Phase 2 of Galaxy Macau that is opening today will primarily focus on the mass market, Galaxy Macau Director of Operations Richard Longhurst said on Tuesday.
Longhurst made the comments during a panel discussion at JW Marriott in Galaxy’s Phase 2 extension development, which cost HK$19.6 billion.
The government has said that it has granted 150 gaming tables to Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) when the company had requested 400. The casino in Phase 1 has 450 gaming tables.
The company’s HK$5 billion Broadway Macau, a 360-room casino-hotel complex that is connected to Galaxy Macau by a footbridge, will have just 38 gaming tables.
According to government statistics, the local gaming industry operated 5,704 gaming tables at the end of the first quarter of this year.
“The additional tables that we have is sufficient for the current situation,” Longhurst said, pointing out that the company would also be moving some of the gaming tables from Phase 1 to Phase 2 which is more focused on the mass market.
“As the market has certainly changed from VIP focused to more a mass market, the vast majority of our new gaming tables are really focused on our mass market […] which is really where the future of Macau lies,” he said.
“We will allocate tables based on what we think the growth opportunities are, given that over 75 percent of our new gaming product will be allocated to mass gaming, and Phase 2 is mostly about mass gaming – you will see a migration of [gaming tables] from Phase 1 to Phase 2,” he added.
Longhurst also said that despite the slowdown in gaming revenue for the last 12 months, the launch of Galaxy’s expansion project would be a catalyst for growth.
“We’re very confident about what we have developed, we think as the market has changed over the last 12 months we’re positioned to capture all that mass and discerning consumers,” he said, adding, “The majority of our development has gone into non-gaming parts of our business, with all of our six hotels, with a doubling in size of the Grand Resort Deck, with 200 retail shops, over 120 restaurants and bars… the diversity of our offers is quite significant.”
GEG Director of International Premium and Mass Market Development Raymond Yap Yin Min said that with the expansion he expected Galaxy’s properties in Cotai to receive 70,000 visits per day.
“We have 4,000 rooms and have always maintained over 95 percent occupancy rate, we’re optimistic about this expectation,” Yap said.
In addition, GEG Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Clayton said that the company had a “master plan” for Hengqin but more about it would be announced in due course. (macaunews/macaupost)
