Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

"Sky casino" at Wynn Macau? I know the idea of private rooms in the sky has been thrown around between LVS and Wynn for some time, but is this really confirmed for Wynn Macau? The first I've heard of it...

Posted by detroit1051

The Binion news is fascinating. I know he has a good reputation and background for cultivating gamblers, but is he the right guy to head up Wynn's Asian operations? He may very well be, but the news took me by surprise.

Will Wynn Macau really add to Asian high roller visitation to Vegas as the RJ writes? The next year or two will be very important to Wynn, LVS and MGM.

Wynn Macau's website, http://www.wynnmacau.com/, shows room rates starting at about US$205 in September.

I'm with detroit - excellent gaming operator, but surprising choice to head international dev't. He would have been a killer choice for gaming dev't projects on the US side, including, but not limited to, a poker tourney for Wynn to compete with the bumbling Harrahs WSOP and somewhat fascist WPT.

Very Shrewd Move on Wynns part and Jack Binions.

I remember reading that when he sold out to Harrahs he had a four Year Non-Compete that prevented him from re-entering the Casino Business anywhere in the US (except Vegas). Even though the LV Exclusion was in there, I will be this has something to do with that Non-Compete.

Is anyone on here planning to go to Wynn Macau?

Yeah, I was a bit surprised by that Jack thing also. Well he is talanted, so it should be good.

David - I will go to Macau, but I don't know when for sure. There is a slim chance I'll be going to Hong Kong in Jan of Feb, if I do, I will hit Macau then, if not, I'll give it a few years, to let the Coatai Strip build up a little first.

I am for sure going to Macau in the next year, hopefully the next six months.

Yeah, that comment got approved by accident. I am deleting the spam.

Just got back from Macau and must say the place is buzzing with anticipation of Wynn Macau opening on September 6.

Also the extension at Sands Macau looks near completion as well and am sure will give Wynn a run for his money, Sands was packed for the three days I was there.

Looks there is going to be a sort of a Macau Peninsula mini strip with Lisboa, Wynn, MGM, Rio and The Galaxy within minutes of each other!

I am in Macau this weekend, next weekend and the few days around the Wynn opening. There is no second tower at Wynn. There was a picture floating around showing a model with two towers, but it is obvious that there is no second tower going in. Perhaps the two towers model was simply to show people different aspects of the same building.

Posted by detroit1051

High praise for Binion from several analysts:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jul-28-Fri-2006/business/8749182.html

The SEC filing on the Binion thing indicates 500,000 shares of stock that vest between the second and third year of his deal.

That's $31MM plus a $1.5MM/year salary.

Not bad.

After Wynn Macau opens, and the expansion is complete, does Wynn Resorts have anything else in Macau that they're looking at to build? All I've heard of is a possible ferrari hotel and a resort on the cotai strip.

Yes, Wynn is currently aquiring land for 3 more casino's in the cotai strip area. I just wish he had done that sooner.

Is there any info on these casinos or is wynn keeping to his usual self and keeping everything a mystery? Also, are there any models of the Cotai Strip that would show all of the new projects together? I just assumed that Las Vegas Sands owned almost all of the Cotai land to prevent or have control over who would build on that site.

As i go through all of the gaming sites and read countless news stories, I'm starting to think that nobody really has concrete info. According to a Forbes article, Venetian Macau will have 565,000 sq ft of retail space but on their website it lists it as over 900,000 sq ft. Also, i just don't see how the Venetian will have over 500,000 sq ft of gaming space. It seems like the Venetian is becoming a bix box housing as much of everything as possible. I remember from a tv show that Sheldon Adelson hired a designer to figure the maximum hotel room count that they could fit on the Vegas site. He then added 1000 rooms to that figure to maximise profits. That's the problem I have with this entire design. Everything is way to big. The mall is going to have three canals, 350 stores, and close to 1 million sq ft of space. Everything is HUGE! I really hope Wynn sticks to his form and builds 4 great hotels on his 50 acres.

Any other thoughts on this?

Posted by detroit1051

LV Sun columnist Jeff Simpson has an interesting article on Steve Wynn and Jack Binion, and it also touches upon Boyd and Gaughan's deal on South Coast:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/consumer/2006/jul/30/566654910.html

Posted by detroit1051

Barron's online has a brief story on Wynn and Binion:
http://online.barrons.com/article/0,,SB115507700529230382,00.html?mod=djemBF

Posted by detroit1051

Sorry, I found you have to be an online subscriber to access it. Jack Binion is a believer in Wynn's potential. He now owns 1.9% of the company. He owned 1.06 million shares before becoming Chairman of Wynn International. He has since added 438,000 more shares. Also, as part of his compensation at Wynn, he received 500,000 shares, half of which will vest in two years.
Binion sold Horseshoe to HET for $1.45 Billion in 2004.

Maybe I don't know enough about the intricacies of the business, but am I the only one who thinks it may be a bit mis-guided of Steve Wynn to think that he can bring in some guy who has never been to Macau, doesn't speak Chinese and has probably never even been to Asia to somehow develop a fantastic Asian high-roller business from scratch?

Perhaps an analogy is in order: imagine Stanley Ho opening up a casino in Vegas and sending one of his Chinese managers who doesn't speak English to Vegas to head-up a non-Asian US high roller business. Are there any of you that seriously think that would work?

There would be any number of experienced senior managers from Stanley Ho's casinos that would happily jump ship for 20% of what Steve Wynn is paying Jack Binion. Heck, for US$30 million Steve could probably just swipe all of Stanley's top management.

I hear what you're saying.

In regards to getting 'Ho' people, I think Steve would be (legitimately) very worried about loyalty there and corporate espionage. From what I hear, these guys play at least semi-dirty and there have been half jokes about hotel rooms being bugged in the past.

On the Binion front, I assume that much of his staff will be Chinese speakers. Binion's a smart guy but from what I understand, the principal logic is that he's very good with personal relationships and that's what the high end business is all about.

We'll see. Could just be a recognizable face to stick on the operation for the stock analysts.

Yeah who knows - maybe this man will be good at the relationships even though it will be done through intepreters. Most (mainland) Chinese I know have a very high opinion of Kissinger even though he couldn't speak a word of Chinese.

But US$30+m is (by a substantial margin) more than any CEO for any company listed in Asia gets paid, so it is very generous of Steve to have such enormous faith in the guy.

It will be interesting to see how Crown Macau goes - Crown in Australia has a customer base comprised largely of Asian gamblers serviced by a team of staff with enormous experience dealing with Asians. Add to that the fact that Crown Macau is half owned by Stanley's son, and these guys might be able to give Wynn and LVS a decent run for their money. Their hotel is almost about to top out and it should open before the Venetian.