“Everyone has got dealers and waitresses and cooks and housekeeping and we all got them from the same place … what do you think is going to happen 18 months from now? Exactly the same thing.” That’s the sound of Steve Wynn being either sanguine or dangerously complacent, depending on your point of view. Who is “everyone”? It’s the six casino concessionaires, several of whom are having labor troubles. With Macanese labor at a premium and guest-worker importation strictly regulated, casino workers have the upper hand and aren’t afraid to flex it.
Both Venetian Macao and Galaxy Cotai (below) have been picketed in recent weeks by labor movement Forefront of the Macao Gaming. Its 
president, Ieong Man Teng warned, “For both Galaxy and Sands we are not ruling out a strike.” Translation: I’m in the driver’s seat here. The dearth of, and competition for employees are such that both Sands China and Wynn Macau have had to fork over incentives in the form of either higher salaries (the average salary of a Macanese baccarat dealer is $24,000 a year). But the days of high-profit, low-labor-cost Macao may be numbered. Wynn’s and Sands’ new incentive programs have already cut into 2014 profits (of which Wall Street was quick to take notice). Forefront leaders and Sands employees were able to wangle a private audience with government officials, signifying the clout they wield.
By 2017, the employee shortfall is expected to near 14,000. While the government has promised to preserve guest-worker limits “in the near terms,” we can already see the point where Macao’s casino growth becomes insupportable in terms of the size of the resident workforce. As long as those guest-worker caps are in place, it behooves Forefront and its constituents to keep the pressure on Wynn, Sheldon Adelson and others. There’s no telling how long their leverage will last.
