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Hold’em poker sees modest Macau comeback: experts
06 July 2023
Texas Hold’em, a form of poker popularised globally via the United States, is making something of a comeback in the Macau casino market, say several industry commentators. But one notes that the game’s value to the casino operators is likely to be primarily as a marketing tool to attract younger customers and also the non-Chinese tourists targeted by the Macau government under the new concession system.
“Texas Hold’em is not among the most profitable games for casinos, but the game does have a ‘spillover’ effect of redirecting the poker players to other gaming options, as well as other resort amenities such as accommodation, dining and shopping,” said Ryan Ho Hong Wai, lecturer at the Centre for Gaming and Tourism Studies at Macao Polytechnic University, in comments to GGRAsia.
He added: “Online poker games have been widely played worldwide, and Texas Hold’em has gained significant popularity among the younger generation in China.”
Alidad Tash, managing director at industry consultancy 2NT8 Ltd, and a former senior executive in the Macau gaming market, noted to GGRAsia: “Poker has been gaining popularity in China, but only one, possibly two casinos in Macau can generate the necessary critical mass to make poker attractive to players.”
George Choi and Ryan Cheung, analysts at Citigroup, observed in a note late last month that Macau concessionaire MGM China Holdings Ltd had opened a poker room at its MGM Macau property, and another at its MGM Cotai resort.
Referring to gaming table allocation for that operator via the Macau authoroties, the bank added: “It looks like the 200 additional tables MGM got from the government allow it to broaden its game variety.”
MGM China received authorisation to operate a total of 750 gaming tables and 1,700 gaming machines under its new licence that started in January, according to a December filing to the Hong Kong bourse.
Consultant Mr Tash said that in pre-pandemic trading prior to 2020, and in the context of the local government’s table cap, Macau casino operators were mindful that “commission made by each poker table” was a figure “generally lower” than a gaming table utilised for another game product “would have generated elsewhere in the casino”.
He added that as a consequence, “very few operators” were offering poker in the pre-pandemic period.
During pre-Covid-19 times, Wynn Macau Ltd’s Wynn Macau property, on the city’s peninsula, “offered the best poker room, and attracted enough high-stake players to make poker worthwhile,” said Mr Tash.
Data from Macau’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, a body also known as DICJ, indicate that the city’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) from Texas Hold’em reached a modern-era record of MOP446 million (US$55.4 million) in 2019, an increase of 31.2 percent judged year-on-year. It fell back to MOP35 million in 2020, coinciding with travel restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2021, no Texas Hold’em poker-related GGR was recorded, and in 2022 just MOP10 million. For the first quarter this year, that segment’s GGR was MOP90 million.
Mr Tash’s standpoint as a veteran of Macau operations is that “poker players rarely play other games, so they’re generally less profitable than other players”.
He added: “Poker has not been profitable in Macau since casinos only make a fraction of the winnings – around a 5-percent commission – while the winners take the rest of the pot. This is unlike every other game, where casinos take 100 percent the winnings” if the player loses the bet.