Gamblit Gaming CEO Eric Meyerhofer said the company is rapidly expanding its footprint this year after raising an additional $25 million from investors in 2017.
Nevada’s gaming win returned to its billion-dollar ways in May, posting a monthly total of $1.04 billion, a 5.3 percent increase over last year, the state reported Friday.
Internet sportsbetting group Betano has announced that they've signed a sponsorship deal with VfB Stuttgart of the German Bundesliga, the second major sponsorship in the league this week for a betting firm.
A virtual reality gaming arena, branded as “Zero Latency Macau”, was due to start a consumer trial on Saturday (June 30) at Broadway Macau, a casino property in that city promoted by Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd.
A press release from a public relations firm said the trial Macau operation was the 19th location worldwide for the virtual reality entertainment brand Zero Latency, which originates from Melbourne, Australia.
The release – on behalf of an entity called Tomorrow Entertainment, said to be promoting the Broadway Macau tryout – described Zero Latency as “the pioneer and global leader in out-of-home, free-roam virtual reality (VR) entertainment”, adding the Macau site offered a 200-square-metre [2,150-sq-foot] virtual reality gaming area, with game play featuring “zombie attacks, galaxy space missions and family fun adventures for up to eight players at one time”.
A Zero Latency-branded venue was launched in Singapore in November 2017 according to Tomorrow Entertainment’s own website.
The Zero Latency Macau arena is said to feature three themed experiences: “Engineerium”, “Zombie Survival”, and “Singularity”. Each player is required to pay MOP400 (US$49.50) as “trial price” for a 45-minute session at the gaming arena, according to Zero Latency Macau’s official website. The regular price for the virtual reality experience is set at MOP450.
GGRAsia emailed Galaxy Entertainment seeking clarification as to whether Zero Latency Macau was to be a permanent entertainment feature at Broadway Macau, but did not receive a reply by the time the story went online.
Francis Lui Yiu Tung, deputy chairman of Galaxy Entertainment, has mentioned previously to media that the firm has considered bringing in “novel” and “technology” elements to Phase 4 of Galaxy Macau casino resort, a neighbouring project of the firm that it says would be largely focused on non-gaming.
Casino hotel MGM Grand Las Vegas, in the Nevada gambling hub, introduced a Zero Latency arena in September 2017, according to media reports. The introduction of the arena was described at the time as a “first” in the city.
Internet live dealer software specialist Evolution Gaming has been granted a second Dual Play Roulette table inside the London Hippodrome Casino, which will launch in the third quarter of this year.
The Macau government is proposing that the city’s top official can order the ad-hoc closure of casinos in case of an emergency or disaster.
The proposal is part of an overhaul of Macau’s civil protection system, following last year’s Typhoon Hato. It is included in a document put to public consultation on Thursday.
Typhoon Hato was the strongest storm to hit Macau in 53 years. It struck the city on August 23, 2017 with wind speeds of 200 kilometres per hour (124 mph), leading to 10 deaths in the city and widespread damage to infrastructure that disrupted the city’s tourism industry for more than a week afterwards.
The day after Typhoon Hato, the Macao Government Tourism Office had reported that nearly half of the 64 Macau hotels it had canvassed were without either power or water or both utilities.
A number of gaming resorts also reported having partially to reduce their operations following the storm. Three gaming venues – casino hotel Legend Palace, casino hotel Broadway Macau and Mocha Inner Harbour, a slot club promoted by Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd – had their operations suspended for several days, due to damage caused by the typhoon.
Most of the Macau casino-hotel operators however played down the impact on gaming operations of the unusually ferocious storm.
The government proposal announced on Thursday would allow a serving Macau chief executive to order the suspension or cancellation of casino operations if a venue was either in a part of the city deemed unsafe; or if members of the public might otherwise be put at risk were operations to continue .
Some casino worker groups have been calling for the city’s casino employees to be exempted from work when Typhoon Signal No.8 or above is hoisted by the local weather bureau. Many public service workers are excused workplace attendance in those circumstances.
The document does not include specific criteria to assess whether a particular casino operation should be suspended or cancelled. Macau’s Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, stated during a press conference on Thursday that those criteria would be defined at a later stage, public broadcaster Radio Macau reported.
The public consultation on the proposal goes on until August 11, inclusive.
Macau’s gaming law requires casinos to be opened daily. But it allows operators to suspend operations in “exceptional” situations, upon government approval. Such approval can be waived in the face of a disaster, serious accident or situations that pose a risk to public safety; in those cases, operators should inform the government of the suspension as soon as possible.
UK-based game studio Blueprint Gaming is turning excitement levels up to 11 with its latest release, This is Spinal Tap.
A representative of Culinary Local 226 said the deal covering the property’s 1,300 workers was reached at about 1 a.m. Wednesday, after 16 hours of negotiations that began on Tuesday.
Last weekend a punter that was playing an IGT video slot hit the company's MegaJackpots Progressive for a large £747,340 cash prize.
Fort Mason Games' new mobile app Confetti Casino offers free to play Vegas-style slots games.
Macau’s gaming law needs to be amended in order to account for the possibility of having more than six gaming licensees, the current number, after the present arrangements expire in either 2020 or 2022, several gaming lawyers and scholars told GGRAsia. There is also a need to put an end to the “sub-concession” regime used presently, several remarked.
Even if Macau chose to continue with a six-operator system, it would still be mandatory for the current statute covering gaming concessions – namely the Macau Gaming Law (Law 16/2001) – to be amended, as that originally envisaged only three concessions, noted Macau-based gaming lawyers Bruno Beato Ascenção and Sérgio de Almeida Correia.
