MGM China CEO and Executive Director Grant Bowie has revealed that the launch of junket operations at its recently opened Macau integrated resort MGM Cotai will be delayed until August or September.
Bowie provided the update during MGM Resorts’ 1Q18 earnings call on Friday, having previously announced a target of around June or July for the property’s first junket operators to be up and running. Five Macau junkets are already confirmed for MGM Cotai.
“On the timing, we will have the junkets ready by the next Golden Week,” Bowie said, pointing to China’s October National Day holiday.
“We’re aiming for August to September, that’s our target. Mansions will come on after that, but the critical point is to get the junkets up and running.”
MGM Cotai opened in February with around 500 of its 1,390 rooms and suites open to customers. Among those still to come are the 27 villas, ranging in size from 215 to 570 square feet each, that will form luxury enclave The Mansion – modelled on the renowned VIP accommodation of the same name at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
MGM Cotai will also offer 99 suites (87 to 94 square meters each) and 16 Skylofts (128 square meters each) by the time junkets are operational.
Despite the delay in junkets, Bowie said that MGM Cotai had already attracted some of its high-end customers back to the company via its premium direct program.
“There have been some really fascinating and positive things that have happened from our existing customer base, without seeing any diminution in value of customer spend in Macau,” he said.
“We’ve seen increased spend from most customers in Cotai and at the same time we’re actually seeing significant reactivation of customers that we hadn’t seen for some time.
“It appears that they went to Cotai and as soon as we put a property into Cotai, they came back to play with us. That has been a real positive.”
