Despite the Government of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) authorizing 100 fewer gaming tables than it granted two rival gaming operators last year, Wynn Macau Ltd. chief executive officer Steve Wynn believes his newest property the $4.2 billion Wynn Palace Cotai will be fine.
At a recent press conference at Wynn Palace, the Las Vegas casinos tycoon said, “The focus should not be on the amount of tables but the amount of people that are here,” the chairman and chief executive of the company said yesterday. “When you have less [gaming] equipment than more equipment, you tend to have higher utilisation,” according to Macau Business Daily.
In a statement last week, Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong announced that Wynn will get 150 gaming tables for the Wynn Palace Cotai, 100 for its August 22 debut, with the gradual allocation of 50 more in the following two years. That’s less than the 250 obtained by Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. and Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. for their Galaxy Macau and Studio City projects in 2015. In an email statement to Bloomberg last week, spokesman Michael Weaver said that Wynn Resorts Ltd. “is satisfied” with the table allocation.
While it was reported that the company’s application to the city’s gaming regulator was for 400 new-to-market gaming tables, yesterday Wynn told the press, “I didn’t apply for 400 tables. We need 280. We got 150. We are 130 short,” according to the news agency. Wynn also attributed the table allocation to the government’s cap, which is based on the government’s principle of no more than three percent table growth in Macau for a ten year period from 2013 to 2022. The number of visitors to Macau declined 2.6 percent to 30.7 million in 2015, and the decline remained the same in the first half of this year.
Wynn Macau, did however receive the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau’s (DICJ) approval to move 250 gaming tables from its Wynn Macau property located on the Macau Peninsula to the new 1,706-room integrated resort so that there will be a total of 350 gaming tables operational for the opening on Monday.
Wynn’s most expensive casino yet, Wynn plans to wow the adult segment of the visitors to Wynn Palace Cotai, with private suites for high rollers that will feature personal spa and massage rooms, a bar and dining areas, and where $450 facial treatments with crushed diamonds and gold-leaf masks are featured in a spa.