Stephen Grambling: Got it. Makes sense. And maybe one other quick follow-up just on BetMGM. You said in the past that it’s going to be self-funding from here. Is there anything that you’d be looking for where you say, this is something that we would want to invest in to contribute to BetMGM or provide them with additional capital for any reason?
William Hornbuckle: Yes. Well, there’s a couple of potential things. Look, obviously, if — not that California is going to happen anytime soon, but if California or other large markets, Texas, etc., Georgia could probably be another one you could put into this boat. We would be aggressive there like I think all others would be. And so that would take some capital. And so, we would never say never, to be clear. And I’m speaking on behalf of MGM in terms of its growth and what it wants to do with that business. And so, I think for now, as we think about this year, the plan that we put forward is going to hold. If we get product really right and we see an opportunity to lean in, we will. I don’t necessarily know what it will do to the cash.
It won’t be margin — it won’t be meaningful. And so, only some other — or some acquisition comes along that we think BetMGM might be ripe for. But I think the way to think about it is, the projection we have out there is probably a pretty safe projection for now.
Stephen Grambling: Makes sense. Thanks so much.
Operator: Our next question comes from John Decree from CBRE. Please go ahead with your question.
John DeCree: Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Bill, maybe to start off on a high level. Bill, you’ve talked about some of the opportunities that you’re watching, Thailand, UAE, Texas, and obviously, we know where we’re at in New York and Japan right now. So maybe of the other ones, I’m curious if you could give us some additional thoughts or which ones you might be most excited about or think maybe have the best chance of coming to fruition over the next couple of years?
William Hornbuckle: I think at least in terms of the market, I think UAE will come to fruition. I think there’s enough indicators there, enough work has been done to recognize that either Abu Dhabi of note, or one of the other Emirates will come to life. Obviously, Wynn has got a project in the ground and is waiting for national legislation and regulatory framework. So, I think that would be the most affirmative. Thailand is interesting. Obviously, it’s fully within the government’s control and hands at this point. The dialog to date has been encouraging. We will see. The cost to do business there, the margins that could be had would be compelling, very. But again, I don’t want to get ahead of that curve. And Texas is — if there is two or three states left in the US that are meaningful, it’s one of them.
And so, there’s four big cities that have been talked about there without giving strategy, everyone’s got positioning and eyes on one of them as do we. And so we continue to follow that. But I wouldn’t look for anything immediate there either frankly, particularly in terms of brick-and-mortar.
John DeCree: Thanks, Bill. That’s helpful. I appreciate that. And maybe a follow-up more on BetMGM and the rest of the portfolio and the omnichannel strategy. It’s kind of been a little bit of a focus, but I don’t know if we’ve talked too much about it today. So, curious if you can share some updates on what you’re seeing in terms of kind of crossover play and then maybe in the context of an event like Super Bowl in Las Vegas with a big draw and now that you’ve got kind of tentacles around the whole nation through BetMGM, I’m curious how you’re seeing those trends play out.
William Hornbuckle: I think the notion of omnichannel and the notion of people to play back and forth is about 15% of BetMGM’s database give or take. Until we get this single account, single wallet in Nevada, I don’t think it’s as meaningful as it could and potentially will be. I think that can be very meaningful long-term for us because it’s a unique position we would have here, particularly over the other leading contenders in this space. And obviously, we see a whole bunch of visitors every year here who have intent. And so, for things like Super Bowl, etc., it would be important. Well, we have done a meaningful job and a good job in Super Bowl as the example of inviting, reaching out, and making sure that BetMGM’s VIP clientele are well catered to and we hosted several of them during that event in particular, private party, tickets to the game, etc.
And so, that activity will continue. It’s really when we get this omni — when we get single account, single wallet set up, and some more connectivity between MGM rewards and BetMGM’s loyalty system, that you’ll really see some traction.
Jonathan Halkyard: I think it’s also notable to mention that we had about 1 million signups for MGM rewards during the quarter, an all-time record, 600,000 of those came from BetMGM.
Stephen Grambling: Great. Thanks, Jonathan. Appreciate that. Thank you, Bill.
Operator: Our next question comes from Robin Farley from UBS. Please go ahead with your question.
Robin Farley: Great. Thank you. Just circling back to your outlook for EBITDAR in Vegas growing this year. Can you give us a sense of, I don’t know, any kind of quarterly cadence? I assume that Q3, since you’d be comping the cyber hacking last year, is maybe — would have the easiest comps or would provide maybe most of the growth in that. Is that the right way to think about that? And then I also wanted to — I was curious about a comment that Bill sort of mentioned there about additional capital investment in Vegas. And I’m wondering if you could give us any sort of shape of what that might mean. Thanks.
Jonathan Halkyard: Sure. We right now I think will be able to grow EBITDAR in Las Vegas in each of the next three quarters. And you’re correct to note that the third quarter will probably represent greater growth relative to the second and the fourth quarter, primarily because of the incident last year. And then on the capital question?
William Hornbuckle: Yes. I’m sorry, Robin, I was off in never — neverland on there, I guess. In terms of capital, I’ll go — I will go through that in some detail next quarter. And I think you’ll find it all very interesting, and so, if you could give me the privilege of that time, that be great.
Robin Farley: Absolutely. Thank you.
Operator: And our next question comes from Dan Politzer from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead with your question.
Daniel Politzer: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. We’ve been hearing more about Outbound China picking up more recently. To what extent are you seeing that in Las Vegas and particularly as it relates to macro, is that part of that growth outlook that you’ve kind of laid out here for 2024?
