In a conference call Thursday that saw a candid Steve Wynn refer to an?ongoing feud with Boston Mayor Martin Walsh as something of a perverse comedy, the chairman and CEO of?Wynn Resorts Ltd also criticized the Macau government for its table allocation policy.?“The table cap is the single most counterintuitive and irrational decision that was ever made,” said Wynn, also calling it? “outrageous and ridiculous.”
Mr. Wynn talked of spending billions of dollars to include non-gaming amenities in his?upcoming Wynn Diamond?(Phase?II of ?Wynn Palace)? and decried the way table allocations are being handled.?“You never operate a business this way,” Wynn said. “Here we are spending billions of ?dollars creating non-gaming facilities and then arbitrarily someone says ‘Well, you should only have these many tables’. No jurisdiction ever has imposed that kind of logic on us,” he lamented. Wynn also referred to the multi-billion dollar Studio City, set to open in mere days, who have no official announcement of the number of tables they will be allotted.
The Macau government has imposed a cap of 3% growth in table numbers annually for the ten years beginning in 2012. While not naming Wynn specifically, local media reports the government as saying at a promptly called extraordinary meeting on Sunday, “[We are] firm and according to the law, in the policies already defined related to areas such as gaming and labour.” and,??“our policies] will never be altered lightly.” The ?cabinet of Secretary for Economy and Finance was said to “regret opinions related to those matters.”
Wynn Macau Ltd. president, Gamal Aziz and?Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau director Manuel Joaquim das Neves are?said to have attended the meeting.