MGM Resorts International (MGM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everybody. We're excited to -- one, we're excited to have this conference in person versus having it virtually. So thank you all for attending. Thank you for our conference people, I think many of whom are in the other room for putting this together. And obviously, it's great to see all these faces. I said this yesterday 1,000 times, it feels like old times and it feels great to be somewhat normal again. So this is in the second hole of the lineup for our Management Access Forum. I am very excited to have the leader of the Las Vegas Strip Casino and Resort Operations, Chief Executive Officer, Bill Hornbuckle, from MGM Resorts. The format of this will be a 30, 35 minute fireside chat session. We'll open it up towards the back half for some of your questions. For those of you that are listening and dialing in virtually, there should be a relatively easy way on the website, big blue box for asking questions and introducing topics that maybe we have yet to introduce. So with that, I want to thank Bill, I want to thank Cathy Park, who's in the front row, who all you guys know a quarter back Investor Relations for MGM. It feels great walking around on the strip. Obviously, this is a big weekend with a major sporting event, Monday Night Football at Allegiant tonight.

Maybe if we could just talk a little bit big picture in terms of consumer behavior over the last 9 months both on the Las Vegas Strip, both on the regional markets in terms of what have you learned about the leisure consumer. We can maybe talk a little bit about the group and the convention segment. But in terms of big takeaways, what I -- I'm sorry, maybe answering your question a little bit, but I don't want to do that.

Go ahead. I've heard you before.

It's interesting to me that slot revenues have come back, both on strip and regionals, particularly the younger demographic. I mean, what's the driver there? But love to hear sort of your observations and the degree to maybe there's a little bit more incremental resilience more recently in the leisure business.

Sure. Thanks, Joe. And first and foremost, good morning, everyone, and reiterate Joe's comments, thank you for coming. On behalf of the city who's been through a hell of a lot over the last 18 months. We appreciate you being here, even though it's another hotel chain I've been told. But sincerely, we appreciate you all being here. Look, we've been through a great deal. You all know that it is with quite -- with interest, and we're just talking about this, the resiliency of this marketplace, the resiliency of consumer to come here and ultimately enjoy this experience. Last February, we came yet again out of the tranche. If you go actually back last October, we peaked a little bit. We obviously had a resurgence. This is now our fourth view of a resurgence. But last February, we started to come out of this, and it peaked in July. You all -- if you think back, June was the first time we could gather. And so what that really meant at scale was entertainment came back in full force and particularly came back in July. So for example, we hosted Bruno Mars and some of the other things we all do. And so July, as I think you've all heard across the board and particularly with our company, and I think all of Las Vegas was absolutely a record. It was driven by leisure. It was driven by casino, a great push into our database, and it was driven by slots to your commentary. The average spend per consumer is up per average visitor here, 10 points plus. And a lot of it's driven by slots and it goes in every spectrum. We were able to leverage up because of supply and demand and just people's willingness to want to get out, things like Bruno Mars. I mean we were selling literally selling packages for $10,000. Room, extensive weekend experience but, the numbers across the board were driven primarily by slots and really pent-up demand around casino, obviously, all domestically, other than a couple of Asian customers who have been trapped domestically here for many months or who don't want to go back. That's been the key driver. Marginally, our group business came back over the summer. Obviously, we all know what's happened in the last 6 to 8 weeks, but we see it coming back as well. And so the key word is resilient. You've all walked around here. Tonight's game will be sold out and then some. And so it's compelling. It's -- our weekends -- this past weekend was 98.5%. Our weekends to continue in that mode. And I think the only thing for us to moderate and understand is what's going to happen to our group business midweek between now and maybe first quarter.

And what you guys did earlier this year was racing deep down into your database and market and help sort of offset some of that group business midweek, but also utilize the database for the weekend. How much ability is there to sort of offset or capture -- recapture some of that lost midweek group business? I mean you obviously have strong ADR, you have high-margin food and beverage banquet business associated with the group. Can that gaming customer completely offset that? Or is that aggressive?

