{"id":34342,"date":"2022-10-12T08:44:42","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T11:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=34342"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:02:11","slug":"hornbuckle-dont-underestimate-gmm-bid-for-macau-gaming-licence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hornbuckle-dont-underestimate-gmm-bid-for-macau-gaming-licence","title":{"rendered":"Hornbuckle: don&#8217;t underestimate GMM bid for Macau gaming licence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bill Hornbuckle says GMM Limited\u2018s bid for one of Macau\u2019s six casino licences must be treated seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Macau.- MGM president and CEO&nbsp;<strong>Bill Hornbuckle<\/strong>&nbsp;has stressed that the outside contender for one of Macau&#8217;s six casino licences shouldn&#8217;t be underestimated. Speaking at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas, Hornbuckle told CNBC that GMM Limited&#8217;s bid should be taken &#8220;very seriously&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GMM Limited&nbsp;is a company linked to Lim Kok Thay,&nbsp;<strong>chairman of Genting Group<\/strong>, which operates casino resorts in Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere. Many observers believe that it&#8217;s <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/gmm-unlikely-to-win-gaming-concession-in-macau-analysts-say\" target=\"_blank\">unlikely that Macau will leave out any of its six current casino operators<\/a>, giving <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-7-operators-submit-bids-for-casino-concessions\" target=\"_blank\">GGM&#8217;s surprise bid<\/a> only an outside chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for MGM&#8217;s bid, Hornbuckle&nbsp;said the company &#8220;is answering the government\u2019s calls about diversification, about entertainment, about tourism, and the kinds of things we think are going to drive that market in the future. And the government has its own choice to make when this process is over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>See also:<\/strong>&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/mgm-says-getting-new-macau-gaming-licence-is-top-priority\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MGM says getting new Macau gaming licence is top priority<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He stressed: \u201cIt\u2019s not only our company: it\u2019s all six concessionaires. We have been very good to the community and the community to us, the Macau government extensively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The CEO added: \u201cWe have been highly supportive throughout [the pandemic], in taking care of our employees, taking care of all of our SMEs small and medium-sized enterprises that we deal with. And so I think we the incumbents are all in really good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Macau casino bidders reportedly told to increase investment in non-gaming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities in Macau&nbsp;have held meetings with each of the concession bidders. Little has emerged about their content, but analysts at Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) suggest that the process is not as straightforward as operators may have hoped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Analysts said the government has rejected some ideas put forward by the bidders and is requesting&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-casino-tender-process-to-focus-on-non-gaming-plans\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">higher investment in non-gaming<\/a>&nbsp;projects. The government reportedly also wants operators to provide clear spending timetables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September, Macau reiterated its aim to have the results of the retender ready in time to issue new licences<strong>&nbsp;by the end of the year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Hornbuckle says GMM Limited\u2018s bid for one of Macau\u2019s six casino licences must be treated seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":22971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"MGM President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle underscores the serious nature of GMM Limited's bid for a Macau casino license, despite the strong position of incumbent operators. Concurrently, Macau authorities are reportedly demanding increased non-gaming investment and clear spending timetables from all concession bidders, signaling a more rigorous retender process than initially anticipated.","focusai_entities":"Bill Hornbuckle, GMM Limited, MGM, Genting Group, Lim Kok Thay, Credit Suisse (Hong Kong)","focusai_location":"Macau, Las Vegas, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Non-Gaming Investment Impact","query":"What specific non-gaming verticals are Macau authorities prioritizing, and how will the increased investment mandates impact the GGR-to-non-gaming revenue ratio for successful bidders over the new concession term?"},{"label":"Incumbent vs. Challenger Criteria","query":"Given GMM Limited's serious bid and the incumbents' established community ties, what are the key qualitative and quantitative criteria the Macau government is likely to prioritize in its final concessionaire selection process?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338],"tags":[1076,16615],"class_list":["post-34342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-genting","tag-mgm-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34342"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34382,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34342\/revisions\/34382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}