Good afternoon, welcome to the MGM Resorts International Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Joining the call from the company today are Bill Hornbuckle, Chief Executive Officer and President, Corey Sanders, Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan Halkyard, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Hubert Wang, President and Chief Operating Officer of MGM China, and Andrew Chapman, Director of Investor Relations. Participants are in a listen-only mode. After the company's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. In fairness to all participants, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I would like to turn the call over to Andrew Chapman. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Welcome to the MGM Resorts International Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Earnings Call. This call is being broadcast live on the Internet at investors.mgmresorts.com. We've also furnished our press release on Form 8-K to the SEC. On this call, we will make forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the Federal Securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in these statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements is contained in today's press release and in our periodic filings with the SEC. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or otherwise. During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures in talking about our performance.
You can find the reconciliation to GAAP financial measures in our press release and investor presentation, which are available on our website. Finally, this presentation is being recorded. I will now turn it over to Bill Hornbuckle.
Thank you, Andrew. Thank you all for joining us today. I'm proud to announce that MGM Resorts International drove record fourth quarter adjusted property EBITDAR for our Las Vegas and regional resorts. What's more, our full-year Las Vegas Strip adjusted property EBITDAR increased by more than 80% year-over-year. These outstanding results are evidence of our focus on optimizing growth in our business and operations, as well as our strategic vision of becoming the world's premier gaming entertainment company. These outcomes are also a testament to our employees who go above and beyond every day to take care of our guests and create an amazing, great experiences which drive loyalty among our customers. Our employees are true heroes of this story. We need to be celebrated.
I couldn't be prouder of them for delivering these financial results alongside the steady improving guest and record employee satisfaction scores we are enjoying. We look forward, we expect many of the drivers of our 2022 performance to continue into 2023. Importantly, we are well-positioned on weather change in a variety of environments given the inherent long-term benefits of MGM's diverse portfolio. In fact, we have the most diverse offerings in the gaming space, and as such, we're a well-balanced organization that benefits from both scale and a host of premier brand offerings. The distinct pieces of our business that create this diversification are, number one, our number of 9 Las Vegas Strip and 8 regional domestic properties in the U.S. that cater to all market segments and produce consistently strong profitability.
Two, our two integrated resorts in Macau that pre-pandemic generated EBITDAR of over $700 million and are just now beginning to see a very real return to profitability. Three, our digital strategy with 50% ownership of BetMGM, one of the leading U.S. digital sports betting and gaming operators. BetMGM is the leader in what is financially the most important segment in the nation, iGaming, and is making overall progress towards its profitability. Our ownership of LeoVegas, which we're using to grow our digital business internationally and extend both MGM's brand and content reach. Ultimately, our balance sheet, allowing significant flexibility to invest in areas with the highest return on capital, including New York, Japan, further expanding our digital footprint via LeoVegas and other substantive international opportunities we're pursuing in that space, as well as funding and continued share repurchases.
In fact, as you know, we have just announced that our board approved another $2 billion repurchase program. Looking ahead, we see multiple opportunities for growth and momentum in our business. Coupling these opportunities with a relentless focus on free cash flow per share, our operating model, our margin control, and disciplined expense management, which we believe gives us a great confidence that our best days are ahead of us. Let me walk through the business case for 2023, starting with our U.S. properties. First, we are encouraged by the early success of The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas as we migrate the business into MGM Resorts infrastructure. On our annualized basis, we have double-digit growth in revenue and EBITDAR compared to the reported 12-month period prior to the acquisition.
We are already beginning to produce cross-property play with hundreds of high-end players from The Cosmopolitan database attending MGM Resorts customer events and driving $ millions in win at our other sister properties. This is a trend that we saw continued for the Lunar New Year celebration at our properties Las Vegas, and we expect to expand to the mass market as we integrate MGM Rewards into The Cosmopolitan system. Next, we have a strong event calendar in Las Vegas. CES has 115,000 attendees last month, up from 45,000 in 2022. CONEXPO and CON/AGG next month is setting up to be the best ever, and March Madness Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight games are coming to Las Vegas. Together, the calendar in March is positioned to have us have the best hotel revenue month we believe in our history.
Additionally, Formula One is expected to bring $1 billion in economic value to the city, of which we believe we're the best positioned to take advantage of. Las Vegas also has Allegiant Stadium, which has brought 40 events and over 1.5 million visitors to Las Vegas in 2022, is expected to bring even more visitors, even higher quality events in 2023, driving significant spend, particularly at our South End properties. Another tailwind is the ongoing growth in visitation. The LVCVA expects domestic flight growth capacity to reach 120% of 2019 in the first quarter of 2023, international recover further with 80% of 2019 available seats. Harry Reid Airport hosted a record 52.6 million passengers in 2022. Outside of our domestic business, we also see tremendous opportunities for growth, starting with China.
Fully stated, Macao is back. As you well know, COVID restrictions impacted our Macao operations in 2022, causing an operational loss that negatively impacted our overall results. We are experiencing a rebound in 2023 as our guests are returning in force, just as they did in Las Vegas when restrictions were lifted here. In fact, quarter to date, we are excited to report that MGM China's combined properties are the highest-earning businesses within our company. As part of the concession renewal process, we committed to bring non-gaming entertainment events to Macao. Those events were strong drivers to visitation to our property during the Lunar New Year and at the end of January. We see these early results as validation in our confidence in Macao market's recovery and the long-term viability upon which we are retendering commitments were built.