Weekend, absolutely, it can. And I think and then some. Midweek, no. I mean to be -- I mean, if you think about what happens, 20-odd percent of our market mix is generally convention, vast majority of it's midweek for obvious reasons. And so we can't offset all of it. But if I think about where we are and where we're going, I think '22, as we sit here today is literally 8% or 9% behind '19 in terms of what's on the books. If I think about what's happened over the last 6 or 8 weeks since a resurgence, which I think already is subsiding, And God forbid, we're yet to get another one, but for now is subsiding. We've lost about 55,000 room nights, principally tied to 1 large group that was a mini citywide. And so that's small in the spectrum of what we have on the books. We have over 800 groups still on the books for the balance of the year. And the cancellations are still short term, meaning you made a decision to do this conference probably ultimately pulled the trigger, what, 30 days ago, give or take.

Probably a question mark until late last Tuesday,

Okay, okay. Wonder when will it -- I am going to charge you a deposit. But the point is, which is exactly the point, it's last minute. And so we'll see how this flows and goes. And the great news, including the group I just mentioned, our ability then to rebook has been sustaining. Nothing fundamentally has changed. And I think that's the message.

And what's interesting kind of I know things can sort of inflect or change on a dime, but we do these obsessive room rate surveys and we look at them as more directional than having some precision. But even if you look at the room rate environment for the fourth quarter midweek, as a whole for the strip, it's still up over 2019 levels. I mean, where there's some slippages as you get to closer to night stay, you see the revisit rate starts to slip a little bit monumentally. But the weekend business is still pretty strong. If you do have conventions canceled, how do you incent them to book into '22? I mean you said you're still about 91%, 92% of where you were in '19 and '22. Is there enough prime time open capacity to shift them? Or is it really trying to convince them to book into a softer period or a seasonal slower period that might not be optimal. Like so much -- I think in October, and then you're trying to convince them for the dog days of summer is something where...

It's a little of both. I mean, look, we -- a great example. We opened -- Cathy help me, it was a convention that first opened up at citywide.

Concrete show?

Concrete show. Okay. Concrete usually comes in January. We and the City convinced it to come back in June. We were all part and parcel to that. Challenge with a group like that, the simple challenge is, they buy in the winter, they pour in the summer because it literally because of temperature. So every group is different. The big group I mentioned, we took a little pain from them, and then we extended them into '24, and they rebooked it another 2 years actually in that circumstance. Because they don't want to get out of cycle because their cycles are generally there for a reason, and it's difficult to get out of cycle.

Got it. It's -- I mean, the last 2 years have been extremely eventful not just with COVID's impact on you, but just in terms of what you've done with the business in terms of monetizing real estate, monetizing MGP, which will close at some point next year. What are some of the other big strategic things you're doing? And maybe we can kind of leave that MGM on the side because I know that's a huge priority and it's a success story. What are the some of the other big picture things that you're thinking about to enhance the business, whether it's utilizing the database in some other way than what's been done more recently.

There's probably 4 key things. Obviously, during the crisis, just the balance sheet, trying to do everything we could to make sure we have a fortress balance sheet was critical. And so we did some early moves forgetting ultimately what we did with MGP, but OP units and some other things to make sure we had $4 billion or $5 billion, that's the case as we sit here today in the bank to survive whatever it would be before us. And so we accomplished that, frankly, easier than I thought we would have early on. So we began to check through I think many of you have heard us talk about on conference calls and on quarterly 2020 and the plan we put in play candidly pre-2019. We didn't love our own margins. I think we can and are beginning to do a much better job in the operating model and how we think about our business. We drove a message through and continue to drive this message through of a $450 million savings per year in the context of how we operate our company and our business and hopefully a margin improvement. Then COVID came and taught us even more. We parted senior leadership. We got little bit more aggressive in the operating model and how we did things, and we're sustaining that. And so obviously, you see it in our margins now for a couple of different reasons, one of which is just raw labor availability, which we'll talk about, I suspect. And so we've done a great job there. The other couple of places is we historically have gotten about 7% or 8% of our gaming mix here in Southern Nevada or in Las Vegas from our regional properties. Okay. Not great. I know our brethren with the big Caesars name tied to it gets almost 20%, or if not 20%. Now obviously, they have a lot more properties to feed the machine than we do. And it's one of the reasons we're so excited by BetMGM in fact, is to feed that machine. But we know and thinking of already begun to witness we can do much better. So we have an aggressive push into that front to get those regional customers to come to Las Vegas and make sure we're looking at them in a more holistic view, even though they may not be worthy of a room comp that particular day here, when you look at them on a 365 basis, they are because at the end of the year, if you will, if you look at a customer a holistic basis. So we're opening up our platform to do more of that and encourage more regional visitation. So really, it's the 2020 work. It's the stuff we learned in COVID in the op model. It's the stuff we're doing in our regional marketing and just database enhancement, programming and technology. The use of technology, the use of this device, think about what's happening now, I don't know about -- I'm sure this hotel, and I know ours, you check in on this. It is now your room key. Well, that means 1 simple thing. And then 35% of the instances at MGM Resorts, that means I now have your cell number. And so I know how to communicate with you and vice versa. And so we're trying to figure out how to manage that effectively, and it's not something you can abuse with customers, but we are. And so we're excited by that and that opportunity.

