Geoff Freeman, president and chief executive officer of the American Gaming Association (AGA) last week credited U.S. casino operators who are operating in Macau, China with making “immense contributions” to that island’s gaming industry.
He called for those contributions to be recognized as the government considers renewing the concessions in the island, which is the only region in China allowed to offer gaming.
Freeman, interviewed at the Global Gaming Expo Asia 2017 conference, told GGRAsia “I am confident that the Macau government and the Chinese central government will recognize the immense contributions these companies have made, and look forward to partner with them for future success.”
He said that the “immense contributions” made by the MGM Sands China Ltd and Wynn Macau Ltd. “raised the bar in a variety of ways… The type of investments in this market, the number of jobs that these companies are providing, the high regulatory standards that they are meeting, I think that by all accounts they have been tremendous partners in this market.”
MGM China is a subsidiary of MGM Resorts International and Sands China is owned by Las Vegas Sands Corps. Wynn Resorts Ltd. Is the parent of Wynn Macau.
The government has strongly hinted that it wants to possibly bring in new operators, using the term “refresh.” It conducted a review of the island’s gaming industry in 2016 but came to no conclusion about the fate of the six casino concessions, which will begin expiring in 2020, with the last expiring in 2022.