Three of the current six operators in the market – namely Sands China Ltd, MGM China Holdings Ltd and Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd –were allowed in via a piece of legal improvisation. They actually run Macau gaming via locally-incorporated companies that are technically sub-concessions spun off from the Macau rights, respectively, of local units of Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, SJM Holdings Ltd and Wynn Macau Ltd respectively.
“If you look at the current market, there are many gaming operators that may have the possibility of becoming gaming concessionaires. For instance, when you take into consideration the importance of a junket such as Suncity [Group], you can easily predict that they will do everything they can to obtain a gaming licence,” Mr Ascenção remarked to GGRAsia.
Suncity Group’s investment in the multibillion-U.S.-dollar integrated casino resort project Hoiana in Vietnam could put it in a “better position” to win a Macau gaming licence in the event the Macau government was minded to allow a seventh operator in its market, brokerage Union Gaming Securities Asia Ltd wrote in a February note.
Mr Correia told us: “The current [gaming] law needs to be amended in order to accommodate at least six concessionaires, and/or eventually to extend the number to seven or eight, and this should be done during the present legislature [’s term].”
He added: “The current chief executive should prepare the process for the next chief executive to have the necessary instruments to take the most convenient decision in the interests of the Macau Special Administrative Region.” The end of the second and final five-year tenure of the incumbent Macau chief executive, Fernando Chui Sai On, falls on December 2019.
The two lawyers and Macau-based gaming scholar Wang Changbin have a common estimate that the concession holder firms of Macau operators SJM Holdings and MGM China will see their current concession extended by two more years, until 2022 – so that the two firms will be on the same finishing line for their rights as the other four licensees.
Ending sub-concessions
Mr Ascenção said: “There are many scenarios that can arise. You can imagine that [the government is] going to start a new tender process for all current gaming operators, namely changing the law in order to better reflect the current status quo of the gaming industry in Macau… that means ending this concept of sub-concessions.
“…the legal concept of a sub-concession is that it is intrinsically linked to the gaming concession, therefore it is not autonomous; although we’ve seen in the past some documents issued by the Macau government declaring that the sub-concession – namely the [Sands China] sub-concession – was independent from the Galaxy concession, which legally doesn’t make any sense,” Mr Ascenção explained.
“Another thing that is extremely important to see is if all these [incumbent] companies need to go through a tender process again, or just leave this process to new [-to-market] gaming operators…so that you have a dual form of granting a concession: the government would renew those that already have one, and make new gaming operators to go through the tender process,” the lawyer added.
To fellow lawyer Mr Correia, the format of gaming sub-concessions should end as it presents “no advantages” to the local community.
“Personally I don’t see any advantage in sub-concessions since the negotiation is carried between concessionaire and sub-concessionaire privately, and there is no gain to Macau. The same applies to satellite casino/investors,” he noted, referring latterly to a legacy system started in the days of the 40-year gaming monopoly of Stanley Ho Hung Sun, whereby third-party investors have been able to run a casino hotel in the city by piggybacking on a local gaming licensee’s rights and gaming table allocation via a so-called service agreement.
“All this needs to be accommodated within the law,” Mr Correia remarked to us. “It is not acceptable to have people without gaming licences saying that they own casinos.”
Future contenders
Ambrose So Shu Fai, chief executive at SJM Holdings Ltd, mentioned to local media early in June that the firm would like to “contain the number of satellite casinos” which operate using its gaming rights via service agreements. Among the six gaming concessionaires, SJM Holdings has the largest share of such satellite casinos.
Wang Changbin, director of the Gaming Teaching and Research Centre at Macao Polytechnic Institute, told GGRAsia: “There may have been certain requirements the government has imposed on them [satellite casino operators], but in law we don’t see what these requirements are. So it poses a regulatory problem… there should be a scenario where these satellite operators can be a concession contender. If this direction is not adopted, at least in the law the government should specify its regulatory framework for satellite operators, and their respective owners.”
Lawyer Mr Correia reckons that the legal status of gaming sub-concessions and satellite casino operations should be rectified, so that those wishing to pursue such activity would be able to seek recognition as a concessionaire by competing in a public tender to gain that status.
“If it is the interest of the Macau government to keep those individuals/companies in the gaming market, then the [aggregate] number of licences must be increased and all those [operators of such venues] should be allowed to participate in future tenders in order to get a licence… but first the Macau government needs to clarify how many licences it is willing to give,” Mr Correia remarked to us.
The Macau government has not so far publicly commented on the topic of the number of concessions that might be permitted post 2020 and 2022. It could nonetheless consider imposing certain obligations that the existing gaming brands in the market and new contenders for a concession process should answer to, remarked Jorge Godinho, a visiting professor at University of Macau where he teaches gaming law and anti-money laundering law.
“Cotai obviously has no more room for several new concessions with building obligations [attached]. Only Lots 7 and 8 are still available,”Mr Godinho remarked to us. Notwithstanding that fact, those plots represented “a vast piece of land, located in a very central area” of Cotai, just next to the Sands Cotai Central casino resort, and across the street from Studio City, he noted.
“I suggest that this land should be dealt with in an innovative and creative manner, by organising a tender to build one of the greatest integrated resorts the world has ever seen, if not the best. The tender would be open to the existing concessionaires as well as potential new operators from outside. Macau should have an iconic tourist attraction in the middle of Cotai, and Lots 7 and 8 present this opportunity,” the scholar added.
