Macau casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group has launched a new mass-market gaming area on the third floor of its StarWorld Casino And Hotel featuring a 108-seat stadium-style electronic table games area.

According to a report published by GGRAsia, the new zone also comes complete with 14 traditional live-dealer gaming tables and a range of slots as well as a restaurant that is open to the public.

Galaxy Entertainment Group stated that the stadium-style offering for the downtown Macau venue has been supplied by LT Game, which is a brand of Hong Kong-listed Paradise Entertainment, and can offer up to eight live-dealer games encompassing baccarat, sic-bo and roulette with minimum bets starting at $3.22.

The operator further declared that the new electronic table games zone for its StarWorld Casino And Hotel additionally offers Macau’s largest “infotainment” screen displaying content such as video of live sporting events and the results of in-house games.

“The LT Game [product] and the rest of the electronic table games have registered growth in the last couple of months so this is a very promising future for us to get into this area,” Raymond Yap Yin Min, International Premium And Mass Market Development Director for Galaxy Entertainment Group, told GGRAsia. “We use SMS and [e-mail] blasts to inform our members and we communicate the new gaming location and destination by whatever channel we can.”

Macau’s Gaming Inspection And Coordination Bureau released figures yesterday showing that gross VIP gaming revenues for the second quarter had fallen by 16% year-on-year while their mass-market counterpart registered a more modest drop of 1.1%. The regulator moreover revealed that the enclave’s total casino gross gaming revenues for July had diminished by 4.5% year-on-year, which represents the 26th consecutive month of decline.

However, Yap told GGRAsia that he is optimistic as the reduction now “looks like it is narrowing” as the firm only experienced “a marginal drop year-on-year” with hopes high that “the second half [of the year] will be better”.

“As far as we are concerned we have had a full refreshment of our operation since May so this is our [basis for] year-on-year comparison,” said Yap. “As long as we register small growth over last year, I think we will be very happy.”

Adding to this optimism, the figures from the Gaming Inspection And Coordination Bureau moreover showed that second-quarter gross gaming revenues from live multi-games, which is a category that utilizes a real-life dealer alongside electronic wagering and bet settlement procedures, improved by 11.5% year-on-year to $70.3 million.

“Just like any other operator, we have to adjust to the drop of the VIP segment,” said Yap. “I think the industry is consolidating and that consolidation may continue but it is really the outcome of the transformation of the [Macau market] to the mass and premium mass [segments] and to other electronic gaming.”