William Hornbuckle: Yes. Jon, I’ll make a macro — Dan, excuse me, a macro comment. The challenge with China right now, we’re about 30% recovered in terms of volume of people. To fly in and out of China, if you have to fly over Russia, there’s an economic burden if you can’t fly over Russia. And so that puts pressure on packaging, tour, leisure, etc. And so, until that’s resolved, i.e., Ukraine, I think that challenge is going to exist. I had the good fortune of being in China about a month ago. I actually had the good fortune of meeting with President Xi and talking about this very subject. He is open to people-to-people exchange as he referenced it, in a meaningful way. But I think we all have that bit of a hurdle. And of course, I don’t know, Chinese New Year’s was good, but Chinese New Year’s was good and on the high-end side, we probably saw for the first time since COVID, some more million-dollar customers than we’ve seen in the past, which is positive.
We’re still only about 55% of where we were in China on the high-end from 2019. But even last — a few weeks ago, we had a group come in for the Masters, they came to Vegas first and we were going to send them to the Masters. So we’re seeing some positive results there.
Daniel Politzer: Got it. And then just pivoting to Macau, I think flow-through in the quarter was around 30%. I know you’ve talked in the past a little bit about margins and expectations there. But is that kind of the right way to think about it going forward as we kind of fill out in terms of the recovery?
William Hornbuckle: Kenny, why don’t you take that?
Kenneth Feng: Yes. I think like basically, as we always said in our calls, we are targeting about like a high-20%s, around 30% of our EBITDAR margin. Based on the current business trend, we feel comfortable with such kind of expectations.
Daniel Politzer: Got it. Thanks so much.
Operator: And our final question today comes from Barry Jonas from Truist Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
Barry Jonas: Hey, guys. I want to start with Macau. Can you maybe talk a little bit about the specific benefits you’re seeing with your smart tables there? Should we expect any impact on market share once competitors get those tables? And I guess, is there any opportunity to use that technology in any other of your markets? Thanks.
William Hornbuckle: So, I think [Multiple Speakers] Go ahead, Hubert.
Hubert Wang: There are multiple aspects of the benefits of smart tables. And first of all, you have game security. Of course, and it’s — everything is tracked and it’s very difficult to cheat a game. It’s almost impossible. And we have cases where people thought that they got away, but as long as the chips come back, they were caught. And also operating efficiency because it could require far less supervision, manning. So, these are just from a basic operations standpoint. And then because of the capability of tracking all the play, so it allows us to have a lot more data, which allows us to do precision marketing based on various customers’ playing level, we can also give them real-time rewards. And it allows us to develop new games as well.
For instance, we already launched insurance back in this market and this is impossible to do manually. And with this technology, we can do it. So — and it’s also very favorably viewed by the regulators in this environment. And so, yes, you’re right, that everybody is trying to implement that. And I think that we have at least several years of lead in the implementation and also take advantage of this technology to execute various programs. Kenny, do you have anything?
Kenneth Feng: I just want to add a little bit in. Like, actually, we had this technology already in 2016 or people are always asking of how we are leading this market, why we are recovering or in this way after COVID. I just want to make a little bit comment on that. What differentiates us in the market is really most, is a Company-wide from the senior management, we possess a deep understanding of our customers, particularly the premium mass, from their culture, their habit, behavior, background profile, even their home province, and the dialects. China is a vast country with a huge supply of nearly everything like a cutting-edge technology like various hospitality products. In the past three years, we didn’t withhold time and keep — kept innovating and refreshing our products, our services to meet the ever-changing customer expectations.
So, we are doing that. We just launched two Casino SMB hot list in April, which has been well-received on the social media and by customers. Basically, all the team members here, we encourage all of you to visit us in person. Seeing — like seeing is believeing. So, when you come, we can walk you through all the details, initiatives implemented in the past few years that we have done. I think that’s my comment about our performance of competitiveness.
Barry Jonas: Great. I’ll be sure to take you up on that. And then maybe just as a final question. Bill, when you look at the M&A environment right now, is there anything interesting for you strategically on the buy-side within land-based gaming in the regionals or even Vegas?
William Hornbuckle: Barry, if I could answer that, I wouldn’t. Look, there’s always interesting things. Vegas, we have a full plate, as you know. And so — but look, the good news is, we’re in a position that we get advised news of most things that are happening out there. But no, there’s nothing eminent that sits there as, gee, wouldn’t it be great to have, at this point in time. So, it’s — that’s why we’re focused on new markets and our digital business. And then — and ultimately, because this just leads into this, what’s left with a lot of free cash flow is buying — continue to buy-back shares to give back to shareholders if we just don’t think there’s anything better to do with the cash. And we’ve done a lot of that. So, I think it speaks to our — obviously, the Cosmopolitan was extremely accretive and we look for those, but there are not a lot of them out there.
Barry Jonas: Great. Thank you so much.
Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the conference call back over to Bill Hornbuckle for any closing remarks.
William Hornbuckle: Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining us. Sorry for the glitch in the middle of this. We’re not sure exactly what happened on either side. As we talked about, obviously, a well-balanced portfolio, we think we’ve got great pillars in the ground in these four specific locations, Las Vegas, regional, Macau, and digital. We think if you think about Las Vegas, we have luxury, we have convention, we have value, and we’re in the — literally in the epicenter of the entertainment offerings of both current and future. And so, we’re very excited by that. While we are third in digital in BetMGM, we are number-one in brick-and-mortar operators who have entered this space. And so, this is a highly competitive space.
We’re excited by where we are and what we’re trying to get to. Much work to be done there and frankly, some catch-up to be done there. And we recognize it as well as our partner does. And so, we’re excited by that. We’ll keep you all posted as New York and hopefully UAE become a reality and same with Thailand and/or Texas. And in the interim, and I just said it earlier, but to the extent we have free growing cash flow and we do, we’ll continue to return it to shareholders when we don’t think there’s anything better to do with the cash. So, I thank you all, and have a great evening.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we’ll conclude today’s presentation. We do thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.