Unique to MGM China, we have secured 200 additional tables as part of our new gaming concession, which combined with our premium mass positioning, should allow us to drive market share into the low to mid-teens. In fact, during the month of January, our market share was 16%, which compares to high single-digit market shares pre-pandemic. This outstanding performance was driven by the MGM China's team strategic focus, delivering full gaming, full renovation, a complete hotel product mix for our targeted customers, various marketing efforts in producing strong non-gaming events, shows, and promotions, plus our team's improvement in service levels and operational efficiencies. These collective efforts position us for a long-term growth story in Macao.
We've also reason to be optimistic about the growth prospects of our business well into the remainder of this decade, especially in light of the 2 new gaming licenses we hope to receive in the near future. We expect to submit our RFA in New York in the first half of this year. We hope for a response in the near future. One advantage we have over the competition in this market is our ability to add tables to our existing casino floor and thus incremental tax revenue for the state almost instantly once approved for a license. We expect to spend about $2 billion in New York, inclusive of the license fee.
We will fine-tune our program and planning, but right now we're expecting extensive property improvements, such as a significant entertainment offering, new food and beverage opportunities, covered parking, and an overall increase in the casino floor space. As you may recall, we also submitted our RFP in Japan for an integrated resort license to operate in Osaka approximately 10 months ago. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for the response from the government, but we are being patient and believe we will hear so soon. MGM Resorts has presented a compelling offer with our partner ORIX to develop an integrated resort which will develop international tourism and growth to that region. We're extremely excited for the ROI opportunity in a market in which we may be the sole operator for some time in the future.
Each of the projects I just mentioned are expected to generate returns well above our current free cash flow yield. These and all future capital investment decisions will be weighed upon that same standard. In closing, 2022 was a phenomenal year for MGM Resorts, and we're confident we will see progress into 2023 and beyond. With that, I'll turn this over to Jon for more color on the fourth quarter and the year.
Thanks very much, Bill. Before I dig into the financial results, let me also thank my colleagues here at MGM Resorts for an outstanding quarter and a truly amazing year. I'll now share with you some of the exceptional financial results that we achieved. Las Vegas Strip same-store revenues, and so that's excluding The Cosmopolitan and The Mirage, grew 11%, and adjusted property EBITDAR grew 6% in the fourth quarter compared with last year. Fourth quarter occupancy of 91% was up 500 basis points year-over-year, and ADR was $260 in the fourth quarter, which grew 30% over last year. Several volume metrics for us set records as well as our Las Vegas slot handle set its 7th consecutive quarterly record in the fourth quarter.
Demand in Las Vegas remains strong across all segments, driven by our exceptional entertainment offerings and other customer demand drivers. The strength continued into January, where occupancy was 90% and rooms booked during the month were on record pace with rates up double digits to last year. In the regions, fourth quarter revenues grew 10% and adjusted property EBITDAR grew 3% year-over-year. While EBITDAR was down 1% versus the third quarter, this sequential decline is in line with normal seasonality for the fourth quarter. Importantly, labor expense as a percentage of revenues was flat sequentially, and our current headcount remains approximately 20% below 2019 levels, all while we achieved historic highs in NPS and other indicia of customer satisfaction.
In the fourth quarter, corporate expense excluding stock compensation was $113 million, which includes $5 million related to MGM China, global development costs of $6 million, and transaction costs of $2 million. Going forward, we expect corporate expense for the full year 2023 to be approximately $380 million-$400 million, a decrease of approximately $30 million-$50 million from 2022. Included in MGM's corporate expense this year is $44 million for MGM China and approximately $37 million in anticipated development expense related to Japan and New York. We intend to invest approximately $800 million in domestic CapEx in 2023, this compares to the $727 million in CapEx invested in 2022.
Maintenance capital will be approximately $600 million of this spend this year. This year it includes room remodels in the Bellagio Spa Tower, Borgata's Water Club, and the completion of our New York-New York room renovation. Since 2019, we've reduced the average age of our rooms since renovation by roughly three and a half years. Our room age will continue to decrease over the coming years as we refresh our room offerings. The remaining CapEx in 2023 is growth capital, projects that include the Mandalay Bay Convention Center remodel, a new pedestrian bridge connecting The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, and investments in technology to drive better customer experience, ease, and engagement.
Finally, on the development front, we expect to contribute $75 million to BetMGM in 2023, and the only material investment in New York this year will be the $500 million license fee, depending upon the timing of the license awards. I'll conclude with just a few comments on our strategy for capital allocation. First and foremost, we'll maintain a strong balance sheet by sustaining adequate liquidity for our enterprise. As you can see in the presentation that we posted today, we concluded 2022 with $5.3 billion of domestic cash against domestic debt of $4.5 billion. Our resources this year were bolstered by the disposition of The Mirage in December for $850 million in net cash proceeds after tax.
