Macau’s premium-mass market grew 16 percent from June to July, in part due to a new dedicated room for players in the segment at Galaxy Macau.
The new Horizon room—which won’t officially debut until August 16—invited 56 guests to a soft opening. Collectively, they wagered HK$1.53 million (US$196,350) at 65 tables, beating every room in town, with average bets of HK$4,365 (US$560). That’s 73 percent higher than average bets in the old Horizon room in July 2019.
Inside Asian Gaming cited Citi analyst George Choi, who said wagers were six times higher on average than table minimums. Moreover, a handful of high rollers played HK$100,000 (US$12,800) per hand or more both at Horizon and in the Pavilion Room.
“Our survey is telling us that the opening of Horizon does not seem to be cannibalizing the other premium-mass rooms at the same property,” said Choi. “In terms of recovery versus pre-Covid levels, total wager observed in July 2023 implies an 88 percent recovery” over July 2019. “The number of premium-mass players seen in July 2023 was 58 percent of what we saw in July 2019. Thus, the average wager per player is 52 percent better versus July 2019.”
He said increased bet levels “continues to show that visitors to Macau are still demonstrating some higher-than-pre-Covid spending power.”
In other Galaxy news, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Kelley informed GGRAsia that the business “activated [its] junket business… on the 18th of June, so we’re just starting to ramp back up. We have one operator who is with us and we’re exploring a few more.”
Speaking on the sidelines of G2E Asia, Kelley said, “It’s no secret that everybody sees that it’s the mass- and premium-mass segments of the market that are the most robust.”
Phase 3 of Galaxy Macau, Galaxy Entertainment’s flagship property in Cotai, is part of the operator’s plan to grow and diversify its customer base beyond VIPs. The VIP segment has declined in the Chinese city due to the government’s crackdown on capital flight, illegal cross-border gambling and money laundering, allegedly facilitated by VIP junkets. At the beginning of 2023, two former junket kings, Alvin Chau and Levo Chan, were convicted of crimes including criminal association and tax fraud and sent to prison for 18 years and 14 years, respectively.
An example of more diverse offerings is the 16,000-seat Galaxy International Convention Center, which opened in April. “Definitely the economy grows when you activate your convention center and when you activate your arena,” Kelley noted. “We’re very pleased with what we’ve seen so far with the events that we’ve had.”
He added, “It looks to me as we start to add more entertainment, amenities, and more diverse entertainment offerings, that that pie is just going to get bigger and bigger.”
To advance the diversification of the city, the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute has convened a working group with the industry’s Big 6 casino concessionaires and local trade associations to draw “more and better” meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) business.
In 2023, Macau is hosting about 100 such events with themes including “finance, technology, artificial intelligence, smart healthcare, integrated resorts and entertainment business,” said a statement from the agency.