Gaming equipment manufacturer International Game Technology Plc (IGT) announced on Tuesday the conditional results of a tender offer for some of its senior secured notes due in 2020. The company said that, according to the preliminary results, it would repurchase the equivalent to EUR374.5-million (436.6-million) worth of outstanding notes.
The offer began on June 18 and expired on Monday. The IGT notes covered included: the EUR700-million 4.125-percent senior secured notes due in 2020 and represented by the Regulation S global note; and the EUR500-million 4.750-percent senior secured notes due in 2020, which were issued with an initial coupon of 3.500 percent.
IGT stated – citing information collected by the tender and information agent for the financial exercise – that approximately EUR262.4-million of the aggregate principal amount of the 4.125-percent notes, and EUR112.1-million of the aggregate principal amount of the 4.750-percent notes, had been validly tendered in relation to the offer.
The tender offer consideration for each EUR1,000 principal amount of the 4.125-percent notes accepted for purchase under to the offer was EUR1,050 in cash, IGT had previously announced. The tender offer consideration for each EUR1,000 principal amount of the 4.750-percent notes accepted for purchase relating to the offer was EUR1,070.
“Subject to satisfaction of all conditions set out in the offer to purchase, IGT intends to accept for purchase all of the notes tendered in the offer,” it stated in a press release.
BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale acted as the managers for the exercise.
The firm had previously said the purpose of the note tender offer was “to extend the weighted average maturity of IGT’s debt.” The overall operation also includes a new offering of euro-denominated notes.
IGT reported in May that consolidated revenue increased by 5 percent year-on-year in the first three months of 2018, while its operating income jumped 65 percent.
IGT’s net debt stood at approximately US$7.53 billion at the end of the first quarter 2018, compared to nearly US$7.32 billion as of December 31, 2017. The firm said the net debt as at March 31, 2018 included US$119 million of negative impact from foreign currency adjustments.
A former employee of The Venetian suspected in a deadly shooting at a company picnic in April was transferred to Las Vegas police custody early Tuesday after fighting extradition from a Texas jail for nearly two months.
A Wheel of Fortune player hit a jackpot worth more than $3 million on June 9 at the Silverton hotel-casino, IGT announced today.
The first-ever Macao Green Hotel Platinum Award has gone to the Venetian Macao casino resort (pictured) for its strategies to improve the environmental sustainability of the property.
The operator of the Venetian Macao, Sands China Ltd, issued a statement saying the establishment won the award for 2017 – just announced – for a year-on-year reduction in waste over a 12-month period. The Venetian has provided parking and charging facilities for electric vehicles used by staff and guests, introduced a guest mattress replacement scheme friendlier to the environment, monitored the effects on the environment of its shuttle buses, reduced food waste and performed regular carbon audits.
The Environmental Protection Bureau and the Macao Government Tourism Office jointly give out the Macao Green Hotel Awards to raise awareness of the importance of environmental management in the hotel industry and to commend hotels that take measures to protect the environment. The Macau government decided last year to create a platinum award to promote efforts that go beyond the established targets.
“Sands China is truly honoured by this distinction,” said Mark McWhinnie, the company’s senior vice-president of resort operations and development. “Our company continues to develop and implement innovations as part of the Sands ECO360 global sustainability strategy of our parent company, Las Vegas Sands Corp. This strategy has helped Sands China remain at the forefront of sustainable operations in our industry, while continuing to further reduce our impact on the environment.”
The Four Seasons Hotel Macao and the Parisian Macao, also run by Sands China, each won a Gold Award at this year’s event. The Grand Hyatt Macau, a hotel property at Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd’s City of Dreams Macau, also won gold recognition.
The winner of each Green Hotel Award is entitled to cite the accolade for a three-year period. Sands China says five of its other establishments – St Regis Macao, Cotai Central; the Conrad Macao, Cotai Central; the Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel, Cotai Central; and the Holiday Inn Macao Cotai Central – retain Gold Awards received in previous years.
Sands China said in its press release that by using energy-saving LED lights and optimises heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems it had saved 21 million kWh of electricity last year. That was enough to power more than 50,000 households for 12 months, it stated.
The reported removal earlier this month of China Union Pay Co Ltd payment terminals from some retail premises in some Macau casinos seems neither to be part of a sustained campaign of enforcement against a source of cross-border cash for gamblers, nor a meaningful dampener on gambling volume in that city.
So said respectively two brokerages in notes issued on Monday.
“Most if not all of our contacts indicate that the impact has been virtually negligible so far, as players are finding other ways (legal and illegal) to obtain liquidity,” stated analysts DS Kim and Sean Zhuang of JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd in a Monday note.
The institution estimated that Macau’s June casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) would register expansion in the 20s of percent judged year-on-year, back to the sort of growth levels seen in March and April.
Harry Curtis, Daniel Adam and Brian Dobson, of Japanese brokerage Nomura, said in a Monday memo, forecasting circa 20 percent year-on-year growth in Macau June GGR: “We believe the latest UnionPay terminal removals and World Cup have had little (if any) impact on Macau GGR so far.”
The latter was a reference to the 2018 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament being held in Russia. A reduction in Macau casino betting volume is said typically to coincide with major soccer tournaments, possibly either because some players put money into sports betting channels outside Macau casinos, or some VIP players are taken to the tournaments by junket agents as a customer perk.