Next week, we expect to close on the sale of the Gold Strike Tunica, which will bring $350 million in net proceeds after tax. Next, we'll prioritize capital investment to deliver the highest return for our shareholders. Our acquisition of the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas expanded our reach into the high end of the Las Vegas market. Our acquisition of LeoVegas jump-started our international iGaming strategy. Our new President of Interactive, Gary Fritz, and his team are evaluating a number of opportunities in this area, our shareholders should expect that we'll be deploying more capital to grow the MGM brand internationally in iGaming and in digital content development. Finally, we're going to return capital to shareholders. During 2022, we repurchased 76 million shares for $2.8 billion.
Since the beginning of 2021 through yesterday, we've repurchased $124 million for a total of $4.7 billion and have reduced our share count to 375 million shares. We're not done. As Bill mentioned, our board of directors yesterday approved an additional $2 billion share repurchase program. In evaluating our share repurchase strategy, I consider a number of factors, including the liquidity profile of the company, as well as the development and M&A opportunities that are before us. I also consider the free cash flow yield available in our own shares. As I conclude, consider the following. Adjusted property EBITDAR from Las Vegas last year was approximately $3.1 billion, and from our regional operations was $1.3 billion.
From that, we had adjusted domestic corporate expense of $400 million and cash rent of $1.7 billion on an annualized basis. Consolidated cash interest was $574 million, but that includes $205 million related to MGM China. Cash taxes and domestic CapEx totaled about $750 million. Our company also has significant reservoirs of value that did not contribute cash earnings in 2022. This includes excess cash of over $2.5 billion, our ownership position in MGM China, which yesterday had an approximate value of $2.6 billion and, of course, our stake in BetMGM. It's a lot of numbers, but when taking all of this into account, I see a double-digit yield opportunity in our shares, which is why I see share repurchases as a responsible and accretive use of our capital.
Bill, back to you.
Thanks, Jonathan. I hope the comments that you've conveyed the excitement that we all have towards our business this year and ultimately beyond. In all my time with the company, I've never been more excited about our present and future as I am right now. I think we're stronger, more agile, more focused, and more determined than ever to win. With that, we're happy to take your questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. As a reminder, in all fairness, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Our first question will come from Joe Greff from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Joe, perhaps your line is muted on your end. Your line is open. Please proceed. Joe, are you there? Our next question then will be from Shaun Kelley from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Good afternoon, and thank you for all the detail and color. So, a lot of different places we could start, but I'm gonna start with a high-level strategic one. You know, Jonathan, you ended on walking through a really robust liquidity position. You know, still a lot of cash on the balance sheet that's, you know, either collecting interest at a, you know, at a better yield than before, but not a huge yield.
The question we get all the time, you know, remains, kind of that ownership interest in, you know, upping the stake in maybe one of those areas that you discussed, BetMGM being, you know, the big one. Obviously, we know there's a partner there, but if you could give us your latest thoughts around the strategic value there and how you fold that in with your comments around, you know, maybe a more organic or standalone international online expansion. Thanks.
Thanks, Jon, for the question, and I'll just step in and kind of give the first part of it because I think it's time to be definitive and give a little direction. The simple answer on Entain is no, we've moved on. While we remain highly focused on BetMGM's business through our partnership with Entain and making sure that that business continues to grow, we see great potential in LeoVegas expansion capabilities. I've said before, we like their technology platform and their leadership team. We're also interested in the content studio business. We think there's a real play there. We've seen that proven effective with brand when we combine great product in our brands at BetMGM. Over time, we like the live dealer business and the expansion of other global markets, and frankly, indirectly under our own purview.
For now, the answer is no, not with Entain. We're gonna go down our own direction, and we begin to allocate capital. We think Gary Fritz has got the right motive, the right drive, and the right person to help us lead this forward. We value the relationship with Entain, we value BetMGM, but as it comes to rest of the world, we're gonna move forward with a different proposition.
Shaun , just a couple of comments, the broad strokes around capital allocations we look forward. You know, we do have a maturity in March, $1.25 billion at 6%. Our present plan is to of course, redeem those bonds, and that'll capture about $75 million of free cash flow for the business. We were active share repurchases, you know, just in the past 3 quarters. We spent almost $2 billion at a price of about $33-$34. We'll continue to be repurchasers of our shares, but we'll moderate that depending upon market conditions.
Of course, funding, what Bill described, which is our interactive ambitions, which will be predominantly through M&A, but we're reserving a significant amount of capital for those activities as well.
Thanks. I'll, I don't want to be greedy with my time here, just the, the follow-up to stay on the same theme, Jonathan, you directly hit it, you know, kind of M&A or could you just give us some parameters around are we thinking more bolt-on options or, you know, are there still platform-level investments that could be made to, you know, to drive up and expand that opportunity to be meaningful to the, to the base business?
It's a combination thereof. You know, when you talk studio business, or even live dealer, the technology aspect of that is on our scale, relatively de minimis. When you talk about stepping up to other marketplaces, whether it's South America over time or rest of Europe, you know, we'll have to take a different view on that as these opportunities unfold. For now, it's more bolt-on and relatively small.
Thank you very much.
For the next question, we'll move back to the line of Joe Greff from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Can you hear me okay now?
