Barry Jonas : Great. Great. And then just a follow-up. I think iGaming, we’re hearing that 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 and say, Michigan, but you could — can you help us understand some of the puts and takes with what would seem to be some cannibalization threat?
Bill Hornbuckle: Yes, I’ll take that. Obviously, in Michigan, to your point, is the best example where we have 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. They’re both doing well over 300 million GGR. Digital is approaching almost 400 million in GGR. It’s an interesting market when you look at it because it’s gone through smoking and nonsmoking. 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 three 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 it continued to grow in Detroit. So while it’s obvious that there’s a subset amount of play going on in digital, the chance to connect that with brick-and-mortar and ultimately reward and recognize. And 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. And so we think it’s been a great opportunity. We think it can continue to be one. And we are — we’ve seen nothing — Michigan, 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.
Operator: The next question is Steve Wieczynski from Stifel.
Steven Wieczynski : So actually I want to ask about your regional assets. And obviously, there’s a fear out there in the investment world that at some point, some of these consumers could start to slow down. And we’ve heard from a lot of your peers so far that there really hasn’t been any softness as of yet. And I just want to understand, have you guys seen the same fundamentals there, meaning no real weakening? And then also, margins were impacted by the inclusion of nongaming amenities in the quarter. I’m just wondering, how much more of that potential margin headwind could those present going forward?
Bill Hornbuckle: So let me take the top end of that and Corey, you can speak to the margins. We have several different kinds of regional properties. And so Maryland this year had an all-time record and then some. It was fantastic. We always dream at that property making over $300 million, and it did. And I know I’m getting dirty looks some of my folks, but — and it did. Atlantic City, given all of the competitive set and the reawakening of Hard Rock and what happened with Oceans, 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.
We saw a little softening with Empire as it came out of COVID. Springfield has enhanced and been improving. Look, obviously, it will be the place that I think any major recession activity shows. But I will say, to date, particularly up until and through January, we haven’t seen it. So Corey…
Corey Sanders : Yes. On the other regional properties, mainly in the third quarter, we increased on many of our nongaming amenities. And 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. And then just on the business. December had a little bit of softness, as Bill mentioned, but what we’re seeing in January and February so far as all of our regional markets are performing extremely up.
Steven Wieczynski : Got you. Good to hear. And then second question real quick, and it’s more of a follow-up here. But 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. And again, I’m not sure if this was you, Bill or Hubert, but did I hear you say that even after Chinese New Year, which, look, I know it’s only, let’s call it, 7 days or so, but you’re still somewhere in that ballpark?
Bill Hornbuckle: Yes, it was me. I said 5 million during Chinese New Year, but no — but we are at a great pace and a great place. And so no, but that’s extreme. Having said that, it’s still very profitable, and this last — it’s been 5 days or 6 days, whatever it’s been, but it’s been good. And so — but no, I mean, Chinese New Year is one — it’s a unique environment, it happens once a year.
Steven Wieczynski : Okay. Yes, I was just making sure I was not going to…
Bill Hornbuckle: Don’t do 5 million a day times 365.
Steven Wieczynski : It’s already done. Thanks, guys.
Operator: And our next question will be from Dan Politzer from Wells Fargo.
Daniel Politzer : So 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? And if you can maybe parse that out, how much of that step-up has been driven from growth in mass or premium mass or direct VIP versus pre-COVID. And then that quarter-to-date comment about the MGM China properties, the highest earning business in the company. I mean should I — if I kind of go back and piece together some math, should I interpret that that they’re pacing well over $100 million of EBITDA for the first quarter?
Bill Hornbuckle: No, no. For the month. Not the quarter, for the month. So you could think about it — if we put them together, it would be the highest EBITDA property we had for the month in our system. Way to think about it. And so Hubert, you can kick in here. Obviously, you’re living this every day on the continuity of going forward.
Hubert Wang : Yes, Dan, in terms of the market share question you asked, it’s too early, but to give you a definitive answer or whether it’s sustainable or not, but they are the things that ahead of us because as you know, we have additional tables, almost 200 additional tables. And we haven’t fully deployed all these tables yet. We’re in the process of doing that, along with some casino floor reconfiguration. So we plan to deploy all these tables by the end of first quarter. And I think that, that’s number one. Number 2 is that in the retendering commitment in terms of investment, we also have a lot of, I think, earning accretive projects. And I think that these offerings that will drive additional traffic. I mean just to give you some color on the nongaming side for Chinese New Year, I mean, our own occupancy approached 100% and our restaurant covers actually exceeded 2019 Chinese New Year level.
And a lot of that was because of all the nongaming events and concerts that do a lot of incremental visitors to us. And we’re also seeing a longer stay by our hotel customers. I think that as we invest more in these nongaming amenities, well, that will help with our market share growth down the road or sustain at that level.
Daniel Politzer : Got it. And then just for my follow-up, this is 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 kind of a quarterly pace of buybacks. And then also, I think it was last quarter or maybe a couple of quarters ago, you mentioned kind of a decelerating pace of buybacks. So given the outlook on Vegas, is there kind of a run rate we can think about here?
Jonathan Halkyard : 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. And so 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. And 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 want to give any more specific outlook.
Operator: And our final question will be from Jordan Bender from JMP Securities.
Jordan Bender : Can you just talk about the contribution from Far East play during the quarter in Las Vegas? And then what do bookings look like from Far East play for this point — or for this year at this point?
Bill Hornbuckle: You’re referring to the fourth quarter or Chinese New Year?
Jordan Bender : Fourth quarter and then, I guess, quarter-to-date as well.
Bill Hornbuckle: I can — I know the Chinese New Year number fairly well. Corey, I’ll lean on you for the fourth quarter. Last year, Chinese New Year, we had about 35 million in sale. This year, that number was just under 100. And so the opportunity and what that opportunity provided us this year was 3x what it was last year. And so while not back at the ’19 levels or ’18 levels. It was meaningful.
Jonathan Halkyard : And the Far East play during the fourth quarter, it was up about at least 1/3 over the fourth quarter of 2021 and constituted pretty much all of the growth in our international play during the fourth quarter. So very encouraging.
