Wynn Resorts Ltd yesterday filed a report of unscheduled material events with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The report announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Wynn Resorts (Macau) SA, will no longer open its planned expansion of Wynn Macau in stages but will open in one phase in the third quarter of 2007. The change is said to be as a result of continued planning for the Diamond Suites tower and its integration with Wynn Macau.

This means that the additional slot machines and table games scheduled for February will be delayed until July. However, around 40 extra table games and 266 more slot machines will be added for the Chinese New Year in mid-February. Wynn Macau will then have a total of 264 table games and 632 slot machines operational. The expansion of Wynn Macau, when completed, will provide around a 135,000 sq ft increase in gaming floor area, and is expected to bring the number of table games up to 420 and slot machines to 1,280.

When the enlarged Wynn Macau does open, there will be a new front feature to the building as well as more restaurants, bars and retail amenities. However, it is unlikely that non-gaming revenue in Macau will outpace gambling revenue any time soon, as it has in Las Vegas. In that city Wynn Resorts now makes only 45% of its revenue from gaming. Speaking yesterday in Phoenix, Steve Wynn said that the way to success lies in making others happy, commenting that his success was based on the happiness of his employees, and their success was based on the happiness of their guests.

Despite having made some Las Vegas employees very unhappy by altering the division of tips to include supervisors, which has caused a couple of demonstrations although a class action lawsuit brought by two dealers was dismissed by a judge in early December, Wynn is seeing a growing market share in Macau. Strong tables and slots volumes are boosting cash flow and analysts are making favourable predictions. Macau outplayed Las Vegas in GGR in the third-quarter of 2006 and is expected to continue to do so. (E-01.12.07)

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