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September 2013 • MOP 30 • ISSN 2070-7681 COVER STORY CONTENTS 8 The Asian Gaming 50 INSIGHTS Show Starter Here it is, our annual ranking of the men and 56 Perhaps the most prolific gaming- women who are having the greatest impact focused inventor in Asia, Jay Chun is on the most dynamic and fastest-growing masterminding a new regional trade gaming market in the world. show to challenge G2E’s dominance. FEATURES Okada’s Philippine Woes Continue 59 Although Universal Entertainment claims it has been cleared of allegations of wrongdoing by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, the company is pressing on with its internal bribery investigation, as are the Philippine Department of Justice and the US FBI. Headwinds Down Under 60 Crown and Echo claw for an edge in tough markets. The Next Frontier 62 NagaCorp follows Lawrence Ho in pursuing the development of an integrated resort in Russia’s Far East. IN FOCUS Off the Hook 64 LVS has agreed to forfeit $47.4 million to the US government to avoid prosecution for failing to report millions of dollars in money transfers from a gambler linked to drug trafficking. BRIEFS 66 Regional Briefs 68 International Briefs Cover illustration by Rui Rasquinho 70 Events Calendar EDITORIAL Vietnam’s Locals Ban: How It Could End here are more than 92 million people in Vietnam of whom about 50 million or more are adult Tage, and as we know from the success of NagaWorld in neighboring Cambodia, a substantial number of them like a flutter. How much larger would that number be if they didn’t have to leave the country to enjoy one? “We’d actually be sitting on a gold mine,” says Mike Santangelo, chief operating officer of The Grand – Ho Tram Strip. Phnom Penh’s NagaWorld booked the equivalent of US$251 million in gaming revenue last year, more than $155 million of it from main floor play, of which an estimated 40%—more than $62 million—was generated by gamblers from Vietnam. That’s not counting their contribution to the $95 million the property made on VIP, or the revenue impact of the money that thousands of Vietnamese are losing every day in gambling dens just over the Cambodian border. Ho Tram, a world-class resort with a price tag of US$500 million, opened six weeks ago on Publisher the South China Sea coast in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province just north of the Mekong Delta—its 600- Kareem Jalal plus machine games and 90 live tables about a three hours’ drive from Ho Chi Minh City’s millions Director and off limits to them by law, as are all five of the casinos that currently comprise the country’s João Costeira Varela regulated market. It’s interesting given the timing— Ho Tram opened on the 26th of July—that the domestic Editor gambling ban is now being questioned in the National Assembly, the interesting part being that James Rutherford it’s the government fomenting the discussion around a plan to include something Ho Tram-like with a casino at a sprawling special economic zone called Van Don near Halong Bay about 160 Operations Manager Muji Vong kilometers east of Hanoi. Halong Bay, which is almost within shouting distance of China, is one of the country’s most popular tourist spots and home to a couple of very nice hotels that provide Contributors gambling for their international clientele. Van Don, which consists mostly of coastal lands, was set John Grochowski, Tom Hall up as a showcase of the government’s ability to foster growth and has attracted some $464 million James J. Hodl, Richard Meyer in domestic investment and $120 million in foreign direct investment since its establishment six years ago. Graphic Designer Brenda Chao The casino plan actually is the brainchild of one Dao Hong Tuyen, a businessman who rose to prominence as a developer at Van Don. He’s talking about US$4 billion in integrated resort Photography development, which has observers skeptical since they say he has nowhere near that kind of Ike, Alice Kok, James Leong, money. But this in itself is not all that unusual. Vietnam’s resort landscape is littered with grand Wong Kei Cheong schemes that have come to nothing, although they did wise the government up to the need to impose some stringent capital requirements, as Ho Tram’s backers, Asian Coast Development (Canada), learned the hard way when it ran into 11th hour financing snags and the authorities held Inside Asian Gaming back final approval. is published by Must Read Publications Ltd But it gets more interesting. The Ministry of Finance is reported to have informed lawmakers 5A FIT Center that Mr Tuyen’s project has the endorsement of the Politburo, the Communist Party’s all-powerful