Casino operator MGM Resorts says its new Macau property won’t have any VIP gaming tables, at least, not to start.
On Tuesday, MGM China CEO Grant Bowie discussed the company’s in-development MGM Cotai property, telling reporters that the company had “already made the decision that we’re envisaging opening only with mass tables.”
GGRAsia quoted Bowie saying the Cotai venue planned to “walk forward as a mass-only property.” Bowie said the mass market represented “the future of Macau” and MGM “need to be very responsive to” the market’s shift away from a reliance on VIP gaming.
MGM isn’t the first to envision a VIP-free future. Melco Crown Entertainment’s Studio City property broke the mold last October when it opened without any VIP tables, although the property has since struck deals with a pair of junket operators to add some VIP options after CEO Lawrence Ho felt Studio City wasn’t living up to its full potential.
According to a report in Portuguese language media outlet Jornal Tribuna de Macau, Las Vegas Sands’ new Parisian Macao will offer VIP tables when it opens in mid-September, although Sands China president Wilfred Wong declined to specify how many VIP rooms the property would feature.
MGM Cotai was scheduled to open in Q1 2017 but the company announced last week that it was pushing the opening back until Q2. While the property was designed to accommodate as many as 500 tables, MGM still doesn’t know how many new-to-market gaming tables it will be allocated.
Both Studio City and Galaxy Entertainment Group’s Galaxy Macau Phase 2 each received 250 new tables – albeit not all at once – when they opened last year, while Wynn Resorts turned heads last month when it announced that the new Wynn Palace could receive only 100 new tables when it opens on August 22.
