Macau’s casino industry has proven its resilience, with a year-plus of strong post-pandemic tourism and the return of gaming revenues. Now the Big 6 casino concessionaires are working to build on that foundation to ensure their long-term resilience.
Goldman Sachs analysts report that operators are banking on the premium mass segment as gross gaming revenues (GGR) from grind mass hover at about 10 percent below pre-Covid levels.
According to Macau Business, in order to court the high-end segment, Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) tripled its marketing team, from 100 to 300 hosts, for the Chinese New Year holiday, and introduced more competitive stay packages for premium mass players.
SJM Holdings also expanded its marketing department from 12 members to 100, and will eventually double that number, keeping pace with MGM China and Wynn Macau.
Melco Resorts and Entertainment is thinking of premium mass players as it prepares to renovate the Countdown Hotel at its City of Dreams resort, upgrading 325 rooms into larger rooms or suites, per Asia Gaming Brief. Likewise, Sands China is investing $1 billion into Phase 2 of its Londoner Macao resort in the city’s Cotai section.
At the same time, all operators in the city are planning to introduce radio frequency identification (RFID) tables to boost productivity and better track player activity. The Goldman Sachs team noted that MGM introduced the technology in 2016 “to better understand their players and to improve marketing efficiency. The other five casino operators all mentioned that they are either reviewing or preparing to roll out RFID tables in the coming quarters.
“Besides marketing benefits, some operators believe the RFID tables could drive 5-8 percent table productivity improvement by speeding up the games, as dealers would take less time to count and verify chips,” the analysts wrote.
