Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2011 66 C asino companies never seem to question market share statistics when they’re working in that operator’s favour. The gross gaming revenue statistics only become ‘meaningless’ when the company is lower down the pecking order. Steve Wynn, Chairman and Chief Executive of Wynn Resorts, joined that debate recently. Mr Wynn’s assertion that he will ‘double’ his Macau numbers when he joins the Cotai party has led some to ask the obvious question: ‘Why isn’t he there already?’ “I don’t know what measurements you use—revenue, profitability, total visitation, but we could be easily twice as big,”MrWynn said in interview with Bloomberg television recently. As one analyst explained to IAG : “I always ask operators not just ‘What’s your future story?’ but have a frank discussion on the execution timetable.” In Macau, that’s not easy. Mr Wynn is arguably damned if he tries to introduce the certainty of a timetable in a situation dependent on Macau’s domestic politics— Sheldon Adelson knows how that feels over at Cotai 5 and 6—but Mr Wynn is also damned if he doesn’t nail things down for the market. The provisional timetable for Wynn Cotai announced last June was for ground breaking this year and an opening in 2014. But then a table cap and moratorium on future Cotai projects were announced by the Macau government, throwing a spanner in the works. There were also some additional complications as a third party had an involvement in the land deal on the proposedWynn Cotai site. After a recent board meeting in Macau Mr Wynn was asked about analyst concerns that he doesn’t yet have a Cotai story to tell ‘Wynn Cotai will be my best ever’ Steve Wynn tells Inside Asian Gaming it takes time to create the right product in Cotai SteveWynn NoWynn in sight –Wynn Cotai still awaiting approval