Las Vegas Sands (LVS) President and COO Rob Goldstein says Macau’s mass gaming segment can become a US$30 billion a year business.
Goldstein’s prediction was made while discussing the company’s results in its 4Q18 earnings call, with Macau having pushed LVS to 2.5% year-on-year revenue growth for the period. Macau revenue grew 9% in 4Q18 to US$2.25 billion thanks to strong increases at the Venetian and Parisian.
Expressing confidence in local entity Sands China’s Macau expansion plans – which include converting Sands Cotai Central to The Londoner Macao and upgrading rooms at St Regis and the Four Seasons – Goldstein said the company expects mass and premium mass will eventually become “a US$30 billion business, adding “I’m not capable of telling you what the breakout is in premium versus base [but] we’ll take it all and we have the assets to take it all.”
Macau-wide gross gaming revenue rose 14% in 2018 to US$37.6 billion, with the revenue split between mass and VIP expected to be close to 50-50 once all operator results are released.
But Goldstein said that mix will inevitably change in the coming years.
“It’s a very simple market to understand – it’s a mass, premium mass market driven by scale,” he said. “The VIP segment will continue to be challenging I believe. The mass and premium mass will be the driver.”
Goldstein also pointed to increasing supply as the key to capitalizing on the changing face of the Macau market.
“I think what we’ve done there, which is build scale … we’re building more rooms today. We’re building more retail today. We’re building more everything today. I believe that that market will continue to grow.
“From my perspective, the mass scale market is room dependent. Those without rooms will have a difficult time growing their share. Mass demands rooms.
“This is a very special place. It’s very unique and we are delighted to be there and investing today. We’re long-term believers and we don’t think there’s a market like it anywhere in the world or a better place to deploy capital.”
