GGRAsia – Wynn Palace to have up to 60 VIP tables: Steve Wynn

Wynn Palace to have up to 60 VIP tables: Steve Wynn

Aug 17, 2016 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

The chairman and chief executive of Macau-based casino operator Wynn Macau Ltd, Steve Wynn, says the firm’s new property in Cotai will have “50 to 60 VIP gaming tables”.

Mr Wynn was speaking at a press conference on Wednesday in Macau. The US$4.2 billion Wynn Palace (pictured) will open on August 22.

He said Macau government officials had visited the property, adding that the table allocation was not related to Wynn Palace’s non-gaming offering.

“The table allocation had to do with the [government’s] table cap,” said Mr Wynn.

The Macau government last week said it had approved 100 new-to-market live gaming tables for the opening of Wynn Palace; all for the mass-market segment. The company would be granted an additional 50 new-to-market tables in two separate phases: 25 tables on January 1, 2017; and the remaining 25 on January 1, 2018.

The casino operator had applied for 400 new gaming tables.

Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong Vai Tac, said on August 12 that the government’s decision was made based on “consideration of several factors”, including the table cap system and the new non-gaming features to be offered by Wynn Palace.

The Macau table cap scheme, effective since 2013, is designed to limit compound annual growth in the number of new live gaming tables to three percent until December 2022.

Wynn Palace will open with approximately 350 gaming tables, Wynn Macau Ltd has said, with the casino operator transferring 250 tables from its property on the peninsula.

On Wednesday, Mr Wynn said he had no estimate on when the Cotai property would be likely to break even.

“I expect [the return rate on investment] will be fine,” said Mr Wynn. “I will find out what that is once we open,” he added.