JP Morgan wrote regarding the UnionPay issue: “Our on-the-ground checks reveal that some (not many) of the jewellery shops inside casinos have actually resumed UnionPay services recently, although they seem more cautious than before in offering such services (this could be because they may be utilising illegal mobile point-of-sale machines, though we couldn’t verify this).”
The institution added: “This, along with the fact that there was no follow-up clampdown thus far, probably suggests that it was an isolated incident and ‘more bark than bite’, in our view.”
The methods by which mainly mainland China consumers are said to use UnionPay services to convert their mainland currency-denominated funds into Hong Kong dollars – the currency in which overwhelmingly casino bets in Macau are denominated – is said by analysts to vary. One is the purchase, typically via UnionPay-linked bank cards, of high-value goods such as watches or jewellery, and then their return for a cash refund. Another is to gain access to unauthorised point-of-sale devices that mimic transactions occurring in China rather than Macau. The fee charged on mainland transactions via UnionPay is reportedly lower than on Macau transactions.
Nomura had expressed concern in a note earlier this month that the apparent crackdown on use of UnionPay point-of-sale machines in pawnshops or jewellery shops inside Macau casino premises could mark a governmental policy change regarding greater control of mass-market gambling to match that applied to high-stakes VIP play.
In early June, after news broke of the reported enforcement against some UnionPay terminals, Macau’s financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Macao, issued a statement to the effect there was no ban on UnionPay being used in Macau pawnshops. It mentioned, among other things: “Banks are obliged to perform adequate due diligence on, and ongoing monitoring of, the merchants in order to prevent the abuse of POS machines [for] illegal activities.”
The pace of year-on-year growth in June for Macau casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) is likely to accelerate to the sort of levels seen in March and April, after the significant slowing witnessed in May. That is the view expressed respectively in Monday notes by several brokerages.
Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd cited unofficial data from the industry for the month to date, and estimated daily GGR performance for the remaining days of June.
“Assuming a GGR average daily rate of MOP730 million [US$90.3 million] to MOP750 million for the remaining days of the month, we estimate June GGR to a range of MOP24.1 billion and MOP24.2 billion, an estimated year-on-year increase in June of +20 percent to +21 percent,” wrote analysts Vitaly Umansky, Zhen Gong and Kelsey Zhu.
A Monday note from JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd estimated that Macau’s June GGR would register expansion in the 20s of percent judged year-on-year.
The rate of year-on-year growth in Macau monthly GGR had more than halved in May, to 12.1 percent, compared to April’s 27.6 percent expansion. In March the improvement had been 22.2 percent year-on-year, according to data released by the city’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
Sanford Bernstein stated, referring the period June 19 to June 24: “The average daily rate… was approximately MOP716 million, which is 3 percent above a similar period last year (June 19 to 25 2017).”
The institution added, referring to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, an international soccer tournament taking place in Russia; and to the Macau casino hold rate for baccarat, the pursuit of choice for Macau VIP table games gamblers: “GGR was slower last week due to the World Cup and a lower VIP hold rate. Month-to-date, the VIP hold rate was at [the lower end of] the range. Both mass GGR and VIP volume were flat month-on-month compared with the May average daily rate number.”
JP Morgan analysts DS Kim and Sean Zhuang said in their Monday memo regarding June market performance that last week’s GGR was likely to have been circa MOP715 million per day, “which is quite decent/resilient in our view, especially considering the slow seasonality post the holiday and negative impact from the World Cup.” That was a reference first to the period after May’s Golden Week holiday in China, around the time of Labour Day on May 1; and second to a reduction in Macau casino betting volume typically said to coincide with some major soccer tournaments.
A Friday note from Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd had suggested that – aside from the VIP hold rate issue – a sequential decline in May regarding the growth rate of arrivals by mass-market visitors to Macau, had had an impact on casino GGR for that month.
Laughlin water service was restored Sunday morning, but a boil water order issued Saturday remains in effect. Businesses and residents are required to boil water or use bottled water for drinking and cooking until water quality analyses are completed.
By the time the American Gaming Association’s Global Gaming Expo rolls into Las Vegas in October, college and pro football will be well underway.
A criminal complaint accuses Danny Roy Salazar of burglarizing the Rio, Westgate and Caesars Palace between Jan. 13 and June 8 and stealing an assortment of items, including mattresses, televisions, “prototype auto electronics,” beauty products, furniture, light fixtures, an iPad and a photo booth.
Betting group Aspire Global has announced that they've partnered up with Aller Media to launch a new online betting site Hyggespil.dk, which offers casino games, crosswords, and sudoku games for punters.
Casino investor Landing International Development Ltd has told GGRAsia it considers it has a “legally-binding contract” for land in the Metro Manila area (pictured) in the Philippines for a resort project.
The statement from the firm follows a Thursday report via the Politiko online news outlet, suggesting the country’s Commission on Audit had ordered an organisation called Nayong Pilipino Foundation to shelve a land lease agreement with Landing International, pending approval from the nation’s casino regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), and the National Economic Development Authority.
Landing International told GGRAsia in an emailed statement on Friday: “Our agreement to lease a parcel of land of approximately 9.5 hectares [23.5 acres] in size located in Parañaque City, Philippines, from Nayong Pilipino Foundation is a legally binding contract.”
The firm added: “We are not informed that the land lease contract is cancelled, and we are not aware of any reason or ground for cancellation of the lease contract.”
According to the Politiko report, Maria Fema Duterte – described as a niece of President Rodrigo Duterte and said to be on the board of Nayong Pilipino Foundation, has complained Landing International would be underpaying for its lease relative to the market value of the land at nearby Solaire Resort and Casino.