And I know you recently hired a gentleman from Disney Parks and Disney probably does that better than most, if not all.

Yes, Tilak Mandadi. He was their Chief Technology Officer, extremely ecstatic to get him. It took 6, 7 months of hunt, but I was hell bent on getting this guy, a fact I figured out by enough cross validation. He was the guy who made a lot of those things work. And so he's already come in, taking a look at our environment, our platforms, our vision for where we want to get to and go. We've already retained a couple of his key lieutenants. I'm probably not going to be invited back to Disneyland anytime soon, which is fine. And so we're marching down that road to really, really put a push into that and make a difference.

Great. How -- what's the time frame to where you might start to see results from utilizing the database...?

I think regionally, it's right away. I think some of the stuff that I was talking about, you get into personalization and some of the things that what motivates Joe to come, Joe is a Raider fan. So therefore, let's invite him. I think we're up to 18 months to 2 years away. So it will be a series of activity case. We've still got to fundamentally get the environment right, foundationally get the database in a place that it's completely usable on a holistic basis, both regionally and domestically. But we're getting there is the point. And I think we have the staff, the people, complete commitment from the board. You can appreciate, and I know you all do anything tied to IAC and digital as a keen focus, and we're very focused on all of that.

Got it. You mentioned earlier, labor, both in terms of -- maybe you could talk a little bit about what you're seeing on the wage front and just maybe even more importantly, the availability of labor, whether it's here in Southern Nevada or out in the regional markets? And then maybe how would you sort of think about MGM sort of stabilize in terms of FTE count or labor expense or how do you want to measure it? -- versus pre-pandemic levels?

So I heard something interesting over the weekend. There are 11 million jobs and 9 main people unemployed. This environment is no different. The good news here, for lack of a better word, is that many of the support programs, whether it be the onetime federal grants, unemployment, all of that is subsiding this month in Nevada, which is obviously the place we employ the most. We generally employ about 55,000 folks in this community. We're at about 35,000. Ideally today, remembering, I don't want to get back to 55,000, there's a key point there. but we are probably 5,500 employees short of where I'd like to be. And it's across every spectrum. It's not -- interestingly, it's not just frontline labor, although it is the biggest portion of it, but it is across frontline management as well. People have through COVID made some different decisions in life and so we're dealing with it. As is everybody else in our industry and frankly, in the country. We've had extensive pushes. It's kind of interesting. We literally have had weeks we hire 500 to 800 people, but we'll lose 300 or 400 because we've gotten people trying jobs for the first time. And I'll give you a simple example, try to be a security guard out here right now in one of these casinos and constantly having to walk up someone and say, excuse me, sir, could you put your mask on. You can appreciate 1 in 10 responses aren't quite so pleasant. And so the work just isn't fun right now. And so there's that whole environment of change, people take on -- well, I think I'll go try this. And so look, we're going to gain on it. My general view is that by the end of this quarter, we'll be in decent shape. If anything, this subsidence, if you will, has helped the labor discussion. And we haven't panicked. We've not raised any universal labor wage. We haven't done some of the other things I'm hearing in some of the other industries. We may have to do in a couple of categories. But I'm trying to let it all settle in and get as normalized fundamentally as possible with all of the push that you hear out there in terms of all the subsidies falling off. And so look, the people are here. I know they're here. There's more people in this valley than they've ever been. We know how to be a hospitality community. And so ultimately, and hopefully, we'll get back to where we were.

