MGM Resorts CEO and President Bill Hornbuckle has reiterated his confidence in the short and long-term prospects of Macau’s gaming landscape, despite recent positive sentiment around the Chinese economy fading earlier this week.
Macau gaming stocks have fallen by around 11% across the board this week after Beijing refrained from announcing any further economic stimulus measures on top of those already unveiled last month – putting a rapid halt to recent momentum in the market.
But Hornbuckle, speaking at Global Gaming Expo (G2E) on Tuesday local time, maintained a positive outlook for Macau where the company’s integrated resorts – MGM Macau and MGM Cotai – are coming off a highly successful October Golden Week.
“I like to remind everybody that the key focus for all of us is premium mass and the actual penetration rate into Macau – Macau does more than 20 million visitors a year but it is really the same people coming into the city three or four times a year, so it’s less than 1% penetration [into mainland China].
“While that’s important and it matters, Golden Week [revenue] was up 20% over 2019, so I think we’ve all had an amazing week and I think it speaks to the general economy and the activity case in Macau. We remain pretty excited by it all.”
Hornbuckle also noted that, although gaming revenues are still considerably down on pre-pandemic levels, much of that difference relates to the absence of junket-related revenues which were less profitable than the more common premium mass and direct VIP forms being generated today.
The increase in Golden Week revenues, he added, was a “great indicator” of what Macau can expect over the next 18 months.
“MGM has enjoyed more than our fair share going into [the end of the year] – we’ve averaged in the mid-teens of market share – so I have great hope for 2025 and while obviously stimulus and the overall activity case of the economy in China is important, I think Macau is still a bit unique,” he said.
“I think we’ve continued to experience that and I think it demonstrated itself through Golden Week again.”