Hi, Joe.
All right. That was weird. Nice speaking with you. In Las Vegas, can you talk about how you're thinking about FTE count and payroll expenses and how they'll trend this year? Maybe you could break it out between both sort of on a same FTE basis as well as just wages. What kind of revenue growth do you need to offset wage expense growth in Las Vegas, put another way?
I'll open it and I'll kick it to Corey. Well, if you go back and you look at FTEs, particularly in Las Vegas against 2019, we're down anywhere from 12%-15%, depending on the property. Obviously, wage inflation since 2019 has crept. Just so we're all on the same page looking forward, we have substantive labor negotiations later this year with about 28,000 of our colleagues, which, you know, we're gonna have to contend with and work our way through. Corey, maybe the second part of it, just how are you seeing all this?
Yeah. I think from the standpoint of levels of FTEs from a fixed cost perspective, there will be no increases. It will all be on variable. If there's a additional catering and banquets business, it would match that revenue component of it. I think we're pretty comfortable that we could service our properties, service our guests at the levels we're at today. John, if you wanna take the revenue.
Yeah. I think, on the, on the revenue growth side, if, we're running now with occupancies that are basically full on the weekends. There's a bit of room during the weekdays, so really it will need to come through pricing as opposed to occupancy gains largely in Las Vegas. I think, you know, if that's in the low single digits, we should be able to cover any increases in payroll adequately.
I mean, overall, I think we think our margins are gonna sustain, is really the, I think, the answer to that.
Bill, you were dealing with another earnings call and release today as well. I just wanna make sure I understood your comment, your prepared comments. You talked about with Macau being back that in the month of January, it led the company in profitability or something along those lines. Can you just explain that or give a little bit more detail on that?
Yeah. I can put a little color around it, and then, we have Hubert on the line, and these guys have worked hard at this for three years, so I'll let him talk a little bit about the business. Look, the rebound was interestingly come January eighth, fairly instant. I think we peaked during Chinese New Year, making a little over $5 million a day. I mentioned in my prepared comments 16% share. For us, for all the reasons I mentioned, our mass piece of volumes were 100% over our 2019 levels. Now, you know, we're talking about a whopping 30 days here, but for the company, particularly from where we have come from, we activated 150 of the 200 new tables we have. We're very excited by what's happened in the first 30 days.
Hubert, maybe any other color would be helpful.
Sure. Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Joe, for the question. Since the beginning of the year, I think the market has been growing back and has exceeded the expectation of many participants and observers. For us, in January, on the gaming side, we have seen very healthy above the market average recovery in both mass and direct VIP segments. For the month of January, as Bill has mentioned, our market share reached 16%, which is a record high for us. Our daily mass GGR was on par with the 2019 level for the month of January and during Chinese New Year far exceeded the last year's Chinese New Year level, actually.
We're also encouraged to see that direct VIP segments, in terms of growing volume, far exceeded 2019 level as well. It is also very encouraging to see that January run rates extended into the first week of February so far. All in all, we are very confident in a solid and sustainable recovery of Macau market this year and beyond.
Excellent. Thank you very much, guys.
The next question will be from David Katz from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Cassandra on David's behalf. Want to expand on Macau's margin longer term, as we think about the shift in VIP mix from junket to direct. I believe your competitors have also called out increased, labor costs and some labor shortage and, increased utility. How should we think about the margins in Macau longer term?
Again, I'll kick this to Hubert, but my only initial comment is I believe everyone knows this. The junket business, I mean, when it was all said and done, it was a 20% margin business. While there was a great deal of volume in that business, and was accretive to us and obviously a vehicle for capital into the market, it didn't help the margin, I can assure you. Hubert, I don't know if you want to talk about more generally what you think will happen there, but I do like where we're positioned for VIP, mass VIP, remembering our branch environment and system is broader than almost anybody else's in the market.
We've been doing it for 30 years into Las Vegas, and we've now taken that network and put it to work directly to the benefit of Macau. Hubert?
Great.
Yeah. I think that in terms of margins, I think I would expect, you know, in 2000 this year and beyond, probably will at the high end of in the 20s, but in the high side of the 20s. In terms of junket to direct, certainly there are some conversion in that space, but it's too early to give you any concrete numbers. From the strength we have observed in January and Chinese New Year in our direct business, I think that we're still very confident in the growth of the direct business, and particularly given the wide network of MGM Resorts in terms of global reach of high-end customers.
Great. Thank you. For the follow-up, if I may shift to Las Vegas. There were a lot of very bullish or favorable commentaries. The ADR has been substantially higher than pre-COVID levels. Do you think that is sustainable? You know, looking beyond 2023, especially if we are thinking about recession, how resilient do you think that ADR should be?
Yeah, this is Corey. Yeah, I think it's sustainable. As we look at the event calendars on weekends and our forward-looking pacing and what we're booking rates at now, we have pretty good visibility further out. On the midweek, we see not only our convention business getting better, but the whole city's convention business getting better. The pricing that we're seeing today, we should be able to sustain, given where the economy is today. Yeah.
Great. Thank you so much for taking my questions.