Has the lack of labor capacity has that impacted your revenue capacity? Whether it's on the hotel room side or hours of operations or a number of seats of restaurants?

A little bit, absolutely. We had at MGM for a period of time at Luxor for a period of time of note, we had some issues there. We were pushing everyone to weekends, and we were running soft midweek because we couldn't staff. And I refused to staff and not be able to provide service. I think the brand is -- these brands, particularly I think MGMs is too important longer term, and we weren't going to let it fall off. And so yes, it did cost us. Although we had a great second quarter of note, I think we're going to have a great third quarter of note. It has cost us a little bit. We've been hesitant to open for different kinds of reasons, things like buffets, things that are labor intense because just finding cooks and things of that nature are complicated.

Great. Maybe you can switch a little bit to a more recent announcement with the change in ownership at City Center than the subsequent real estate monetization of that. I always found it kind of hard to sort of game theory, the timing of that over the last 5 years or so. Can you talk about why it happens now and what you think the future maybe of Aria that property, this great property that many of us were at last night.

So a couple of them. Look, we promised to you all and to our other investors that we were going to simplify our story. And so you have a piece of this and half of this and half of that. And so it clearly falls into that category. Thankfully, capital markets are right. Therefore, the real estate markets are right where there may be a better time, I hope, for our REIT friends that there is a better time, but it's pretty juicy right now. And so we convinced first ourselves and then our partners in Dubai Infinity World that now is the ripe and right time. We made some of our own assessments on how the business would rebound and what we could do with the business in terms of the OpCo versus Propco. It went back and forth for probably 3.5 months. It was nothing more difficult things we've done. Because look, they understand industry and the business and the property really well. They were literally insiders. And so there was -- just it was raw, if you will, in that context. But we did it. We're excited by it. It's a little bit accretive to the balance sheet in terms of cash on our side. But at some point, we did it longer term, and you can appreciate this. And although we didn't do it every time a $1 million customer would show up over there, you're sharing $0.50 on the dollar. And so what happens -- and what's able to happen now is those assets are great, they skew younger, the demographic, generally speaking, you can just sense it versus walking around at Bellagio. The product skews younger, the environment you went last night to catch just that whole vibe is different. And so our ability to push into that and push into that in a very hard way, not that we weren't already but really push into what I think is going to be meaningful. And every year, year-over-year, it gets closer and closer and closer to being pushing on Bellagio. And I think that trend will continue. And so for those reasons, pretty straightforward.

So from here, what are some of the other things you're considering to simplify the corporate structure. Obviously, some of it is things that you can do on your own proactively, sometimes the timing has to be right, like cheap debt, real estate value and making it that sort of a motivator for your partner at City Center from here, what else you can see?

I mean, if you think about it, there's not a lot left to do in that context. Obviously, we have our JV and we're publicly traded in Macau with Pansy Ho as a minority stakeholder. We own 56.5% of that company. She owns 23-and-change and then the public owns the balance. And so that's obviously something we're keenly focused on. But short of that, if you start going through the spectrum, MGP will close, hopefully, the second quarter of next year. And we're going to be out of that consternation, if you will, in the context of just straightforwardness, And so there's not a lot more to do. I do look for broader diversification of the company and the platform. And so whether it's in the digital or other markets, not a lot of assets out there regionally you can hang our MGM banner on. But there's always something to think about and look at. And there's always something internationally to do. Obviously, you understand what we're trying to do in Japan, and it's still a ways away and there's a story still to be told there, but it does speak to that story.

Would you consider increasing your exposure to the Las Vegas Strip? There's 1 major strip asset that's probably going to fetch you a pretty good price. That's sort of right in the middle of a bunch of important MGM assets.

