The Wynn Palace integrated casino-resort is set to expand by 17% after the Macao government approved plans to build a new luxury hotel tower.
Wynn Palace unveiled plans to build the new 432-suite tower at the end of the first quarter of the current financial year.
And following some to-and-fro with the Macao Secretary of Transport and Public Works, authorities have now approved revised plans for the new tower. The tower will see the IR boost Wynn’s capacity for hotel guests by around 25%.
“Wynn Palace runs at essentially full occupancy every night,” claimed Craig Billings, the Wynn Resorts CEO. in May. “And so when you’re at 99% occupancy, you’re not making a speculative bet by adding rooms.”
Work on the tower will begin later this year, with the expansion set to be completed in 2028.
The announcement comes as Macao visitor numbers increase, both from Mainland China and other Asian nations. However, Macao casinos have seen ordinary gaming revenue and VIP spending drop in recent months.
Wynn Palace Expansion Has No ‘Gaming Element’
Wynn Palace’s plans also include a new 8,787-square-meter theater, as well as a 23,738-sqm event and activity center, the Macao-based, Japanese-language newspaper Macau Shimbun reported.
Billings claimed the Macao market remains “heavily driven” by VIPs, and said the room expansion would capture “demand that already exists and that [Wynn Palace is] currently turning away.”
He also said the expansion could increase gross gaming revenue at the IR by $400 million, according to “conservative” calculations.
This is despite the fact that the tower would “not have a gaming element,” he added.
Wynn will pay a land concession premium of 650 million patacas, or $80.5 million, for the lease of the land.
The casino operator first floated plans to build a theater and event center on unused Macao government-owned land in 2023. However, it revised its plans in 2025 to include a new tower before drafting a finalized version for the Secretary of Transport and Public Works’s approval in May.
The Secretary initially said it did not oppose the plans in principle, so long as no new casino space was included in the final version.
VIP Spending Drops in Second Quarter
Wynn will be hoping for a reversal in Macao casinos’ fortunes ahead of the new tower’s completion.
Earlier this week, Macao’s gaming regulator, the District Inspection and Coordination of Gaming, said second-quarter GGR dropped 0.1% year-on-year to just under $7.6 billion, in spite of a rise in tourist arrivals.
VIP spending also fell, with VIP room receipts dropping 2.6% on last year’s figures.
Non-VIP spending figures provided a silver lining, however, with receipts up just under 1%.
Experts say the 2026 World Cup could be to blame for the dip.
The regulator noted that soccer lottery spending has rocketed by 34% in the first months of 2026 and the period leading up to the World Cup.
Lottery ticket receipts have shot past the $171 million mark this year, said the regulator, raking in their highest quarterly total since the 2020 Qatar World Cup.
Typhoons & Mosquitoes Blight Casinos’ Summer Plans
Other factors beyond soccer are also leaving a mark.
Typhoon season continues to wreak havoc on travel schedules, with Typhoon Noul set to make landfall in Guangdong Province this weekend.
Forecasters say heavy winds and torrential rainfall are likely, with disruption to sea transport routes expected.
The Macao Health Bureau is also battling outbreaks of dengue fever and chikungunya, another mosquito-transmitted disease.
The bureau has responded by launching more community patrols and mosquito control measures.
Health officials say they have carried out over 7,750 inspections at suspected mosquito breeding grounds. They have also conducted 1,524 “chemical mosquito control operations” in some 130 “unsanitary hotspots.”
Earlier this month, the bureau said it was working with “venue management entities” on mosquito control measures in a 100-meter “high-risk area around the Wynn Palace.”