In June it was reported that a subsidiary of Bloomberry Resorts Corp – Solaire’s developer – had paid PHP37.33-billion (US$710.8-million) for outright purchase of the 16 hectares where that property is located.
Landing International had said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in early May that the legislature of the City of Parañaque, in Metro Manila, had approved the group’s plan to develop and operate a casino resort at Entertainment City, an area earmarked for casino resort development in the capital.
The group said the casino scheme featured a planned construction floor area of approximately 500,000 square metres (5.38-million sq feet).
The Philippines imposed on January 13 a nationwide pause on issuing further casino licences, after President Rodrigo Duterte raised concerns about the “proliferation” of gaming venues in the country.
On May 1, Andrea Domingo, the head of Pagcor, told local media that Landing International was advised to “secure a clearance” from Mr Duterte for its Entertainment City project.
On May 16, at a keynote conference session organised and moderated by GGRAsia, Jay Lee, chief operating officer of Landing International, said the group was “confident” it could obtain a Pagcor provisional licence.
Electronic casino games specialist Weike Gaming Technology (S) Pte Ltd is among nine companies newly approved for membership of the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM).
The nine newcomers take AGEM’s membership tally to 166 businesses, according to a Thursday press release.
Weike Gaming was established in 1998. Its products are available in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Macau and Laos, according to the firm’s website. It is based in Singapore.
The firm – an early promoter of automated casino electronic table games as a way for operators to manage running costs – announced earlier this year its first large-scale virtual product in the category.
Another new member of AGEM is Canada-based Nanoptix Inc. In November last year, the firm reached a partnership with casino cash handling and transaction technology specialist SuzoHapp Group, involving the global distribution of all the printer products of Nanoptix.
Other new members of AGEM announced in Thursday’s statement include accounting firms BDO USA LLP and Deloitte LLP; business and technology consultancy Capco; and card manufacturer United States Playing Card Company.
AGEM is a non-profit international trade association representing manufacturers and suppliers of electronic gaming devices, systems, table games, online technology, key components, and support products and services for the gaming industry.
The Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday approved a restricted gaming license for Jason Stegall, the sole proprietor of the Outdoor Inn on Main Street in Jarbidge.
Yggdrasil Gaming recently announced its mystical new slot, Tut’s Twister.
John Shigley, chief operating officer (COO) of gaming for Macau casino firm MGM China Holdings Ltd, is to leave Macau “later this year”, the company confirmed in an email responding to an enquiry from GGRAsia.
“John will leave Macau later in the year. MGM China is conducting a search for a successor,” stated the gaming operator.
It said he was returning to the United States “to be closer to his growing family”. The statement added Mr Shigley had spent the last eight years in Asia, of his aggregate 16 years with the MGM Resorts International group, the parent of MGM China.
The statement didn’t clarify whether the executive would continue to work with the parent group on his return to the United States.
Mr Shigley played a key role in the February launch of the US$3.4-billion MGM Cotai casino resort (pictured). According to filings by MGM China, the executive has responsiblity for “casino operations, casino marketing, VIP marketing and VIP operations” at MGM Macau – the group’s first Macau venue, located in the city’s traditional downtown casino district – and at MGM Cotai.
Mr Shigley had previously been involved with the pre-opening phase of the Grand Ho Tram Strip casino resort project in Vietnam, when at that time MGM Resorts had a branding and management deal with the resort promoters. In March 2013, MGM Resorts said in a U.S. filing it was terminating the deal due to the project promoters having – as of that time – missed certain development milestones.
MGM China’s 2017 annual report filed in Hong Kong on March 22, said Mr Shigley has been with MGM China since January 2014, and with MGM Resorts since 2002. His age at the time the report was written was given as 61.
According to the email to us from MGM China, Mr Shigley began his gaming and finance career in 1978.
American fantasy sports company DraftKings has announced that it has signed a deal with Kambi that will see the latter assist with launching the company's sportsbetting operations in America.
Japan’s governing coalition agreed on Wednesday to extend the current ordinary session of the country’s parliament until July 22, which could allow passage of the Integrated Resorts (IR) Implementation Bill, a key measure for creation of a casino industry there.
The move – amounting to a 32-day elongation of the present session, which had been due to end on Wednesday (June 20) – was due to be made official via a formal resolution in the legislature that afternoon.
The casino implementation measure is not the only piece of government business said to benefit from the extension of the parliamentary session. Other measures backed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and its government coalition junior partner Komeito poised for approval include a bill revising rules on labour conditions.
The current government is committed to a range of reforms that it says are aimed at improving the structure of the country’s economy. Casino liberalisation is one of them. The stated aim of the latter is to generate fresh inbound tourism to the North Asia nation.
Kyodo News, a press agency, said it was the first time since 2015 that Japan’s ordinary parliamentary session was being extended.
The House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japan’s parliament, passed on Tuesday the IR Implementation Bill. That paves the way for the bill to be heard and passed by the upper chamber, the House of Councillors.
If the bill gets the nod in the current session, a number of industry executives expect the first casino licences to be issued in around the year 2020, with the first resorts to open for operation in circa 2025.
In mid-May it emerged that Japan’s two governing parties – and an opposition party – jointly submitted another bill to the country’s parliament on the vexed issue of gambling addiction counter measures. It has previously been reported that the passage of such a bill would be a condition of the timely passage of the IR Implementation Bill.
Tuesday’s Culinary union ratification of a collective bargaining agreement with MGM Resorts International virtually assures a summer free of labor strife for the Strip.
