Wynn Macau's market share gain and overall growth in December was impressive. New junkets and higher direct play contributed to the upside.
Wynn Macau generated approximately $5.2 billion in VIP junket rolling chip volume in December of 2010, up 71% over December 2009. This is a staggering number for one property and is the second highest month ever recorded by Wynn slightly behind only May of 2008. And that's not all of it. Wynn's house junket contributed another estimated $600 million in turnover.
Hold percentage was somewhat higher than last year, but not by much. We also estimate that Wynn's direct play generated significant growth over last year. Total VIP revenue (including the house junket) increased 85%. Total VIP market share climbed a whopping 570 bps from November to 18.7%, while Wynn's overall market share (including Mass) grew to 16.5% from 12%.
So in addition to higher direct play, what drove the increase? During December, Wynn Macau had 10 junket rooms at the property, operated by 9 different junkets (including Wynn's house junket). Apparently, two of the newer operators moved quite a bit of business over from Starworld and some smaller Macau casinos. Indeed, Starworld's VIP rolling chip market share declined 170 bps, Galaxy in total fell 140 bps, and SJM in total fell 170 bps. Meanwhile, Wynn's two largest junkets maintained the current book of business at around $1.3 billion each.
Is the move sustainable? Maybe, November also showed a marked sequential increase in VIP chips share, up 260 bps. November stopped a fairly consistent share degredation following the 2009 peak in May.
