“We are delivering on that,” MGM Mirage CEO, Terry Lanni, told Macau Business in an exclusive interview on the eve of the opening of MGM Grand Macau.
To the veteran gaming executive, “the most important thing is to hear people say they love this particular facility. It’s over the top, what they did not expect and this significant addition is an important factor to the whole regeneration of Macau.” For MGM Mirage’s CEO, “that’s far more important to me than any numbers that may or may not make sense”. To him, things are not looked at from a quarter-to-quarter standpoint but on a "long-term basis” and he is adamant about the success of the property, even if he hasn’t “set any standards as to what it should be”. Maybe that’s because Lanni perceives Macau “a very emerging market”. On the other hand he’s confident on his “ability to read that market along with Pansy Ho and adapt” to a market which has changed dramatically in the last 24 months.
Asked about MGM’s potential market share in Macau, Lanni replied, "I literally don’t know”. The executive argues the goal “has been to design, build and… open an exciting, very successful hotel-casino and a resort.” The property and the amenities it offers will develop their own market share. “We will look at that a year and a half from now, and how significant the impact of what we are going to do on the second site here and hopefully we will have a third, a fourth and a fifth property here,” the executive adds.
What can MGM can bring to Macau and help develop the market? Lanni’s answer: Competition. “Competition is one of the best things in the world that affects so many other people and makes people develop finer facilities and put more money back into them. When you have a monopoly, you kind of get fat, dumb and happy. And I think that is the significant change that has taken place already in Macau. You no longer have a monopoly, you have competition. Competition is going to be good for everyone. I really believe that Stanley Ho’s company [incumbent gaming operator prior to the 2001 market liberalization] can make more money now, even with a smaller market share than it had before with a 100 per cent market share,” the CEO argues.
Speaking to Macau Business, Terry Lanni said he was confident that MGM would never have to choose between Atlantic City and Macau pending US gaming boards’ approval of the company’s dealings in China. “We would not have entered this marketplace as we have, with a significant investment – both in money and our reputation – if we had any reason to believe that the US regulatory process wouldn’t approve this transaction. Mississippi, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, all gave the green light but there’s still New Jersey." Lanni explains the chapter: “I know what they [New Jersey] are looking at and I am convinced that Pansy is independent from her father, Stanley. I am not here to try to convince anyone else that any regulatory body in the US is comfortable with her father. No, they are not. That is not for me to judge. They have already judged it. We are a regulated company within that industry. So, therefore, we are doing business with his daughter. His daughter is a very confident, very intelligent, very successful business person in her own right. Does she love her father? I am sure she does love him and I am sure he loves her. And I know that rich fathers tend to give to their children money. That should not come as a surprise to any regulator. It does not come as a surprise to me. In fact, it would come as a surprise if they did not. And I do not think that is the issue here.” The veteran gaming executives goes to add that, “I think each jurisdiction has had one thing in mind. Is she separate, is she not influenced by her father? There is love, of course, there is respect. But she is independent. She provided every piece of information that any US jurisdiction required of her with a great deal of patience and a great deal of complete sharing of information in response to their questions."
Questioned about future opportunities is the region, Terry Lanni said: “Thailand has had interest to us but when Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s government fell it looked to us there would be less potential.” There’s also Japan but “they may have set their plans back a little bit in time.” South Korea is yet another opportunity “because the casinos owned and operated by the government are allowed to deal with locals whereas the ones operated by non-governmental entities can only deal with visitors”. Vietnam is a possibility, again, in the future.
MGM’s CEO closes saying: “With most businesses around the world, if you have the capital and are willing to take the risk, you go ahead and build something and you take the risk. Here you have to wait and I say here in our industry, we have to wait until a government determines it is alright to have casino gaming and then they set special rules for gaming companies and we deal with those special rules – but we can’t force it."

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