{"id":777004097,"date":"2023-04-06T12:45:40","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T15:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777004097"},"modified":"2026-04-22T23:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:02:39","slug":"melco-opens-three-foreigner-only-gaming-zones-at-macau-casinos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melco-opens-three-foreigner-only-gaming-zones-at-macau-casinos","title":{"rendered":"Melco opens three foreigner-only gaming zones at Macau casinos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There are two foreigner-only gaming zones at City of Dreams and one at Studio City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Macau.-&nbsp;<strong>Lawrence Ho Yau Lung<\/strong>, chairman of<strong>&nbsp;Melco Resorts and Entertainment<\/strong>, has confirmed that the company has opened three foreigner-only gaming zones at its Macau properties. Speaking to the media at the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melcos-studio-city-to-open-indoor-water-park-and-hotel-tower\" target=\"_blank\">first stage opening of Studio City Phase II<\/a>, he said <strong>there are two foreigner-only gaming zones at City of Dreams and one at Studio City<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Macau casino operators were encouraged to build gaming zones exclusive to foreign gamblers to gain&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-casinos-may-create-foreign-player-zones-for-5-levy-exemption\" target=\"_blank\">an exemption on a 5 per cent levy<\/a>&nbsp;on gross gaming revenue. The move aims to draw more visitors from beyond China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Melco anticipates more visitors from May, following Macau&#8217;s opening up in January and the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-package-tours-from-mainland-china-to-resume\" target=\"_blank\">resumption of tour groups in February<\/a>. It has opened a new indoor water park as part of the first stage of the second phase of the&nbsp;<strong>Studio City complex<\/strong>. The second stage is due to open in the third quarter of 2023 with a hotel tower under the W Hotels brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the situation at Studio City is reportedly not as promising as the company may have hoped. According to Asia Gaming Brief (AGB), <strong>many gaming tables remain closed<\/strong>, with sporadic concentrations of players in certain areas of the casino. The EGM area of the floor is also largely closed, with very few people seen gambling there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are two foreigner-only gaming zones at City of Dreams and one at Studio City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Melco Resorts and Entertainment has opened three foreigner-only gaming zones across its City of Dreams and Studio City properties in Macau, leveraging a 5% GGR levy exemption incentive. This strategic move aims to diversify visitor demographics beyond China, aligning with Macau's post-reopening tourism recovery. Despite new amenities like an indoor water park, initial operational observations at Studio City indicate lower-than-anticipated player density.","focusai_entities":"Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, Melco Resorts and Entertainment, Asia Gaming Brief (AGB), W Hotels","focusai_location":"Macau, City of Dreams, Studio City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.85), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (0.95), marketing_crm (0.7), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GGR Levy Impact","query":"What is the projected GGR uplift from the 5% levy exemption for foreigner-only gaming zones, and how does this impact Melco's overall profitability forecast?"},{"label":"Studio City Performance","query":"Given the reported low player density at Studio City's new zones, what specific operational adjustments or marketing initiatives are planned to optimize asset utilization and NGR?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16338],"tags":[18488],"class_list":["post-777004097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-melco-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777004097","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=777004097"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777004097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777004117,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777004097\/revisions\/777004117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777004097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777004097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777004097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}