Gaming | New poker room opens at Roosevelt Hotel

Macau junket Meg-Star Group has opened its first poker room blending luxury watch viewing with poker games. The new establishment opened June 21 at the Roosevelt Hotel.

The group has branded the poker room “Poker Time Club,” which the group claims is the only one of it’s kind in the world. The poker club provides luxury watches for both viewing and sale to guests, aside from the core attraction of poker games. The group aims to create a new wave of poker heat in Macau.

Apart from watch viewing, the Roosevelt’s poker room provides five separate circular VIP rooms, and an al- fresco bar and lounge.

The concept was co-created by Swiss Time Group, a manufacturer for more than 600 brands, including A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet and Van Cleef & Arpels.

The Times asked a professional poker player in Macau about the new concept. He said that even though he is more interested in poker than any other peripheral service, he thinks it is appealing to many people. With more elements in the poker room, more people are likely to be attracted to play. He also added that with “some expensive jewelry around, it can attract players or their relatives.”

The professional player believes there is much more work to be done to attract poker players to Macau. For example, he mentioned that many poker rooms in the U.S. offer a jackpot to the second-best hand of cards. He said it is attractive to some people and is viable option in Macau.

Baccarat is the most popular type of casino game in Macau. Last year, VIP and mass baccarat generated more than MOP268 billion in Macau, accounting for about 88 percent of the city’s total revenue for year. Comparatively, MOP340 million was generated by Texas Hold‘em.

The Meg-Star group, however, sees a lot of room for development in this respect. It aims to provide hybrid poker rooms to attract more players to Macau. Currently, 90% of the games the group provides are baccarat and 10% are Texas Hold‘em. Staff reporter