Yes, Joe. Look, it's -- I mean everyone who drives by Las Vegas strip or flies over says that's part of City Center, we all know it's not. There is probably some synergies to be had there for sure that could only we could probably unlock. But I'm not -- I don't want to comment on it any further than that. I do want to diversify. We have a lot of Las Vegas to begin with, but it's a compelling asset but time to tell.

And you said this a couple of seconds ago about sort of maybe not having a wealth of potential regional assets that are worthy of an MGM banner to kind of feed into this maybe hub-and-spoke model. I mean, is there a much or is it sort of really sort of a narrow focus of certain urban markets where there's maybe not a ton of presence of a Chicago land or something like that.

Look, if you wave your magic wand, Texas, I don't think we ever get into Florida because of tribal. Georgia, we've all had an interest in that for a long time. But there's not a lot of them left, if you will. Chicago land, but it talked about complicated. It's very complicated. And you got to win if you do one of these things, and I don't know that you can win in Chicago based on the set of rules that we understand today. it wouldn't be an extensive move. There might be a couple of moves that we could make. Frankly, our future in terms of digitization of the business is really here, how do we expand, how do we grow, how do we expand the database, how do we make it more omnichannel, it's through digital. And keenly focused on that, both domestically and ultimately, globally for that very reason.

Great. Maybe this is a great segue now to talk about BetMGM, which maybe if you want to take your bet that more so than the land-based stuff. But obviously, the last 9 months for both iGaming and online sports has been very successful for the JV with significant share. When you think about the opportunity there from here, what are the -- as you go into new markets, what are the things that you focus on?

Well, we just went into our 16th or 17th. This weekend, we opened Arizona. We just opened South Dakota and Wyoming. And remember, last year, we didn't have in football, Virginia or whom am I missing? There's one, anyways, but there's 5 new markets we're going to be in...

Oh, versus a year ago, Michigan, you didn't have that.

Michigan. Yes, Michigan. And so that continues to grow. We're in 5 iGaming markets. And so it will continue to grow and continue to grow the database. Clearly, the trick to that business is iGaming in terms of the long-term economics, sports betting is compelling at scale. It's brand driven. You all see what we're doing out there, we're competing like hell to get share, and that's all fine and good, but where the money ultimately will be -- not ultimately, where the money even is today with only 5 iGaming states is in iGaming. And the margin ultimately will be there and the unique ability, particularly for us in Michigan is that example to tie brick-and-mortar into a known gaming customer and make it relevant is just very straightforward. Sports betting in a place like Las Vegas now where you have the Raiders playing, I just literally was showing Joe something over the weekend, year-over-year, first week over first week, we've taken 300% more bets over this weekend on NFL 300%, 278%. And the simple reason, I think, is because of the games here, and therefore, the people here. And it's -- and last year, it was a different year. All that being said, the ability to connect the brick-and-mortar with all this activity is pretty compelling and pretty exciting.

Great. Can you talk a little bit about New York State? I mean I know you're involved there in consortium. It's sort of the enemies in certain states and then your friends and business partners in 1 state, New York. How uncertain is New York given obviously the change in the governor there and maybe other senators who are embracing more of a New Jersey type of set of regulations for online sports and iGaming there. Do you think that market will actually award licenses around December 6. I think it will be open in time for the Super Bowl, which is February 13.

The regulators have committed to that. Now that's having said that, time to tell. Obviously, I think they have to decide whether they want 1 or 2 consortiums, and I think that will also help drive the tax rate discussion. You all saw what we did. I mean we obviously went in with the heft of our partners. So all things being equal, I presume we'll get a book. If that tax rate, whether it's 40-or-something, it's going to be a long haul. But again, I think because of the activity case, the synergy of it all, the ability, particularly in our case, with Empire and potentially its future, it's a place we have to be. It's the world's leading media market or 1 of sports leading sports marketplace. We have Borgata. We've got a huge database that we've driven off of that for decades. And so much like Michigan, we have a little bit of an inherent advantage. And so the question there will be, ultimately, can you make any real money? I think that's yet to be determined. But the other thing we've seen, particularly in the 5 states where there's iGaming, eventually, once you have brick-and-mortar and sports betting, iGaming comes along at least for the discussion. And so long way off, let's get sports betting up and operating first. But we think we have a distinct advantage, particularly driven by our database, but it's not going to -- this won't be easy. And the expenses between tax and the cost of the media market because we've already seen we had to buy to get to Jersey, the New York Philly media market, so we're already in the market. So we know the expense of it. And frankly, that will help us leverage a little bit as well.

