Macau doesn't want to be known as just the world's biggest gambling hub. The Chinese city is the only place in the Asian country where casino gambling is legal. In 2019, before the COVID pandemic, Macau's gaming industry generated $36 billion in revenue, three times as much as the U.S. state of Nevada, home of Las Vegas. The sector was connected to over half the city's GDP, and employed 17% of the city's roughly 600,000 residents.
But the city's government wants to diversify its economy. When casino licenses were up for renewal last year, Macau's six gaming operators had to promise the government that they would expand non-gambling offerings and attract more foreign tourists.
"Macau needs to take a completely new perspective," says Pansy Ho, chairperson of MGM China Holdings, one of Macau's six licensed casino operators, said during Fortune's Brainstorm Design conference in Macau on Wednesday. (MGM China is a host partner of the Brainstorm Design conference).
Ho is the daughter of Stanley Ho, the legendary Macau-based casino tycoon that launched the city's gaming industry. In addition to her role at MGM China, she also has shares in SJM Holdings, the company started by her late father which operates the city's iconic Casino Lisboa. Pansy Ho also chairs Shun Tak Holdings, a conglomerate that, among other things, operates the ferry service between Macau and the nearby Chinese city of Hong Kong.
When MGM China asked Macau to renew its casino license, the government drove a harder bargain than Ho anticipated. "I had to come and live here for six months in order to prepare" for the process, she said. "I came with a little hand carry bag, thinking that I was there to just submit the already-prepared file for the docket."
"What the government has made us do is to practically write into the calendar on a monthly and even weekly basis, we're going to have something to offer," she said.
Ho thinks the angle, at least for MGM China, is arts and culture. Macau, which was for centuries housed the only permitted Western presence in China, is "so rich in terms of storytelling," Ho said.
For example, the company commissioned composer Tan Dun for a piece inspired by Dunhuang, a famous, and UNESCO-recognized, intersection point for major trade routes in the Silk Road. MGM China also promised to revitalize the area around the A-Ma Temple, the origin of the city's name. The company will revive about 35,000 square meters of space, including old shipyard buildings that will also be preserved.
"I want all the creative minds," the casino magnate said. "We want to have the studios here. We want to have the art fairs here. We want to bring festivals here."
Despite her support for Macau's plan to diversify the economy, she has no qualms about the gaming business. The plan is to use "gaming to sustain and to help build out the non-gaming aspects of hospitality, in MICE [meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions]," she explained.
"We want gaming to go up!" Ho said.
