The CEO of casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment has admitted that no one comes to Macau for non-gaming amenities.

Fresh off Q2 results that showed an 83% fall in profit and waiting anxiously for word on how many gaming tables Macau authorities will allocate to Melco Crown’s new $2.3b Studio City resort, CEO Lawrence Ho confessed to feeling helpless in a surprisingly frank interview with Macau Daily Times.

Ho said Melco Crown was “literally praying” that Studio City’s table allotment comes in closer to its originally planned 400 rather than the 150 that most analysts suspect Macau will dole out, in keeping with what Galaxy Entertainment Group recently received for Phase 2 of its Galaxy Macau property. Ho acknowledged that he’d essentially been reduced to hoping his “lottery ticket” would prove a winner.

Ho believes Melco Crown’s commitment to boosting non-gaming amenities at its properties – like its award-winning House of Dancing Waters show – is in keeping with the diversification request/order that Macau authorities gave its casino licensees. Given Melco Crown’s commitment — and an implied suggestion that this commitment was larger than Galaxy’s – Ho said it wouldn’t be fair if every Macau operator were “treated the same way.”