Got it. Obviously, early in the year, you made a bid for Entain I understand you might be limited or are probably limited in what you can say. But can you just talk about what the strategic rationale was back in January. Obviously, if you own 50% of a great thing, owning 100% of a great thing is even better. But how important was some of the non-BetMGM assets of Entain at that point?

We -- as much as we do 2 things. We critique ourselves for giving up 50% of the business. The reality is we're #2 in the marketplace today. When you add it all up, we are because we got there so quickly. And so as much as we bang ourselves in the head why we give away half of our business, the reason we did is so that we could be in these markets, and it's clearly been proven first to market has one. Now whether that sustains itself over time, time will tell, but today, first to market is one. And so we're #2 because we did what we did. Having seen the business, having understood it more clearly having to understand the rationale of what it can ultimately do, we love the business. And so yes, we would like more of it, time to tell we enjoy our partnership. I mean, it's working well. We've got a new product offering that just got launched for football. We're working on all kinds of unique things around single wallet and some of the obvious things you would want to see in this space over time. And so that piece is working well, and it had opened our eyes to a more global thought. Interestingly, literally back in 2001, when I was 12, I went to the Isle of Man to do internet gaming. It didn't pan out the way it should, but we've had an early thought on this space literally 20 years ago. And so we understand it fairly well. There is a global piece that someday, I think would be meaningful to the company given our footprint and given our brands, and it's interesting. Entain has about 300 games that you can play on the iGaming piece. The #1 and #2 brands are called MGM and Bellagio. So there's a relevance between their technology, their ability to deliver games in a hurry and our brand, and it makes a big difference. And so we've seen that power. We'll see where this all goes. I don't want to comment too much more on it, but we're excited about the space.

So if you owned 100% of BetMGM would the level of investment into BetMGM would be different than what the level of investment is now between the 2 JV partners?

No, look, I think we've been disciplined. I think we've been straightforward about it. up until this past weekend -- literally this weekend, we weren't advertising on a national scale now that we're in 16 or 17 states. We're going to open that up a little bit. But no, we're fully committed to this business. I don't be any different. I just think I'd like to reap more of the profit and more -- and really more of the undertaking.

And so obviously, if you look at Entain's stock price, it obviously has been really strong because of an anticipation that someone might come in for a higher bid and pay a premium on top of a premium, on top of a premium. So I'm not going to ask you what you might think of that. But is there an appreciation on the part of MGM that there really maybe isn't another potential buyer, who would -- another third party that would want to buy just -- buy a company that has a great asset, but they only own 50%, meaning that if there is a bid, it would be maybe limited to 1 entity. And so therefore, why would you ever bid against yourself? So it's always a perpetual opportunity at some point that maybe has more price volatility that would give you a further opportunity? There's a question in there somewhere.

I think the reader tonight is going to kicka**. Yes.

There's an appreciation.

There's an appreciation. Of course, there is. And so -- but let's put it.

I was trying to ask in a very sensitive way, which I don't know if I did...

Didn't work.

We have a little bit less than 5 minutes left. So maybe I'll ask anybody here in the audience has a question. Gentlemen over there?

You mentioned MGM China I know that's key focus for you. I'm just curious with all the news lately and the tone of your conversation with Pansy...