The next question is from Carlo Santarelli from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Thank you. Just looking at some of the disclosure in Las Vegas and trying to decipher, you know, what is kind of the delta between gaming revenue and your net casino revenue has widened in the last few quarters. I'm assuming that is kind of all mix related with Cosmo coming online. Is that kind of a range, that delta that pretty much will hold firm moving forward?
Yeah. Carlo, hi, it's Bill. I think the answer to the question is yes.
We got as we needed to through COVID because obviously the group segment of Note went away, very active with our casino marketing, our casino marketing database, personalization, and other things we might do in that sector, and we've sustained it. It's helped that tremendously. Obviously now convention business is gonna come back, and Corey, what 18%, 19% of our mix this year?
Yep. Yes.
I think it is sustainable is the way to think about the business.
Great. Corey, just on the topic of convention mix. I You made a comment earlier, I believe that the bookings that were done were done at double digits. If you look at kind of the entirety of the group business on the books or the targeted group business on the books, from a pricing perspective, how does that look year-over-year or relative to 2019? However you guys kind of wanna think about it.
Yeah. I think, look, many of those contracts were in place, over 2019, 2020. I think they have price escalators in there. It's probably an area of opportunity for us in the future as we look at future convention booking. Just as a reminder, it's 18% of our business. The new business is getting booked based on where rates are today.
Okay. Do you believe, like, when you think about it overall, just that taking the pricing aside, thinking about the visibility that it provides you, do you believe as you look through 2023, all things equal economically and from a macro perspective, that there should be pricing power year-over-year on a same store basis?
Yeah. I think there should be some pricing power based on the amounts we have on the book and the foundation we have in our bookings.
Remember, Carlo, one thing we have strategically decided to do is push more business out of weekends and back into midweek. That has an overall play in ADR. Obviously, it brings down the convention ADR, but it raises the overall company's ADR because it gives us more opportunity weekends to where we see, frankly, and continue to see real upside, particularly in the luxury segment, Cross Cosmo, MGM, Mandalay, you know, ARIA, Bellagio.
Great. Thanks, guys.
The next question is from Stephen Grambling from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks for taking the question. Maybe turning to Japan, that was another one that you referenced is still out there. You're waiting on some approval, but still looking for a return that's above, it sounds like, your free cash flow yield. Wondering if you could just elaborate on any of your updated expectations for that market and anything that's either evolved from the terms of the transaction or even the timing of when construction could start and when the property could be coming out of the ground. Thanks.
Yeah. Stephen, I'm gonna be a little careful because some of this is NDA with the government, et cetera. Having said that, you know, we had hoped to hear in October. Obviously, we sit here now in February not having heard. The process lies today with MLIT, the government agency that is going through and consistently asking us questions about the project, about the contract with the government of Osaka, et cetera. Time to tell whether we get through that efficiently over the next 30 days. We'd like to think and believe we might, but, you know, we've been thinking that for a while now. As it relates to macro, look, I'm excited to think that we may be the only player, instead of a market of 19 million people, we're talking about a much larger market.
You know, having taken the journey many times from Tokyo, it's only two and a half hours away by high speed train, et cetera. We see upside. You know, inflation has not hit Japan like it's hit other places. Particularly for us at our end of the partnership, the value of the yen has gone tremendously in our favor. We're still looking at a $10 billion project. We're looking at a return on that project we think can bring 15% plus in cash flow, and then maybe then some. You know, it has to mature. Overall timing, you know, the goal was, now we're gonna be challenged with that if we don't hear soon, to get this thing open before the decade close in 2029.
you know, there's a, there's a bridge to getting there.
That's helpful. Maybe a follow-up on BetMGM, just to make sure I understand you correctly, I guess. Are you anticipating, you know, it's far out, but any additional capital being put into that JV beyond this year, you know, given the targets for kind of profitability or standalone at this point?
No, none substantively. If BetMGM gets into the M&A business for some particular product, maybe. Generally, no. It's the $50 million I think we've Well, collectively, but call it, our $35 million or $45 million we've identified. You know, it gives us every reason to believe it should hit its target this year. Starting to make profitability in the second half of the year. You know, we all have to be rational players. There is growth left. There are six additional states yet to go that have been identified. No, there's no large scale capital. That business should begin to mend and take care of itself.
Thanks so much.
Next question is from Chad Beynon from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Bill, Jonathan, another one on Vegas. Just given your diverse portfolio with luxury and core, can you just kinda help us think about broadly, you know, how these segments compared against each other in 2022? Bill, I think you said, you know, obviously a lot of the group events in the city wides in 2023, just those compression nights should help probably a little bit more in luxury. Just trying to see, you know, I know you're not breaking it out, but kinda where the, you know, which way the wave is moving luxury and core. Thanks.
Yeah, I think Corey, you're best.
Yeah, in 2022, you know, the majority of the growth here in Las Vegas was driven by the Bellagio, ARIA, Cosmopolitan, and The MGM Grand. Mandalay Bay had a fantastic year as they of course capitalized on the return of the group business to Las Vegas. I mean, in the fourth quarter, just an example, our group room nights were up about 50% versus the fourth quarter of 2021. It certainly has skewed to the luxury properties. I will tell you from a portfolio strategy perspective, you know, all of these properties here in Las Vegas are really important role players. We've invested some capital in the Luxor in the last year.
