Two big new Cotai developments that opened this year – Galaxy Macau Phase 2, bundled with its sister property Broadway at Galaxy Macau and Studio City – each received on aggregate the same size of table allocation – 250 new-to-market units. On Thursday, Mr Leong said the government would look into the non-gaming components of the latest generation of casino resorts being developed on Cotai by Macau’s six gaming concessionaires, and how each company forms partnerships with local small- and medium-sized enterprises, among other factors, before deciding on table allocation for each new property. “We do not assign a high probability to a full-on price war, as casino operators have been effectively scaling back table supply (when demand is weak) instead of trying to fill tables by compromising on margins,” said the Nomura team.

Japanese brokerage Nomura said in a note this week it does not anticipate a price war among Macau’s six operators as they compete for share in the mass-market gambling segment, where player demand has been more resilient than it has in the VIP segment during China’s anti-graft campaign. Under the arithmetic of the government’s gaming table cap, a total of 1,097 tables remain to be shared between the four major Cotai projects yet to open, said a note on November 18 from Union Gaming Securities Asia Ltd. They had suggested such a move would be read by investors as a sign that public policy was clearly aimed at supporting Macau’s gaming industry. Some investment analysts covering the gaming industry had floated the possibility of the government allowing “a slight relaxation of table cap” for those new casino resorts with a lot of non-gaming elements. The policy aims to limit the increase of live dealer table numbers to 3 percent compound annual expansion until the end of 2022, from a base of 5,485 tables recorded at the end of the fourth quarter in 2012. Mr Leong stated during the encounter with legislators that the Macau government stands by the table cap.

“The allocation of gaming tables will depend on whether their proposals meet our guidelines,” Mr Leong said during a question and answer session at a plenary sitting of Macau’s Legislative Assembly. The cap on the number of new live dealer gaming tables allowed in Macau casinos will not be amended until at least the end of 2022, Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong Vai Tac (pictured centre), said on Thursday. Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

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