CNBC – No one is a bigger player in Las Vegas than MGM Resorts. But as the Strip makes a slow recovery, results there continue to be dwarfed by MGM’s success in Macau.
The casino giant is now looking for the next big market.
As 2014 began, Chairman and CEO Jim Murren sat down with CNBC. While the company is in its quiet period before announcing earnings, he discussed a broad range of opportunities and challenges for the gaming industry.
Japanese legislators are pushing to finally legalize casino gambling in that country. This is the next big bet in Asia, Murren said.
“Japan will be bigger than Las Vegas,” he said.
MGM Resorts and its rivals have been laying the groundwork in Tokyo and Osaka to win a license if the Japanese government issues them.
“Everyone’s going to say they have an inside track,” Murren said. “No one has an inside track.”
People are starting to spend more on retail, entertainment and restaurants in Vegas, he said, with nongambling revenue across the Strip growing faster than gaming revenue.
“Every indicator that I see is that we’ll be correct in the assumption that we’re going to have a very strong double-digit increase in convention business, and room rates are going to be up sharply in the first quarter,” Murren said. “The question will be—can we keep that momentum for the balance of the year? No one knows the answer to that, because booking windows are still pretty tight.”
“Domestically, the story in 2013 was a ‘good but not great’ year,” he said. “Internationally, it was another great year. Going into ’14, I would expect domestically to be a bit better than ’13, and I think the international business will be great again.”