We're doing the rooms in New York, New York right now, and those businesses we expect are going to be very solid cash flow generators over the next several years. No question, the growth is coming from the luxury segment.
Thanks. Then, can you just talk a little bit more about the omni-channel opportunities with driving your players from BetMGM back to Las Vegas, given, you know, it's probably one of the more important years of your players wanting to come out and see some of the events, kind of where that stands now and how that should progress in 2023? Thanks.
I think simple answer is more. When I say that in the context, it's now becoming thousands of players that have obviously touched both brands. It's interesting, the combination of the two, the players spend about 40% more, though that's kind of intuitive, but 40% more is interesting. The other thing that plays to the events, whether it's sports or otherwise sporting events, is that 85% of the players are under 49 years old. That network and that combination is bringing us a younger player, bringing us people who have to date had the propensity to spend more when combined with both brick-and-mortar and digital activity. We're now reaching thousands of them coming in. We've set up fairly elaborate CRM systems, both at BetMGM and ultimately a hosting program here that captures them.
There's 1-to-1 dialogue about certain VIP players and what their needs, wants, and desires are. We've treated that network like we would treat any of our branch offices, if you will. When the phone rings and they have somebody of substance, we're set up to take care of them. Excited by it. We need over time to automate it more so that there's true connectivity between BetMGM, and its loyalty system and ultimately MGM Rewards system. For now focused on the high end, between the spend, the use, and the numbers, all pretty exciting.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
The next question is from Robin Farley from UBS. Please go ahead.
Great, thanks. I wanted to ask a little bit about, you showed the breakdown of same-store gaming revenue in Vegas being down about 10%, and I think it was down a little bit in Q3 as well. I wonder if you could give us some sort of color on what's happening with the gaming consumer in the last two quarters. Is that kind of fewer trips year-over-year because, you know, there are more options in the world, or is it just lower spend per trip? What do you think is driving that in the last two quarters? Thanks.
No. We've seen same-store handle and drop and win growing modestly in Las Vegas, although there's no question the majority of the growth that we've seen in this quarter on a same-store basis has been on the hotel side. You know, the gaming customer is healthy here in Las Vegas. It is driven mostly by our higher value gaming customers, but it's very healthy on a same-store basis.
Are the declines, sorry to interrupt you're saying it's coming from the higher end gaming player or you meant they're holding up, it's the, it's the sort of broader market player with the same-store decline?
No. What I'm talking about our slot handle and table game drop and slot win and table game win increasing.
I was looking at your slide showing casino revenues down 10% on a same-store basis in Q4. I know there were some properties in and properties out, but I was just using the number from your slide.
Yeah, some of that will be on a net basis after accounting for the cost of hotel rooms that are comped against those players. That is having an impact on what we're describing as that gaming revenue. The way I consider the health of the gaming customer is to look at the volume metrics and the gross gaming revenue, which are growing on a same-store basis. Does that make sense, Robin? That's kind of when I think about what the behavior of these customers actually is, it's on the gross basis.
Okay. Okay. No, I just trying to clarify that number. That's helpful. Thank you. Also, I was just curious, given, obviously the strength of your liquidity and cash position and what you have going, why suspend the dividend? I realize it was a small dividend only remaining at this point, but I'm just curious, you know, why suspend that when you know, liquidity is, you know, certainly not the issue?
Yeah, it's not. It was really an administrative issue. It was burdensome, it was complex, that measured against the size of the dividend itself, which was de minimis and just how much capital we've returned and we can expect to continue to return through the form of share repurchases. You know, we just felt that it was a practice that we did not need to continue. That doesn't mean that we wouldn't reconsider it or our board wouldn't reconsider it at some point, in so doing, would make it a more substantial dividend than a de minimis dividend. It was mostly an administrative solve.
Okay, great. Thanks very much.
Thanks.
The next question is from John DeCree from CBRE. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just, Jonathan, a quick follow-up on Robin's question regarding casino revenues. Just to clarify, with the higher ADR now, essentially the dollar amount that you need to net against casino revenue is what's causing that kind of accounting decline?
Yeah. That's the major dynamic which is causing this topic that we are talking about.
Got it. Okay.
Obviously it's not just ADR, but also the size of the casino segment generally.
Okay. Understood. Thank you for that additional clarity. Maybe just for a follow-up question, bigger picture, you know, I think it was pretty clear as to where you target growth investments, you know, digital, international. You know, the last 24 months or so, you've moved a lot of chairs and upgraded the asset base in Las Vegas and opportunistically, I think, divested Gold Strike. Curious if you could give us some comments on how you feel about the domestic portfolio today, both regionally and in Las Vegas, and if there's, you know, potential opportunities you'd consider more on the M&A side. You know, we kind of know the plans in New York and if other big markets were to open.
On the M&A front, either buy or sell, anything that you'd think about doing or might make sense?
