn sold his sub-concession to a venture between Australian billionaire James Packer and Stanley Ho's son Lawrence, while the partnership between MGM Mirage and Pansy Ho bought theirs from her father Stanley Ho.

"The six concession holders should benefit from these proposed changes," JPMorgan's Ng said in his report.