Macau regulator grants Melco Resorts 40 mass gaming tables

Developer, owner and operator of casino gambling and entertainment casino hotel facilities in Asia, Melco Resorts and Entertainment Limited, (NASDAQ: MLCO), has been, in the start of January, reportedly awarded some 40 new-to-market mass gambling live-dealer tables.

DICJ response:

GGRAsia reports that the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), reacted to its question via a Friday email, which stated that Melco Resorts “employed new gambling tables with us and we granted 40 new-to-market mass gambling tables to [the company ] on January 1. ”

The tables were reportedly due the company for its MGM Cotai casino resort property situated just off Macau’s Cotai Strip.

According to this news agency, the ruler did not, in its own email response, provide clarification as to whether if the tables were for the VIP segment or the mass marketplace. 

Before this February 13, 2018, opening of those HKD27-billion (US$3.4-billion) MGM Cotai, Lionel Leong Vai Tac, Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, reportedly said that the property was to receive 125 new-to-market gaming tables, with 100 of them being delivered in time for its launch. At that moment, the government official also reportedly said that the 35-story resort would be awarded that the plus-25 new-to-market tables on the first day of this year.

Table change :

Melco Resorts on June 15, 2018, opened the US$1.1-billion resort , Morpheus, in its City of Dreams Macau casino resort. The Macau government did not perpetrate any new-to-market gaming tables for its official grand opening, but the company was allowed to shoot 40 tables from its current operations and shift them to Morpheus, according to the news bureau.

The ruler said in the time that it wouldn’t be considered for new-to-market tables until 2019.

Strict control:

Based on GGRAsia, in its own Friday email to the news bureau, the regulator stated that the authorities of the autonomous region on the south coast of China would continue to “rigorously control the number of gambling tables” in the market “to cultivate orderly growth ” of Macau’s gambling industry.

The regulator reportedly additional …

“Comprehensive evaluation and consideration will be produced by the authorities upon receiving any application for new gambling tables from gambling operators. ”

Gaming table coverage :

Since 2013, a coverage for a gambling table cap has been in place in the former Portuguese territory. The policy has been fashioned in order to limit the whole growth annually of fresh live gambling tables in the currency market of the city to only three per cent over a span of 10 decades, until December 2022.

According to the report, the most up to date information from the gambling regulator suggests the 2018’s end, the Macau economy had some 6,588 live dealer tables.

Possible challenges:

A recent report warns that over the next 12 months, American casino operators could face challenges in Macau due to a slowing economy and the prospects of a heightened trade warfare between the United States and China.