MGM emphasizes youth movement, ‘International’ for growth strategy

MGM Resorts International is working to appeal to young gamblers who crave experiences more than material things as well as emphasize the “International” in its name.

MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle on Tuesday kicked off Day 2 of the four-day 2024 Global Gaming Expo with a keynote address on how casino companies can continue to grow even after consecutive record-breaking years since the pandemic ended.

“A decade ago, the gaming industry was trying to figure out why we weren’t appealing to younger generations,” Hornbuckle said minutes before the G2E trade show floor featuring hundreds of slot machines and other gaming equipment was about to open.

“The mantra back then was, ‘Well, we’ll get them when they’re 50.’ That’s changed. In 2019, the average age of a casino visitor was, in fact, 50. Today, it’s one that we need to keep driving to stay on the growth. Millennials are the largest generation living today, along with younger Gen Z’ers. They’ll make up about four out of five workers globally in just five years, crucial to our industry’s future.”

Hornbuckle said the younger generation is more inclined to enjoy experiences than stuff.

“Millennials are experience-based,” he said. “I’m an old guy. I like stuff. I like cars, I like my stuff. My daughter likes her friends. They travel, they do things that I would never have contemplated spending that much money on at that age or that much of her net worth.”

As a result, Las Vegas is deemed more of an escape than a vacation.

“(Escape is) a great word for us. It’s a destination. People come for three days, they get the excuse I’m coming for a football game now or a hockey game. And the more we make that event-driven activity cases, the principle reasons of visitation here, the better off we’re going to be. And it is driven the age down because of that general principle.”

‘International’ is key

MGM also intends to maintain growth with new international destinations.

Its $10 billion MGM Osaka resort is under construction with a forecast 2030 opening date. Meanwhile, the company has eyes on entering the Brazilian market and the company previously has expressed interest in Thailand.

“We’re in 15 other countries, many of them European. We’ve launched BetMGM in the U.K. and in the Netherlands. We’ve got a couple other markets in mind and we’re heading to Brazil with BetMGM come January.”

Hornbuckle also said he’s pleased with the rebound in Macao where the company operates two resorts. The Golden Week holiday, which just concluded, showed increases in visitation and betting volume with an estimated 993,000 tourists – 142,000 a day – there for one of China’s biggest holidays.

He said while China appears to be less stable through global, economic, and geopolitical events, interest rates and the general economy are always going to be worrisome in the region. Still, Macao is a much better market now than it was in 2004, he said.

Different MGM destinations have differing economic cycles and he said that case could be made for Las Vegas as well.

“Each market is unique. China is unique. Obviously, if we were to get up and operate in Japan, that would be unique. And even domestically here, Las Vegas acts a little bit differently than some of our regionals. It’s all tied to the same labor picture, but we like the general trend,” he said.

Rebound from cyberattack

Hornbuckle said MGM has rebounded well from the cybersecurity incident a year ago that brought him to the 2023 G2E stage — although he hinted that the company’s insurance rates have gone up as a result.

“We’ve learned a lot in terms of frontline defense,” he said. “We work intimately with the FBI. By the way, we caught two of these bastards. We did, with the FBI, because we weren’t motivated to give them (ransom) money and we worked with them intimately. We let them into our environment and showed them what happened and in turn they were able to track these guys down and so you know, 17-year-olds, literally working from his mother’s basement in some place outside London. All that said, it’s devastating the context and the scale, but (now) we’re in a much, much better place.”