As part of the formal signing of 10-year casino concession contracts which took place on Friday afternoon, the Macau government revealed the investment commitments of the six concessionaires.
But perhaps much more interesting than the raw numbers themselves, were the large proportions allocated to non-gaming and the promotion of foreign visitation to Macau, which were revealed by the operators themselves at press conferences on Saturday:
| GAMING MOP$b |
NON-GAMING* MOP$b |
TOTAL MOP$b |
Non-gaming % | Non-gaming weekly spend MOP$m |
Non-gaming weekly spend US$m |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sands | 2.4 | 27.8 | 30.2 | 92% | 53.5 | 6.7 |
| GEG | 0.9 | 27.5 | 28.4 | 97% | 52.9 | 6.6 |
| Wynn | 1.2 | 16.5 | 17.7 | 93% | 31.7 | 4.0 |
| MGM | 1.7 | 15.0 | 16.7 | 90% | 28.8 | 3.6 |
| SJM | 2.0 | 12.0 | 14.0 | 86% | 23.1 | 2.9 |
| Melco | 1.8 | 10.0 | 11.8 | 85% | 19.2 | 2.4 |
| Total | 10.0 | 108.8 | 118.8 | 92% | 209.2 | 26.2 |
| Average | 1.7 | 18.1 | 19.8 | 34.9 | 4.4 | |
| * includes promotion of foreign visitation | ||||||
Businesses in Macau will no doubt be salivating at the prospect of getting their hands on some slice of the average US$26.2 million being spent by the concessionaires on non-gaming initiatives every single week for the next ten years!
Keen readers will remember that back on 1 August this year, IAG broke the news of the 11 projects outlined by the Macau government in the tender documents for concession bidders. Removing the 11th project, which was rather vaguely titled “develop other projects”, the remaining 10 projects are shown in the table below:
| Project# | Project name | Sands | GEG | Wynn | MGM | SJM | Melco |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | International tourism | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 2 | MICE | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 3 | Entertainment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 4 | Sporting events | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 5 | Art and culture | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 6 | Health tourism | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 7 | Themed amusements | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 8 | Gastronomy | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 9 | Community tourism | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 10 | Maritime tourism | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| ✓ = mentioned in concessionaire press release issued on Saturday | |||||||
As you can see from the table, almost every project was mentioned by all six concessionaires in the press releases they issue on Saturday. And for those few projects not mentioned by some concessionaires, that doesn’t mean they haven’t pledged to do them, but might just reflect a desire for some semblance of brevity in their announcements!
I’m not yet sure whether to start calling this the “scattergun” or the “everyone does everything” approach, but who could blame the concessionaires for adopting this strategy when they were in a bitter and competitive tender process. Hopefully in the fullness of time calmer heads prevail and certain concessionaires tend to focus on certain projects – hopefully ones they have at least some skerrick of competitive advantage at.
In addition to the non-gaming commitments, the operators are also expected to meet significant Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) requirements, particularly regarding protection of local employees and upward mobility of local workers.
The Macau government has already said it plans to establish formal mechanisms to monitor the compliance with and effectiveness of these commitments. Interesting times ahead!