Internet betting software developer Microgaming has announced that they've launched an independent game design firm dubbed Stormcraft Studios.
Two Macau gaming labour groups have expressed concerns to GGRAsia regarding the likely effectiveness of a proposed bill to ban the staff of the city’s casinos from all local gaming floors outside work hours so as to curb problem gambling among them.
The doubts came from Power of the Macao Gaming Association and Professional for Gaming of New Macau. The latest version of the bill – which amounts to an amendment of existing law – was announced on Friday by the city’s Executive Council, and will be sent to the Legislative Assembly to be voted upon.
The Macau government proposes that any designated casino worker detected on a local casino’s gaming floor outside working hours would be liable to a fine of between MOP1,000 (US$125) and MOP10,000. Some staff not directly involved with gaming operations – including cage staff, food and beverage outlet workers, cleaners and those connected to surveillance operations – will also be included in the ban.
“The range of the fine is not that much of a deterrent, especially to people that really have gaming addiction problems,” president of Power of the Macao Gaming Association, Stephen Lao Ka Weng, told us. Mr Lao’s association – one of the local gaming labour groups that supported the initiative of the proposed casino entry ban to casino workers – says it had a meeting with Paulo Martins Chan, the director of the city’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, on the topic, and came away concerned about whether the measure could be effectively enforced.
“From what we understood from Mr Chan, basically the enforcement of the bill just relies on three conditions: the casino floor staff that keep watch at the entrance; the inspectors of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau; and the self-discipline of the workers themselves,” Mr Lao said.
According to figures mentioned in March by Macau’s Social Affairs Bureau, of 157 requests for assistance in 2017 regarding problem gambling, approximately 30 percent of cases involved casino employees.
Mr Lao of Power of the Macao Gaming Association told us: “At least the bill marked a good start for curbing problem gambling issues, especially among the younger people that are fresh to the industry… In general I still support the bill – I think it is good for Macau.”
Lei Man Chao, deputy director of Professional for Gaming of New Macau, remarked that the government-proposed bill “carried good intentions”; but he was doubtful of how effective the proposed measures could be in helping prevent problem gambling among casino employees.
The government’s bill envisages Macau casino workers being allowed to gamble in local casinos only on the first three days of the Chinese New Year holiday period. Such a restriction is similar to a rule applied to the city’s civil servants, who are only allowed to enter casino floors during the brief period of the Chinese New Year holiday.
“The government did it [the proposed bill] such a way that the casino employees are just being treated like civil servants, though they don’t enjoy the same rights,” Mr Lei remarked.
He added that the government ought to consider imposing a casino entry levy on Macau residents as a way of amending the casino entry rules. But following a public consultation on Macau casino entry regulation, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau has already ruled out such an idea. It said entry restrictions affecting locals should only be “targeted at high-risk groups” that are most likely affected by problem gambling issues. Only holders of Macau ID can be dealers in the city’s casinos.
The House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japan’s parliament, passed on Tuesday the Integrated Resorts (IR) Implementation Bill.
That paves the way for the bill to be heard and passed by the upper chamber, the House of Councillors, in the next few weeks, although that would mean an extension of the current – ordinary – session of parliament, which is officially due to end on Wednesday (June 20). The governing coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito had already flagged a willingness to extend the current session to see the bill through.
According to information collected by GGRAsia from Japan, the coalition will decide on Wednesday how long the extension of the parliamentary sitting should run. The current thinking is for approximately 30 days, meaning that in likelihood at the earliest the upper chamber would pass the bill in early July.
The measure sets out certain requirements for a casino industry, including a cap of three on the number of gaming resorts in the first stage of liberalisation, and an entry fee of JPY6,000 (US$55) designed to discourage locals from using the gambling floor at such resorts.
If the bill is passed in the current session, a number of industry executives expect the first casino licences to be issued in around the year 2020, with the first resorts to open for operation in circa 2025.
On Friday the bill was nodded by majority vote in a lower house committee after 18 hours of consideration, despite opposition calls for further discussion. That paved the way for today’s lower-house vote.
In mid-May it emerged that Japan’s two governing parties – and an opposition party – jointly submitted another bill to the country’s parliament on the vexed issue of gambling addiction counter measures. It has previously been reported that the passage of such bill would be a condition of the timely passage of the IR Implementation Bill.
Longtime Las Vegas resort executive Felix Rappaport, the president and CEO of the Foxwoods tribal casino in Connecticut, was found dead in his home Monday.
Internet betting group Pinnacle Solution has announced that they have signed an agreement with Asian BGE, and will provide eSports betting services to the operator's different online betting sites as a result.
A plan permitting Vietnamese into a casino in the southern province of Kien Giang is a step closer after the Ministry of Planning and Investment submitted paperwork to Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.
The VietNamNet website reports that the casino on the island of Phu Quoc aims to trial the plan for three years.
The government lifted a ban on Vietnamese gambling in casinos in March 2017, following a decree in January 2017 allowing a trial project for gambling by economically-qualified locals at certain venues. But the market is still awaiting news of how that policy will be applied in practice.
Customers must be older than 21 and have a monthly income of at least VND10 million (USD437). Only casino resorts with a total capital investment of at least US$2 billion – including gaming and non-gaming facilities – are eligible to welcome Vietnamese to gamble.
The VietNamNet report said that on March 1 the Ministry of Planning and Investment presented the prime minister with a plan for a complex for tourism, entertainment and other services, including a casino, on Phu Quoc. Then, last month, the provincial authorities in Kien Giang asked the prime minister to allow the casino on Phu Quoc to serve as a site to trial admittance of Vietnamese players, arguing that it would attract visitors, help the province develop and contribute to regulatory efforts.
