June 2008 • MOP 30 The Merlion vs. Macau Singapore’s orderly advantage Sports Betting: Fun and Games This Summer Blue Skies and Baccarat in Vietnam Weike: Taking on the Big Boys ESL Gaming Indices China’s Big Lotto INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2008 CONTENTS June 2008 The Merlion vs. 7 Macau 7 Orderly Competitor 14 Blue Skies and Baccarat 16 Big Lotto 20 Fun and Games this Summer 26 Taking on the Big Boys 35 This Tangled Web We Weave 38 ESL Gaming Indices 41 Alfastreet Video Baccarat 42 EZ Baccarat 20 46 Green Machine 16 48 All Systems Go 53 Hot Ticket 54 Ultra High Quality 55 Hot Options 56 Size Matters 58 The Chips are Up 58 Flying Colors 60 Regional Briefs 62 International Briefs 48 64 Events Calendar June 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 2 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2008 June 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 3 Editorial Courting Trouble Sheldon Adelson is probably rather glad he held on to a controlling stake in Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS). Otherwise, he could have been one of the richest and most successful businessmen in history to face an institutional shareholder’s revolt. If that sounds far fetched, how many public company chairmen out there do you know who could preside over a first quarter loss; experience a multimillion dollar defeat in a civil lawsuit; admit to being too ill at one time to run their own business; have the company president admit on oath that he had failed in his fiduciary duty and still expect to see smiling faces at the next stock holders’ meeting? Well it all happened to Mr Adelson in the space of just a few weeks, knocking some of the shine off his image as the man with the Macau Midas touch. At the end of April, LVS announced a GAAP net loss for the first quarter of 2008 of U$11.2 million, despite a 71.8% jump in revenues to US$1.08 billion from US$628.2 million in the corresponding quarter of 2007. LVS said that on an adjusted basis, it would have reported a net profit of US$23.6 million. Sheldon Adelson holding court with more Nonetheless, the company appeared to be showing some of the classic symptoms often brought conviction at Venetian Macao on by rapid corporate expansion—namely a surge in business costs (coinciding with global surges in commodity costs) without an immediate accompanying rise in profits. Editor and Publisher Depreciation and amortisation expenses amounted to US$113.4 million in the first quarter of Kareem Jalal 2008, compared to US$31.2 million in the first quarter last year. The company said the increase was mainly due to a rise in depreciation expenses related to the openings of The Venetian Macao and Director The Palazzo in Las Vegas. João Costeira Varela More bad news came in late May, when a Nevada jury ordered LVS to pay Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen US$43.8 million after deciding he had, as he claimed, played a vital role Business Development Manager in helping LVS get its Macau gaming licence in 2002. Things could have been worse. Mr Suen was Matt Phillips originally asking for a US$5 million success fee and 2% of LVS’s Macau gross over the lifetime of the Macau licence, which would have amounted to considerably more than US$43.8 million. It also Operations Manager looks as if Mr Suen will have to pay his own legal costs despite the win. Mr Adelson’s lawyers add José Abecasis that they plan to appeal against the verdict. Potentially more damaging in the long term for LVS than the first quarter loss or even the court Contributors payout was the drama inside the courtroom. Michael Grimes, Desmond Lam, Mr Adelson’s demeanour on the witness stand was similar to that of Clara Peggotty in David Steve Karoul, Richard Marcus Copperfield. In Charles Dickens’ novel, Mrs Peggotty is David’s nurse, a good and upstanding person, but one who is incapacitated just at the moment when some crucial decisions have to be made. Graphic Designer So it was that Mr Adelson told the jury that at important times in the LVS dealings with Mr Brenda Chao Suen during 2001, he was in too much pain from a rare neurological condition and too drowsy from properly prescribed medication to be fully focused on his business. The fact Mr Adelson didn’t Photography disclose his temporary incapacity to the US Securities and Exchange Commission is subsequently Ike being viewed as a faux pas, but not a serious regulatory lapse. Back to the courtroom and enter Mr Weidner, with some of the characteristics of Mr Barkis, Peggotty’s faithful companion. In Dickens’ story, Mr Barkis means well but sometimes gets hold of Inside Asian Gaming the wrong end of the stick. is published by During his