Avenida Comercial de Macau decision-making body. This suggests that either they believe Mr Tuyen can get his hands on really Macau big money or they like the project enough to see if it might interest someone who can—like ACDL Tel: (853) 8294 6755 maybe—or maybe someone in Macau or Malaysia or Melbourne. The backdrop here is the fact that tourism is playing an ever more important role in the For subscription enquiries, please email economic life of Vietnam— good for an estimated 4.5% of GDP last year on a 14% surge in [email protected] international visitor arrivals, more than 4 million of them leisure travelers—and with developments like Ho Tram an increasingly important source of foreign direct investment, which looms large For advertising enquiries, these days with the central government beset as it is with a banking sector that reports say is please email seriously undercapitalized and ailing. [email protected] But what the tourists are bringing in the Vietnamese are carrying back out to places like or call: (853) 6680 9419 NagaWorld, and lawmakers have begun to wonder aloud if something shouldn’t be done about www.asgam.com this. Which is where it gets really interesting because the Van Don proposal has fallen smack into the middle of this discussion. The assembly has been working for months on a definitive regulatory framework for promoting investment in a resort-scale casino industry, and a number of legislative Inside Asian Gaming leaders, Deputy Assembly Speaker Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan among them, believe a reconsideration of the domestic gambling ban ought to be part of it. The assembly’s Committee on Finance and is an official media partner of: Budget has issued a report advocating allowing locals at Van Don on a trial basis. The Politburo is believed to have taken a favorable view of this. Of course, Van Don might not happen, and if it does it’s three or four years away at the soonest at the level of development they’re talking about. Or they can move the trial to Ho Tram and implement it today. If the support for it is as strong as it’s reported to be, this is not out of the realm of possibility. James Rutherford http://www.gamingstandards.com We crave your feedback. Please email your comments to [email protected] 4 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | September 2013 The Asian Gaming 50 – 2013 The Asian Gaming 50 – 2013 The sixth annual ranking of the industry’s most influential people Sponsored by: Welcome to the newest edition of The Asian Gaming 50, our yearly review of the individuals we believe have had the greatest impact over the last 12 months on this rapidly growing and most dynamic of the world’s gaming markets. What a year it’s been too. Not since Singapore’s IRs came on line in 2010 has the region’s emerging markets story been this compelling. Entertainment City in Manila came through a long and difficult birthing with the opening of Bloomberry Resorts’ Solaire Resort & Casino. Asian Coast Development (Canada), another new name, opened Vietnam’s first true destination resort at The Grand – Ho Tram Strip. Crown Limited shattered two decades of monopoly policy in Sydney to plant its flag in Australia’s largest city, simultaneously clearing a path for itself into the vast potential of South Asia with an endorsement from the government of Sri Lanka for a $350 million casino there. Lawrence Ho struck out on his own with a bet on Russia’s Far East that could top $700 million when all is said and done. Cotai finally came into full focus with Macau giants SJM and MGM China cleared to pursue their multibillion-dollar developments in the booming resort enclave. And a savvy marketeer with a penchant for jeweled loafers and candy-colored bangs introduced us to a princess orphaned by history and had us all talking about red Rolls Royces and hotel suites the size of McMansions and struggling to pronounce “atelier”. Needless to say, it was a challenging list to compile. To do it justice we decided we had to break with past editions to dedicate 2013’s to the men and women who are mapping this extraordinary wave of expansion and managing the sizable operations already in place that are paying for it all. It was a choice that prevented us from singling out the many innovators on the supply side of the equation whose games and technologies and precision products richly deserve to be recognized. Our consolation is that we are able in the pages that follow to introduce to you 14 personalities who are entirely new to the list. And a pleasure it is for us as well. Because we expect their influence will be profound in the months ahead.

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