Last November, Augustine Ha Ton Vinh told GGRAsia the Vietnamese government was likely to open two casinos to local customers. Mr Ha, an academic who has advised the government on liberalising Vietnam’s gaming industry, said a resort in Northern Vietnam at Van Don and on Phu Quoc Island would be among the first to admit locals.
The prospect of local play in Vietnam has had major U.S.-based casino firms including Las Vegas Sands Corp and Hard Rock International LLC studying the market. But the US$2-billion entry price does not appear automatically to guarantee operators permission for entry of locals, and the locals initiative is at this stage only for a trial period due to run for three years.
“We’re not necessarily in love with the conditions or the three-year test period,” said Sheldon Adelson, chairman and chief executive of potential Vietnam suitor Las Vegas Sands, in comments to investment analysts on the group’s first-quarter 2017 earnings call.
During the 2017 MGS Entertainment Show – a casino industry trade exhibition and conference held in November –, Andrew Klebanow, senior partner at business consultancy Global Market Advisors LLC told GGRAsia that Vietnam would need to balance its domestic policy expectations regarding what the casino industry could deliver in terms of inward investment, with the commercial needs of the operators. He described the reported US$2-billion capital threshold as an “unrealistic number”.
Hong Kong-listed Suncity Group Holdings Ltd – which does not currently contain the assets of the brand’s core Macau casino junket business – is currently committed to managing a casino resort at Van Don in Vietnam on behalf of third-party investors, and plans to invest in helping to build a US$4-billion Vietnam resort at Hoi An from the ground up and then run it.
Gaming services firm Success Dragon International Holdings Ltd has warned investors its loss for the year ended March 31, 2018 is likely to be wider than initially forecast. That is a result of an impairment loss related with a revised valuation of its investment in an energy-related business based in the United States.
In March 2017 – and prior to a management reshuffle – Success Dragon acquired a 20.8-percent stake in Primus Power Corp for US$20 million. The latter firm is involved in the provision of energy storage systems.
In a Friday filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Dragon Success said that “based on the preliminary draft of a valuation report on Primus prepared by an independent valuer, it is expected that the group may record an impairment loss ranging from approximately US$10 million to approximately US$15 million (equivalent to approximately HKD78 million to approximately HKD117 million) in respect of the Primus shares.”
The document added: “As a result of the impairment loss, it is expected that the total comprehensive loss attributable to equity holders of the company for the year ended March 31, 2018 will be impacted accordingly.”
Dragon Success noted that since the impairment loss was “non-cash in nature, there will be no immediate effect on the operating cash flow of the group”.
Success Dragon reported a net loss of HKD28.0 million for the six months ended September 30, 2017. Around 91.8 percent of Success Dragon’s revenue in the reporting period came from the provision of services on management of electronic gaming equipment operations in Macau.
Success Dragon said in June last year it was terminating four agreements relating respectively to management services for greyhound racing and horse racing in Vietnam. It cited “adverse” regulatory conditions – including a cap on daily betting amounts for Vietnamese nationals, and a ban on international simulcast of races – as factors in the decision.
In a 15-minute address at the end of Tuesday’s meeting of the board of directors of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, CEO Rossi Ralenkotterwent through a checklist of reasons why he’s going to retire.
The operator of a Northern Nevada casino has settled a state Gaming Control Board complaint that it illegally operated an unlicensed interactive gaming system by linking to websites based in Curacao.
Lawmakers in Vietnam approved of a bill that will allow gamblers to place wagers on overseas football matches, although implementation won't be brought in until next year.
The Macau casino entrepreneur behind the US$1.1-billion Morpheus hotel tower that officially launched in Cotai on Friday said the reason the property did not get new-to-market live dealer gaming tables under the city government’s table cap system, was because the authorities had “maxed out” on table quota for the year.
Lawrence Ho Yau Lung (pictured), chairman and chief executive of Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, the promoter of Morpheus, which is located at the City of Dreams Macau casino resort, said at the Friday press conference for the launch: “I understand the fact that the DICJ, this year, has maxed out the quota with the opening of MGM [Cotai], and the sub-pieces to…Wynn Palace and the Parisian [Macao].”
That was a reference first to the local casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, a body also known as DICJ, and third to Wynn Macau Ltd’s US$4.6-billion Wynn Palace, which launched in August 2016, and Sands China’s US$2.7-billion Parisian Macao, which opened a month later. They each got 100 new tables then, but two further tranches of 25 each, in January 2017, and January 2018.
When the nearby US$3.4-billion MGM Cotai resort launched in February, it got 100 new-to-market live dealer tables, with a promise of another 25 in January next year.
The gaming bureau told GGRAsia in an email on Thursday that while Melco Resorts would be allowed to shift 40 tables from existing operations to Morpheus at its opening, it would only be considered for new tables next year.
“When reviewing the application for gaming tables, the Macau SAR government has strictly adhered to the principle of limiting the number of gaming tables to not exceed a 3-percent annual compound growth rate for 10 years starting from 2013,” the gaming regulator told GGRAsia, referring to Morpheus.
“I think the government is looking at next year’s quota for us. And…we are okay with moving tables and re-allocating them,” Mr Ho said at the Friday press conference.
