UPDATE 1-INTERVIEW-Wynn: Macau may slow development of gambling

* Table game limit could slow Cotai Strip development

* Wynn "very much in favor" of limits

* Encore Macau to open April 1, 2010

(Adds background on Wynn Macau IPO, Sands IPO plans)

By Deena Beasley

LAS VEGAS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Macau, the only city in China where gambling is legal, may be moving to slow development in the fast-growing casino center, according to gambling mogul Steve Wynn.

The southern Chinese city's government met Monday with representatives of the six companies that operate its casinos, including Wynn Resorts Ltd (WYNN.O).

"I've got a feeling that the government's going to tamp it

(Cotai) down," Wynn, the company's founder and chief executive, said in an interview with Reuters. He was referring to the Cotai Strip, a swathe of land some Macau developers have touted as the next Las Vegas Strip.

"If they limit the amount of (gaming) tables there is no reason to build any more," he said.

Wynn said Chinese officials appear to be chiefly concerned with the disruption that overbuilding could potentially inflict on workers in Macau. "The government wants to keep everybody calm while they provide jobs and industrialize the country," he said.

According to a statement posted on the city's official website, the former Portuguese enclave is considering rules, to be drafted in two to three months, that would impose limits on table numbers and raise the age for gambling to 21 from 18.

"We are very much in favor of it," said Wynn, whose company currently operates one luxury casino hotel in Macau and will open a second, called Encore Macau, on April 1.

Wynn said his representative at the meeting suggested that the number of table games for each operator be capped at 1,500, while others proffered a number as low as 1,000. Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS.N), which operates two Macau properties, already has more than 1,000 table games.

Sands, like Wynn, has longer-term plans to expand development on the Cotai Strip.