“I’m most excited and fascinated by Macau,” Billings said in his first interview since taking over in February. “I’m kind of a glutton for ambiguity and change.”

Billings’ plan is to make the company founded by disgraced casino mogul Steve Wynn even more of a global player, expanding into new businesses and focusing on younger, affluent guests. That means new markets and new customers, including people who don’t gamble.

The strategy builds on what Wynn has already been doing in Las Vegas and at Wynn’s Boston resort, which opened in 2019. By adding features that appeal to younger revellers, Wynn has brought the average age of its Las Vegas guests down in recent years.

One example is Delilah, an Art Deco-style supper club that Wynn opened last year in Las Vegas. The Wagyu pot roast costs US$182, but on weekends it’s tough to get a reservation. Surprise guests have included singers Justin Bieber, Macy Gray and Drake.

Other investments aimed at attracting a younger crowd include a recording studio for the sports podcasting company Blue Wire, visible to guests walking by shops and restaurants.

Billings plans pop-up stores from cutting-edge designers to complement a retail line-up that already includes Chanel, Gucci and Bottega Veneta. And he’s spending US$100 million on an as-yet-unnamed new show, to replace Le Reve, that will feature magic and a storyline crafted by comic-book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick.

Mark Markarian, a 46-year-old plastic surgeon from Boston in Las Vegas recently for a wedding, gets what Billings is trying to do. Markarian, dressed in a designer windbreaker, swimsuit and trainers, doesn’t gamble and didn’t mind paying about US$2,000 a night for his suite.

“I like the ambience, just general people-watching, that kind of thing,” he said. “There’s a specific thirty-something, forty-something demographic that’s just sort of more fun.”

To further his global ambitions, Billings announced what will be the first casino in the United Arab Emirates. The US$2 billion beach resort on Al Marjan Island will have about 1,200 hotel rooms and a Las Vegas-size casino floor.

The tables and slot machines will be open only for tourists and the region’s roughly nine million non-citizen residents.

Even so, Billings thinks it’s a good bet, given the large number of Europeans and other potential guests. “We effectively have the world minus 1 million people,” he said.

Customer traffic to Macau, the only place in China where casino gambling is allowed, has been limited by the coronavirus, and a recent resurgence is further crimping business.

In addition, the Chinese government, as part of a broader focus on illicit money transfers, has cracked down on the junket operators who bring high rollers into town.

By midsummer, Wynn and other operators in Macau expect to get terms for their licence renewals. They’ll likely require more spending on non-casino attractions.

Billings said he’d like to build more hotel rooms. The company is also considering sports facilities, art and cultural attractions, even rooms designed to encourage medical tourism.

“We’re going to have a changed business there,” Wynn’s 72-year-old chairman, Phil Satre, said in an interview. “We’re seeing our customers reflect more of the age group that Craig is in. Baby boomers to Gen X and millennials.”

Billings grew up in Las Vegas, the only child of a single mother who worked for a phone company. He worked as a casino banker at Goldman Sachs and later ran the social gaming business of Australian slot machine maker Aristocrat Leisure before being recruited by Wynn’s then president Matt Maddox.

It was just months before the Steve Wynn scandal broke, with the founder accused of sexually assaulting casino workers. Billings said he had no idea that was going on.

Maddox, who became CEO after Wynn stepped down, picked Billings to run the company’s sports-betting business.

Wynn had grand plans for the sports-betting business that included a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. The company hired Ben Affleck and Shaquille O’Nealto appear in commercials, but the high cost of marketing led Billings to shift gears.

He halted advertising across the US for the sports-betting business and is now focused on less expensive online marketing as he tries to stem the losses.

“We would rather step back, reassess our strategy, take a longer view,” he said.

Billings is considering traditional casino expansion opportunities closer to home, including New York, where Wynn is looking at several sites for what could be three new casinos approved in the area.

He’ll also consider other businesses that could be an extension of the Wynn brand, such as high-end lodging or a boutique cruise line.

“What’s happening with the consumer is a willingness to spend,” Billings said. “And it’s not just us.”