Citi: Smart table deployment across Macau accelerating

In a Monday note, Citi analysts George Choi and Timothy Chau named six mass and premium mass gaming areas across the city that are now fully fitted out with smart gaming tables, namely the main gaming floors at The Venetian Macao, Plaza and Studio City, and at Galaxy Macau’s Horizon Room, Wynn Palace’s Diamond Club and at Wynn Encore. They also pointed to more smart tables than previously in the grind mass areas of Wynn Macau with 24 smart tables now operational, Wynn Palace with 40 and Galaxy Macau with 133.

Citi’s observation, arising from its monthly Macau table survey, echoes comments made by operators during their recent earnings calls, with both Galaxy Entertainment Group and Wynn stating that they expect to complete full roll-out across their properties by Chinese New Year.

Speaking on Wynn’s earnings call in early November, Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings said around a quarter of the company’s Macau table inventory was now “smart”, with full rollout by Chinese New Year in late January.

Billings also spoke of the benefits of running smart tables, stating, “There’s a bunch of benefits on the marketing side, primarily due to an abundance of very precise bet-by-bet data, [and] we have a super clear view of how we intend to utilize that data and bring some innovative marketing forward to our customers … but the real benefits of that require you to be at substantially complete rollout because you need a complete [view] of the customer.”

Citi, meanwhile, described demand for premium gaming during its November visit as solid, with more whales betting more including one individual who wagered HK$2.2 million (US$275,000) including HK$200,000 (US$25,000) on Lucky 7. This was, the analysts said, the “largest whale we have ever witnessed”.

Total wagers observed were up 29% year-on-year to HK$12.2 million (US$1.5 million) and the number of premium mass players up 21% to 514, they explained, with Melco Resorts showing strong market share gains based on observations.

“Operators are constantly looking for ways to organically grow GGR,” Choi and Chau wrote. “Casino operators’ acceleration in deploying smart gaming tables (which will increase game velocity) and their introduction and promotion of new side bets (which will increase hold rates) remind us that the number of players and their wallet size are not the only GGR drivers.”