Chief Operating Officer, MGM Resorts
MGM CEO on how company plans to bring meetings and conventions back to Vegas
MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle sit down with CNBC's Contessa Brewer to discuss MGM's safety campaign for reopening as the rest of the country rebounds. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi
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The...
About Corey Sanders
Corey Sanders, Chief Operating Officer at MGM Resorts, has been involved in the company's efforts to restart meetings and conventions in Las Vegas. In April 2021, he discussed the "Convene with Confidence" program, which he described as a partnership with Clear and QHealth that allows groups to be tested and attend meetings in a safe environment. He also noted that MGM had vaccinated over 5,000 employees and was extending vaccinations to their families, emphasizing the importance of projecting a safe environment for visitors. Sanders also commented on expansion plans, stating that MGM has 97 acres in Yonkers and could create up to ten thousand jobs with a permanent casino license. He expressed views on iGaming, saying it makes "exponentially more than sports betting" and would likely account for two-thirds of the industry's bottom line. Regarding Macau, he predicted recovery would be delayed until late summer, contingent on vaccination rates in China and Hong Kong.
Transcript (13 segments)
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Interviewer0:11
Thursday night and things start picking up by Friday morning. The lobbies are jammed. People are back. You just launched this week 'Convene with Confidence.' It's a program, as I understand it, to allow conferences to come back and create a health bubble. Can you explain it?
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Corey Sanders0:27
Sure, absolutely. So we're back. That's the bottom line here. Things are returning with velocity we haven't seen in a very long time. We're excited about 'Convene with Confidence.' It's a program we've put together, we've had out in the marketplace actually for a while, for groups where you can come in, you can be tested, you can walk around. Through our partnership with Clear and with QHealth, we also can provide that for people as well. So it's a great product, it's a great process. It makes people feel great about the destination, and generally they're flocking back. So we're excited by all of that. On May 1st, the governor will give the county health departments the ability to go in and decide what the occupancy limits should be, what the recovered restrictions need to be. So Clark County will get that. The Gaming Control Board has said we cannot raise the occupancy limits beyond the current 50% until we see some real concrete plans on how we're going to deal with vaccines.
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Interviewer1:47
GoodRx is out with a survey, some research today, that indicates Nevada is among the worst in the nation for counties that have vaccine hesitation. What are you doing to overcome that?
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Corey Sanders2:11
We have a program set up at Mandalay. We shuttle our employees down, we go out and do satellites in our various properties. We've done over 5,000 employees, and we're now, as of this week, bringing in their families. As the state's largest employer, we touch probably a quarter of a million people in this valley in one way, shape, or form or another, which is about 10% of the population base. Through that, we vaccinate over 5,000 people. We're going to continue to push through this and just do the best we can as quickly as we can.
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Interviewer2:39
Do you think that's going to matter to leisure travelers and to convention attendees?
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Corey Sanders2:42
Absolutely, it's going to matter. If we can project a safe place to come where people feel comfortable knowing that the vast majority of our employees have been vaccinated, and therefore they can enjoy themselves, obviously protocols will still need to be in play with social distancing and masks.
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Interviewer3:10
The budget came out, and there were a lot of casinos that were hoping there would be much more in New York's plan to unveil mobile sports betting and potentially to expand downstate, meaning New York City casino licenses, where MGM has a big facility in Yonkers that could use some expansion. Give me some reaction to where New York stands and what you think is going to happen down the road.
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Corey Sanders3:35
Look, the governor and the legislature put a lot of work into this. There's obviously a lot of interested parties, both the operators up north, future potential providers of sports betting ourselves, and our partners at Aqueduct in the context of racino, both wanting to become casinos. We have 97 acres, we employ a couple thousand folks. We think we can impact jobs if we can get a permanent casino license up to 10,000. We are very positive in the long run there. We got a great location, we know how to do this at scale, and we want to put it all to work.
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Interviewer4:19
But if Governor Cuomo is after the tax revenue and he's flat out said, 'I don't care about making the casinos money,' is he missing the boat? Are the casinos, as experienced gaming operators, the key to maximizing your tax revenue?
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Corey Sanders4:33
Yeah, in two respects. Look, if you talk about brick and mortar casinos, you talk about jobs, you talk about a greater good for a community, absolutely. When you talk about online sports betting, there's been models and examples out there. Look at Rhode Island, look at New Hampshire. Places that went for a 50% tax, it's not the same marketplace. You want to let the best operators, you want a free and open market. You need to tax it, but you want to tax it appropriately.
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Interviewer5:11
I just have 20 seconds, but can you tell me about Macau? When are we going to see some recovery?
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Corey Sanders5:15
Probably delayed into the summer. Macau hasn't seen a case since March of last year, but it's about getting people vaccinated in places like China and Hong Kong so that when they come across, they can go back and not have to go into a hotel for three weeks. So I'm thinking late summer we're going to really see, post-July, like activity. This summer I think you'll see it really boom.
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Interviewer5:38
Shepherd Smith here. Thanks for watching CNBC.