Studio City opening date to be announced today

Melco Crown’s newest casino in Cotai may get 150 new-to-market live gaming tables, less than half of what it is hoping for, analysts say. Deutsche Bank’s (BB) team outlined that they believe Studio City will be granted a similar number of new units to rival operator Galaxy Entertainment Group, which was 150. The authorities are currently imposing a 3 percent cap on annual compound growth. Melco Crown chief executive Lawrence Ho will be announcing Studio City’s opening date today. DB predicts that the property will open in late October. “Market conditions are very challenging but the construction process for our project has been very smooth. So far, progress is good. But we’re working hard on the remaining 5 per cent,” Mr Ho said late last month. The Deutsche Bank team estimated Studio City might use 110 of the new tables for mass play and 40 for premium mass and “direct VIP”. Deutsche analysts Carlo Santarelli and Danny Valoy stated that the gaming floor is expected to open with 1000 slots and 200 live dealer multi-terminal stations.