MGM China Holdings has implemented what its leadership called a “chip-in-chip programme” to track every chip used on the gaming floor, saying that gamblers shunned private rooms dedicated to foreign gamblers.
The revelation was made by William Hornbuckle, CEO of MGM Resorts International, at a J.P. Morgan Gaming, Lodging, Restaurant and Leisure Management Access Forum season on 14 March.
According to him, the initiative has been enforced for several years to track all the chips in circulation.
“The benefit of that at the time was no errors to the game,” he said. “You knew exactly where to put your labour. There was a bunch of back-end benefits in terms of accounting, finance, and etc.”
Referring to the foreigner-only gaming zone – an addition under the new gaming law enforced early last year that could allow casino operators to enjoy a 5 percent levy exemption, Hornbuckle said that some gamblers from abroad did not find the idea of being isolated attractive.
“The only way to track that effectively because it was a different tax bracket was to put it in independent private rooms. And so that meant everyone from Thailand, go over to that little room over there and gamble in there, where customers didn’t like it.”
When the new policy was unveiled in 2022, Cheong Weng Chon, the spokesperson for the Executive Council, had already emphasised that foreign punters would have the opportunity to use a different type of gambling chip.