testimony, Mr Adelson said that Mr Weidner has been dealing with Mr Suen on the Must Read Publications Ltd Macau issue, but that Mr Weidner had made a mistake in asking someone with Mr Suen’s lack of Suite 1907, AIA Tower, 215A-301 financial experience to find investors for a possible Macau project. Av. Comercial de Macau - Mr Weidner then admitted under cross-examination from one of Mr Suen’s American lawyers Macau that he had failed in his fiduciary duty to LVS in his dealings with Mr Suen. In other words, Barkis Tel: (853) 6646 0795 was willing but had just fallen short. Later, inside the court and outside, Messrs Adelson and Weidner retracted their statements, For subscription enquiries, hinting clever lawyers had tricked them. It was, though, an unfortunate turn of events. The jury please email found in Mr Suen’s favour, and now Mr Adelson and Mr Weidner’s aura of unparalleled competence [email protected] and even invincibility has evaporated. If all this wasn’t enough, it appears that monetisation—the LVS magic bullet used so effectively For advertising enquiries, to mitigate development costs in Las Vegas—may not be possible for the serviced apartment please email portion of LVS’s Cotai site. This scenario, which would apply equally to the residential portion of [email protected] MPEL’s City of Dreams site, has come about because of question marks over the rules of domestic or call: (853) 6646 0795 land title on Cotai. Sources explain to Inside Asian Gaming that this is because land on Cotai can only be legally offered on a 25-year lease, while title in the rest of Macau is either freehold or on a www.asgam.com lease ranging from 75 to 100 years. And in case anyone had forgotten, project costs have also been rising pretty sharply in line with world commodity price rises at the Marina Bay Sands construction site in Singapore, while in the US Printed by there are signs the domestic economy is slowing. Icicle Print Management (Macau) Ltd Tel: (853) 2871 2818 The year 2008 isn’t yet an Annus Horribilis for LVS, but nor is it a roaring success. The second half Fax: (853) 2871 2898 of the Year of the Rat will need to be a lot less twitchy if ‘Mr Midas’ is to win back his golden crown. www.icicleprint.com Michael Grimes INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2008 June 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 5 6 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2008 Orderly Competitor Macau doesn’t seem to know what it wants from its casino industry. Singapore does hat were Macau’s objectives in When a casino operator enters concession or sub concession is expensive liberalising its casino industry? negotiations with the Macau government, and difficult, and just got more difficult since WClearly the goals were not he can’t be completely sure whether he’s the announcement of a moratorium on new 9.75% inflation, clogging of the transport negotiating with Macau or with Beijing. He’s casino licences and projects by Macau’s infrastructure to breaking point, the best off playing safe and assuming it’s both. chief executive Edmund Ho. Getting a junket closing down of small- and medium-sized Anyone who suggests otherwise has only a agent licence is child’s play by comparison. businesses and incitement of civil unrest. slim grasp of the political realities in Macau. The result in Macau is that the junket These have nevertheless been some of the Leaders of sovereign governments don’t fly operator tail is wagging the casino dog. Over side effects, but it’s not really the fault of the up to the Chinese capital to be lectured on 67% of Macau gaming revenue came from gaming industry. It could be argued that whether they’re doing a good job. Edmund the VIP sector in 2007, and the margins on these unsought outcomes occurred because Ho, Macau’s chief executive, does. that business are being squeezed tighter Macau’s development objectives have been This lack of genuine autonomy has and tighter by junket organisations that are muddled and incoherent from the start. helped fuel Macau’s confusion and lack of getting bigger and more powerful thanks to If you don’t state clearly what you direction in public policy regarding the aggregation in the industry. want from casino liberalisation in the first gaming industry. Macau’s politicians are place, or measure it against a verifiable serving not just the interests of the territory’s Roles reversed set of criteria, there’s not much chance of citizens, but also of the motherland. And in António Ramirez, managing partner of a satisfactory outcome. Stating what you a matriarchy, what mother wants, mother Ramirez Law Firm, a Macau-based company want doesn’t simply mean public platitudes generally gets.