‘Not a negative’
Japanese brokerage Nomura said in a Friday note regarding no new tables initially going to Morpheus: “We do not view the issue as a negative. Macau is capacity constrained, not in its number of gaming tables but in its number of hotel rooms (or lack thereof) which is Morpheus’ main appeal. In our view, the most important driver for Melco [Resorts] isn’t its table count. It is the quality of Melco’s customer base, which we expect will improve with Morpheus.”
Mr Ho noted in his Friday comments: “Most of our competitors wouldn’t have undertaken a project like Morpheus. You can build 770 rooms with US$300 million. You don’t really need to spend US$1.1 billion. And you don’t need the amazing elaborations that we have.”
He added: “So far the Macau government has never failed us. And I think we have always been rewarded appropriately for the amount of investment.”
Mr Ho said that about 200 rooms at the Morpheus tower would be in use from Friday, with a further 100 rooms commissioned approximately every two weeks, so that all the rooms would be in service some time in July.
The CEO also clarified that the gaming space at Morpheus might be made available for the firm’s directly-managed VIP business – whereby credit for the rolling chip programme is issued by the house and credit default risk managed by the casino operator, rather than middlemen junkets typically used for that segment in Macau. Previously he had mentioned there would be no “junket rooms” at the hotel tower.
Mr Ho said: “We want to have the flexibility to see, in the long term, whether level-two of Morpheus should be for our premium mass or direct VIP. But in any case, Morpheus is definitely only to serve for our company’s best clients, but not to junkets.”
Housekeepers, bartenders and other unionized workers at Las Vegas casino-resorts operated by Caesars Entertainment approved a new five-year contract, ending the possibility of a strike at those properties.
This week the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians announced that three of their casinos will be offering sports wagering at their casinos, although a firm timetable wasn't available as of press time.
International Game Technology PLC recently announced that it has signed a patent cross-license agreement with FlowPlay, Inc.
Thousands of Caesars Entertainment Corp. union employees will vote Thursday on a five-year labor agreement union leaders are calling the best they’ve ever had.
Internet casino game developer 1x2 Gaming has announced the launch of their new video slot 'Si Xiang', which is an Iron Dog Studios slot.
The opening of the Grand Lisboa Palace (pictured in a file photo) casino resort project in Macau’s Cotai district will help casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd regain share in terms of the city’s gaming earnings, says Ambrose So Shu Fai, the group’s long-standing chief executive. The opening is due in the second half, 2019, the firm has said.
The casino operator has seen a continuous decline in its share of Macau casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) for consecutive years from 2011 to 2017, according to the group’s annual reports.
Mr So gave the commentary on reclaiming market share when speaking to the media following SJM Holdings’ annual general meeting in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
SJM Holdings’ position among the six casino operators has dwindled annually from a leading 29 percent in 2011 to 16.1 percent in 2017, according to the firm’s annual reports.
The last time that SJM Holdings reported an increase in market share was in 2010 – when it claimed to have 31.3 percent of Macau GGR, making it at that time the market leader among the city’s six operators.
When asked on Tuesday about likely new-to-market live-dealer gaming table allocation from the Macau government for the HKD36-billion (US$4.6-billion) Grand Lisboa Palace – the firm had previously stated the venue can accommodate as many as 400 live gaming tables – Mr So said it was a question of “the more new gaming tables, the better”. He observed that other Macau operators opening new Cotai resorts in the past few years had been granted in the range of “120 to 150” new gaming tables for those properties.
SJM Holdings is the last of Macau’s gaming concessionaire to build a venue in Cotai, a land reclamation zone some distance from the city’s traditional downtown gaming district. Some of SJM Holdings’ market competitors have already embarked on expansion plans for Cotai resorts that opened either only months ago or a few years ago. Expansion of hotel capacity has been a focus for new investment.
In his Tuesday remarks, Mr So reiterated Grand Lisboa Palace was expected to open “in the second half of 2019”. At a company event last week, the SJM executive flagged that not all of the facilities at the Cotai site might be ready by the time of the slated initial opening.
Upon completion, Grand Lisboa Palace is to include hotel towers with the respective branding “Grand Lisboa Palace”, “Palazzo Versace” and “Karl Lagerfeld”. In aggregate they will provide approximately 2,000 rooms, SJM Holdings noted in its annual report for 2017 filed in April.
Following SJM Holdings annual general meeting on Tuesday, Mr So was confirmed as a vice-chairman of the group as well as continuing in the role of CEO.
The shareholders of Genting Malaysia Bhd have approved the payment of a final, single-tier dividend of MYR0.05 (US$0.0125) per ordinary share for last year. The gaming company said the shareholders approved the dividend at the annual general meeting held earlier this month.
Genting Malaysia declared the dividend in February, when it announced its results for its financial year ended December 31, 2017. The company told Bursa Malaysia it had made a net profit of about MYR1.16 billion last year on revenue of nearly MYR9.33 billion. The year before, the company made a net profit of about MYR2.88 billion on revenue of about MYR8.97 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 9 percent last year to about MYR2.21 billion.
Late last month, the casino operator reported a 10.6-percent year-on-year improvement in first quarter profit for this year. Genting Malaysia’s first quarter profit of MYR358.2 million – compared to MYR323.9 million in the same period a year earlier – came from casino operations at Malaysia’s only licensed casino destination, Resorts World Genting (pictured), as well as operations in Britain, Egypt, the United States and the Bahamas.
The group includes gaming revenue in its “leisure and hospitality” revenue, which also covers “hotels, food and beverage, theme parks, retail, entertainment attractions, tours and travel related services and other supporting services”.