No. With Pansy, absolutely not. She's been our partner for literally 20 years now. And we're just all trying to figure our way through this. We don't have an official word. As you all know, the clock is ticking. June of next year, they're supposed to have announced by June of next year, license extensions, believing don't know, believing it gets extended, but time to tell. That's obviously up to the government. There is a public process that has to go through. So the timing is getting extremely difficult to get accomplished, but we're going to wait and see. I do believe in the next 60 days, give or take, we should hear something around either extension or process. And so we're hopeful. But I would say, look, we've done a lot in that marketplace, particularly over the last 2 years and being great corporate citizens. We've done a lot for our community. We've done a lot for our employee base. We've kept every single 1 employed throughout this entire crisis. And the good news is, despite the sensitivity around COVID, that market is returning. We went from making decent money in July, to making no money in August and now in September, we're making a bit of money again. And so things are turning for the brighter day, hopefully.

Great. Do you think. Well, let me ask it this way. We've seen private education, we've seen certain technology sectors, we've seen more recently, video game restrictions imposed by Beijing. Was there another [ table ] drop for Macau? Or in a certain sense, did Macau already have sort of its government's attention in terms of restricting some abuses that might result in social ills in terms of the crackdown in corruption in '14, junket restrictions, focus on the IP segment in terms of any potential tangential capital outflows restrictions. I mean how concerned are you that Macau might be getting another pound of flesh taken from like some of these other sectors of late?

Look, obviously, we watch all that and we read with great curiosity. We've gotten 0 direct signal that there's a concern at that level. whether it be structured, whether it's licensing. How they think about it is yet to be determined. But to your point, it has been a keen focus over the last several years. The market, as you know, has taken a couple of hits. I mean, at one point, I remember this vividly when we were doing -- the thought around Cotai the marketplace was at $45 billion, and we thought it was heading for $65 billion because why wouldn't you? I mean, it going from 25% in 2 years. And obviously, it's not. But we still think it's the largest -- world's largest gaming market by far. Nothing is even close to it, and we think, ultimately, it will sustain and will be a key part of it.

Great. Next question for anybody? So we have a question here submitted online. Just to clarify your comments about 22 convention bookings being 8% to 9% below 2019. Is that up or down from where it was a few months ago? Or is that consistent?

It's consistent. It's consistent, Yes. I mean, yes, it's very consistent. I mean we've lost a thing, but we put them back. And so it's just -- it's float. It's very consistent.

How is 2023 conventions? I mean is that -- I mean, I know there's sort of -- there's less sort of visibility.

It's on -- yes less visibility. Obviously, COVID will be key. And if it pushes into the first quarter of '22, and I think a little bit of it will, I think the back half of '22 recovers, what's been pushed in '22, I think will push in '23. There's a couple of things that don't cycle well in '23 for the community, not just us, the whole city. But short of that, I think it's going to be -- we have no indication fundamentally, it won't be a very, very strong convention marketplace. And we've done the additions at Mandalay, which is going to begin to pay full fruit. We've done the addition at MGM, it's going to pay full fruit. So we're excited to finally get those relaunched.

Whether it's here on the strip or in the regional markets are there any sort of above-average CapEx items? I mean you guys have talked about sort of $500 million of maintenance CapEx a year for the domestic portfolio. Is there anything where you're looking at like, okay, we have to, like, $400 million in Luxor is sort of making potentially restrict -- reposition or something.

No, there's no repositioning going on. I think what you will see is we're going to get refocused on room remodels we got conservative in 2020 with COVID, we held back on a couple. So we're going to have to double down in a couple of places. And then the commitment we made to net digital in the context of BetMGM, but the commitment we made to digital, which I was talking about to lock and where we're going, that will be $300 million or $400 million over the next couple of years. to really put us in a different place.

We're not talking like about $1 billion?

No, no, no. We're not. So no, there's nothing draconian that's going to be eye-opening, particularly in the context of this marketplace.

Great. We have time for 1 final question since we're at 00:00.

You mentioned that your goal is to grow internationally, if not [indiscernible]. How would you do that?

Look, there are other things that are suspect to being bought, if you will. That's how we would do it, potentially we wouldn't start from scratch. I can assure you. We need a technology platform to begin with. But that's how we would do it. Like all of them, they all have a story tied -- you probably know the companies well. They all have a story tied to them. But there are a few and there are a few good ones.

Great. We're out of time on it. Thank you so much, Bill. Thank you, Cathy.

Thank you all for coming.