Well, let me kick it off. A, I think particularly after the moves that we've made, we truly enjoy the portfolio we have. In terms of Las Vegas, obviously we own 40 odd percent of this marketplace, we love the properties that we have here. We love the positioning and what's happened at the south end of the Strip, particularly via Allegiant, has been productive. When it comes to our regionals, obviously we're in a different regional game in most of our markets. Whether it's Detroit, Atlantic City or Mississippi, we lead in a big fashion. We're market leaders there. We tend to wanna do that and try to tie out the product offering integrated resort to integrated resort.
We just think there's an opportunity to get the right kind of customers to transition to Las Vegas and otherwise. I would never say never on any M&A acquisition. There's always, I suspect, an asset here or there that might be of interest, but I don't think we have any immediate designs or plans on anything substantive sitting here today. I think, you know, our growth will come through the development opportunities we've defined, through the digital opportunities that we have defined to date and are gonna seek. You know, we're always got an eye and an ear open, but I. You know, there's nothing specific that. Nor would I actually tell you if there was.
Fair enough. Fair enough. Just engaging the strategy. Appreciate it, Bill. Thank you.
Okay.
The next question is from Barry Jonas from Truist. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys, given the strong Strip outlook for 2023, is the high end of that 400-600 basis point margin expansion the right place to think about how the year could shake out, or could you still go higher? Just with that, can you remind me what the starting point is here? Is it the reported pre-COVID 2019 number or based on sort of a pro forma portfolio? Thanks.
When we use that 400-600 basis point sustainable margin improvement, we're referencing the 2019 year. We're not trying to adjust it for acquisitions or dispositions just because we're getting pretty far back in the past at that point. We're very comfortable that for across all of our domestic properties, that we can be within that range or possibly exceed it. Exceeding it will be driven mostly by our the pricing environment. We're comfortable with that, and that compares to 2019.
Great. Great. Just, just to follow up, you know, I think iGaming, we're hearing the industry is taking more of a push. I'm curious how you think about the impact that iGaming is having on land-based gaming. Not sure if you're able to quantify what you've seen more recently in, say, Michigan, but can you help us understand some of the puts and takes with what would seem to be some cannibalization threat? Thank you.
Yeah. I'll take that. Obviously in Michigan, to your point, is the best example where we have, you know, market-leading brick-and-mortar and we have obviously a market-leading digital. The digital business now has outsurpassed the brick-and-mortar by about 25%-ish. You know, they're both doing well over $300 million GGR. Digital is approaching almost $400 million in GGR. It's interesting market when you look at because it's gone through smoking and non-smoking. COVID lasted longer there in terms of its policies than anywhere else. I will tell you, there was some concern early in the middle part of last year. The last 3 months in Detroit, now that we've come off of most of those COVID restrictions, we've made allocations for smoking and some smoking opportunities for customers who still want to do that.
Our numbers have not only stabilized but continued to grow in Detroit. You know, while it's obvious that there's a substantive amount of play going on in digital, the chance to connect that with brick-and-mortar and ultimately reward and recognize. Simple things like bonusing or jackpots that I leave, that I'm playing at home, I can come pick up in the brick-and-mortar where I left off as a player and have a contiguous experience is things that we're highly focused on. You know, we think it's been a great opportunity. We think it can continue to be one. We've seen nothing Michigan, and we have the best laboratory in that.
Michigan gives us confidence that going forward, we can replicate some of that in any of these other states, I think we'll be in great shape.
Perfect. Thanks and great quarter.
Thank you.
The next question is Steve Wieczynski from Stifel. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Actually wanna ask about your regional assets. Obviously there's a fear out there in the investment world that at some point, you know, some of these consumers could, you know, could start to slow down. We've heard from, you know, a lot of your peers so far that there really hasn't been any softness as of yet. I just, you know, understand have you guys seen the same fundamentals there, meaning no real weakening? Also margins were impacted by the inclusion of non-gaming amenities in the quarter. I'm just wondering how much more of that potential margin headwind, you know, could those present going forward?
Let me take the top of that inquiry. You can speak to the margins. You know, we have several different kinds of regional properties. Maryland this year had an all-time record and then some. It was fantastic. We always dreamed of that property making over $300 million, and it did. I know I'm getting dirty looks from some of my folks, and it did. You know, Atlantic City, given all of the competitive set and the reawakening of Hard Rock and what happened with Oceans, you know, it's a highly competitive market, and we're holding our own, and that property continues to do the same kind of EBITDA it's done traditionally, no matter where the marketplace has been. It's kind of interesting. Detroit, as I just mentioned, continues to do well.
You know, we saw a little softening with Empire as it came out of COVID. Springfield is enhanced and been improving. Look, obviously, it will be the place that I think any major recession activity shows. What I will say to date, particularly up until and through January, we haven't seen it. According with the.
On the other regional properties, mainly in the third quarter, we increased on many of our non-gaming amenities. I think we're to the level where we're comfortable with what we have for our guests. So from an additional margin impact on that, I don't think there's much there. Then just on the business, you know, December had a little bit of softness, as Bill mentioned. What we're seeing in January and February so far is all of our regional markets are performing extremely well.
Got you. Good to hear. Second question real quick, and it's more of a follow-up here. You know, going back to Macau, it sounds like, Bill, I think you said or Hubert said this, you were doing about $5 million a day during Chinese New Year. Again, I'm not sure if this is you, Bill or Hubert, but did I hear you say that, even after Chinese New Year, which look, I know is only, let's call it 7 days or so, but you're still somewhere in that ballpark?
