MGM changes Macao strategy; Protest at the Hard Rock

MGM Resorts International isn’t counting on the whales to make ends meet at its Cotai Strip™ casino. “Our business model is not predicated on the VIP business. Our strategic plan is built on catering to this tremendously emerging more-affluent Chinese customer, a customer that’s looking for more experimental experiences, not just a selfie moment or a gaming table,”  MGM CEO Jim Murren told Bloomberg TV. MGM is making “only” $449 million in Macao last quarter but hasn’t done as well as its rivals in recapturing once-lost VIP players.

Said one Bloomberg analyst of MGM Cotai, “Its focus on the mass market should help to boost margins, but there are still challenges in doing so because it is a late joiner.” It will certainly be a gear shift for MGM China, which has been VIP-centric at MGM Grand Paradise. As for MGM’s aspirations in Japan, the potential revenue base just got a bit narrower, Shinzo Abe‘s government having decided to bar 18- and 19-year-olds from gambling. They won’t be allowed to smoke or drink, either, so a trip to a casino would be a colossal bummer for that age group.

* Perhaps having decided it’s more trouble than it’s worth, Brookfield Asset Management is selling the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. This has moved the Culinary Union to action, calling on the new owner to retain the entire workforce, citing a long tradition of this in Las Vegas, including Station Casinos‘ repurchase of itself in a 2011 bankruptcy proceeding — foregoing a chance to ratchet the payroll dramatically downwards — as well as when Station bought The Reserve from Craig Neilsen. (Workers at The Fiesta and the Santa Fe were not so lucky: Station canned them all in post-purchase purge.) Heck, Munchkin restaurant mogul Robert Earl didn’t hold the Aladdin‘s poor performance against its labor force when he bought it and reinvented as Planet Hollywood Resort.

So, if you drive by the Hard Rock about 5 p.m. and see picketing taking place, now you know what it’s about.

* Things can only get better and better for the Tohono O’odham tribe and its Desert Diamond Casino. Thanks to having made peace with Gov. Doug Ducey (R), the way was cleared for the T-Os to receive their liquor license for Desert Diamond. The news didn’t catch CEO Andy Asselin sleeping. “This is a day we have been looking forward to and our staff is fully trained and ready to go,” he told reporters.

* If the U.S. Supreme Court legalizes sports betting, expect a new sort of British Invasion. Paddy Power has let it be known that it’s interested in the American market.