Studio City's VIP Gaming Room Opens
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Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (MPEL:US) will begin operating VIP games in the $3.2 billion Studio City on November 5, with the casino operator earning 60% interest.
A Melco Crown spokesperson said: "We will start our in-house VIP business on November 5, and confirmed junket operators Suncity and Takcheon will open."
According to the news agency, Macau junket operators Takchun Group and Suncity Group separately confirmed they would start VIP operations at a resort casino in Kotai, Macau, respectively, but Suncity and Takchun did not disclose details regarding the number of game tables to be managed at the hotel.
In an email to the news agency on Tuesday, Melco Crown confirmed plans to allocate a total of 33 tables for VIP games in Studio City. Earlier, Melco said it would allocate two-thirds of its VIP tables to junket operators, while Premium Direct would receive a third.
Melco Crown opened Studio City to the public and Lawrence Ho, the company's CEO at the time, said the decision to open without VIP games was a "business decision," primarily driven by Studio City's new market allocation for 250 game tables received from the Macau government. But in August, Ho confirmed in a conference call with analysts that Melco was in the process of setting up a VIP gaming facility at the Cotai casino in an effort to maximize profitability.
Although Melco Crown is a majority shareholder in Studio City, it must share profits from its Macau casinos with New Cotai LLC, which has a 40% stake in the property and is managed by American investment companies Oaktree Capital Management LP and Silver Point Capital LP.