Yeah. It was me. I said $5 million during Chinese New Year. No, we are at a great pace and a great place. No. That's extreme. Having said that, it's still very profitable and it's been 5 days or 6 days, whatever it's been, but it's been good. No. I mean, Chinese New Year is a 1, you know, it's a unique environment that happens once a year.
Okay. Yeah, I was not going crazy there.
Yeah, no, it's not 5. Yeah, don't do $5 million a day times 365. That's probably
It's already done. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Our next question will be from Dan Politzer from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Can you hear me?
Yeah, Dan.
Great. First question, just on Macau. It's a two-part question. The 16% share you guys called out, to what extent do you think that's sustainable? If you could maybe parse that out, how much of that step up has been driven from, you know, growth in mass or premium mass or direct VIP versus pre-COVID? Then that quarter to date comment, about the MGM China properties, the highest earning business in the company. I mean, should I If I kinda go back and piece together some maths, should I interpret that they're pacing well over $100 million of EBITDA for the first quarter?
No. No. For the month. For the month, not the quarter. For the month. You could think about it in those... If we put them together, it'd be the highest EBITDA property we had for the month in our system. Way to think about it.
Okay.
You know, Hubert, you can kick in here. Obviously, you're living this every day, on the continuity of going forward.
Yeah. Dan, in terms of the market share question you asked, it's too early, but to give you a definitive answer on whether it's sustainable or not. There are good things that, you know, -
Ahead of us because, as you know, we have additional tables, almost 200 additional tables. We haven't fully deployed all these tables yet. We're in the process of doing that, along with some casino floor reconfiguration. We plan to deploy all these tables by the end of first quarter. I think that that's number one. Number two is that in the retendering commitment, in terms of investment, we also have a lot of, I think earning accretive projects. I think that these are things that will drive additional traffic. I mean, just to give you some color in on the non-gaming side for Chinese New Year, I mean our room occupancy approached 100%, and our restaurant covers actually exceeded 2019 Chinese New Year level.
A lot of that was because of all the non-gaming events and concerts that drew a lot of incremental visitors to us. We also, seeing a longer stay, by our hotel customers. I think that as we invest more in these non-gaming amenities, that'll help with our market share growth down the road or sustain at that level.
Got it. Just for my follow-up, just for Jon. On the pace of buybacks, obviously you have the new $2 billion authorization. I mean, it sounds like trends are very stable, if not outright encouraging. I mean, to what extent would you feel more comfortable giving, you know, kind of a quarterly pace of buybacks? Also, I think it was last quarter or maybe a couple of quarters ago, you mentioned kind of a decelerating pace of buyback. Given the outlook on Vegas, is there kind of a run rate we can think about here?
I don't want to give a quarterly pace. I do think you can look at our pace over the preceding four quarters. I think we actually did a bit more in the fourth quarter than we did in the third quarter. All I would say is that we have a healthy authorization from our board. I hope I was able to communicate during the prepared remarks the value we see in the shares. Despite all of the opportunities we have before us, the liquidity position the company has is going to allow us to continue to be an active share repurchaser. Beyond that, Dan, I just don't wanna give any more specific outlook.
Got it. Thank you.
Our final question will be from Jordan Bender from JMP Securities. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks for taking my question. Can you just talk about the contribution from Far East play during the quarter in Las Vegas? What do bookings look like from Far East play, for this point or for this year at this point?
Are you referring to the fourth quarter or Chinese New Year?
Fourth quarter, and then I guess quarter to date as well.
I know the Chinese New Year numbers fairly well correlating on here for the fourth quarter. Last year, Chinese New Year, we had about $35 million in sale. This year, that number was just under $100 million. You know, the opportunity and what that opportunity provided us this year was 3x what it was last year. While not back at the 2019 levels or 2018 levels, it was meaningful. The, the Far East play during the fourth quarter, it was up about at least a third over the fourth quarter of 2021 and constituted pretty much all of the growth in our international play during the fourth quarter. Very encouraging.
Great. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question- and- answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Bill Hornbuckle for any closing remarks.
Thank you, operator. I just wanna thank everyone for joining us today. I know it gets late back on the East Coast. Just a couple of thoughts. Obviously, we continue to show organic growth here in Las Vegas, particularly in our premium product, our luxury brands. If you think about ARIA and Bellagio last year, that made over $1.2 billion in cash flow, and we see hopefully that sustaining. You think about now Macau and the returning, and I think our 200 extra tables will make a difference throughout the course of this year. You think about our development pipeline, you think about both brick-and-mortar digital. I would say without any disparaging comments to our competitors, that we think about the balance of regional location, domestic location, Las Vegas, international, digital. We are the most well-balanced and prepared for growth.
We have no net debt. We're sitting on about $5.3 billion in cash liquidity. Since Jonathan and I have joined the senior roles, the company's bought back over 25% of its shares, and all of it on the back of an amazing team that we've put together here that's got extensive experience over many decades in many different jurisdictions. You know, to say I'm excited by our future would be an understatement. I thank you all for your attention and more, most importantly, your support. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation.