Inside Asian Gaming

september 2016 inside asian gaming 55 In Focus The Wynn Resorts and Wynn Macau chairman and CEO has also called the resort, six years in the making, “the culmination of my 45 years in hospitality” and “the single most important project in the company’s history.” Cotai’s sixth IR debuts at a crucial time for Macau, as gaming revenue continues to fall amid President Xi Jinping’s anti- corruption campaign and slower economic growth in mainland China, while Macau’s gaming and hotel capacity continues to rise. Many see Wynn Palace as the linchpin of this crucial second wave of Cotai development and a key catalyst in Macau’s potential turnaround. Others fear that the new IR is simply an upsized version of high-end focused Wynn Macau that hasn’t adapted to Macau’s new normal, which has seen VIP revenue cut in half from 2013’s US$30 billion and hopes of recovery pinned to mass market tourism with higher non-gaming spend. Wynn Palace is indisputably transitional for Wynn, at least in terms of size, increasing its room count by 169%, mass market table count by 108%, slots by 148% and staff count by 65%, Morgan Stanley calculates. Rising 28 stories, Wynn Palace aims to deliver “luxury with personality,” according to a spokesperson, with an atmosphere that’s “not intimidating” but “playful.” The hotel has 1,706 rooms in seven categories, including invitation-only penthouse suites and garden villas with 45 meter pools surrounded by lush lawns. Conventional guest rooms in four color schemes have all the expected elegance and rich details like tie hangars and hair spray. TABLE TALK The 46,000 square meter (495,000 square foot) casino, the second largest in Macau according to JP Morgan, has 350 tables of which 100 are newly granted by Macau authorities – with 25 more available on both 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2018 – plus 250 relocated from Wynn Macau. These include 99 that were allocated but not used at the peninsula property. The mass floor has around “Our strategy is to make this hotel available to anybody, regardless of their income, propensity to gamble, or how much they want to spend on a bottle of wine.” A penthouse bedroom “Wynn Palace exemplifies the most impressive and elegant casino property ever built, not only in Macau, but in the world. Steve Wynn and his team have built a masterpiece of a luxury integrated resort.” Ferris Wheel occupies Wynn Palace’s north atrium and comprises 103,000 flowers