The Macau government continues to monitor the city’s casino operators’ implementation of non-gaming investments to ensure compliance with contractual obligations. The comments were made by the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Tai Kin Ip (pictured in a file photo), on Friday during a meeting of the city’s Legislative Assembly.
He noted that, as per the existing concession contracts with each of the operators, each firm will be subject to an in-depth review of its operations and compliance with contractual obligations every three years, including an assessment of the fulfilment of their non-gaming investment plan pledge.
Mr Tai’s portfolio includes supervision of Macau’s casino industry.
During the Legislative Assembly meeting, lawmakers raised concerns over the progress of non-gaming investment plans by casino operators. In response, Mr Tai affirmed the government’s commitment to rigorous oversight.
The expansion of non-gaming offerings by Macau’s six casino operators was an important part of their pledge to the local government before being issued fresh 10-year concessions.
The city’s six casino operators initially pledged to commit collectively MOP108.7 billion (US$13.5 billion) to non-gaming investment as a condition of their 10-year gaming concessions, which began in January 2023. Subsequently, that amount increased by 20 percent after Macau’s market-wide casino gross gaming revenue surpassed a predetermined threshold of MOP180 billion in full-year 2023.
As a condition of the new concessions, each casino operator provided the Macau government with an overall investment plan for the 2023–2032 period.
The operators must now submit to the Macau authorities what is termed by the industry as an “annual execution proposal”, detailing specific projects they have mentioned in their respective concession investment plans.
Such information must include the proposed amount of spending and the execution schedule for the relevant year. Each annual execution proposal is to be submitted up to three months before the start of each calendar year.
None of the annual execution proposals filed by the casino operators have been made public so far.
In addition, operators will be required to submit, by March 31 each year, a report on the execution of the previous year’s proposal. Each operator must also submit progress reports every two months on their concession-related spending. The Macau government may additionally ask them to provide detailed reports on the progress of particular projects.
Such execution reports have not been disclosed publicly, so far.
According to the existing concession contracts, the MGM group has pledged to invest a total of MOP16.70 billion over the next 10 years, including gaming and non-gaming investments.
The Galaxy Entertainment group will invest a total of MOP28.35 billion. The Sands group has pledged MOP30.24 billion, while the Melco group is set to invest MOP11.82 billion.
The Wynn group has committed to MOP17.73 billion, while the SJM group has proposed a total investment of MOP14.03 billion.
