Nepal’s Tiger Palace casino resort has hotel soft launch
Boutique Asian casino operator and developer Silver Heritage Group Ltd says it has had a soft opening – for hotel accommodation only – of its Tiger Palace Resort Bhairahawa (pictured) in Nepal.
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Chinese high rollers drive Macau’s casino rebound
by Muhammad Cohen
Conventional wisdom is Macau says authorities favor mass market gambling by tourists over VIP play from high rollers using junket promoters to circumvent China’s currency transfer restrictions.
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All you need to know about Macau’s recovery
by Muhammad Cohen
Macau’s recovery keeps producing surprising numbers and serious questions. Gaming revenue powered ahead 19% through the first seven months of 2017, with both the mass market and VIP segments delivering double digit growth. Lucrative overnight visitors increased 10% in the year’s first half, filling new hotel rooms and seemingly fulfilling political and economic imperatives to shift Macau’s profile toward tourism and leisure.
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13 Holdings Misses Luxury Macau Hotel Deadline
By Daniela Wei amd Annie Lee
13 Holdings Ltd. missed a Monday deadline to open its luxury hotel in Macau, a condition of a HK$3 billion ($384 million) loan from Band of Communications Co. for the gaming project just off the Cotai strip, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Vietnam: A step in the right direction?
by Caroline Watson
A year ago, the Asian gaming landscape appeared bleak. Macau was enjoying another year of steady decline, even after Melco Crown Galaxy Entertainment devoted $5bn in new resorts, whilst South Korea had more licenses available than qualified bidders. There were so few attractive opportunities in the region that Asian companies were looking at Europe as an alternative.
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Educating Japan
by Andrew W. Scott
Inside Asian Gaming spoke with Managing Partner at Global Market Advisors, Steve Gallaway, to gain a deeper insight into the company’s 2017 White Paper on Japan Integrated Resorts
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Phil Falcone Bets on a Casino (Where the Locals Can’t Gamble)
by Matthew Campbell
It’s 7:55 on a sweltering Tuesday morning in southern Vietnam, and more than 1,000 cleaner, cooks, and card dealers from the Grand Ho Tram Strip casino wait outside the resort’s largest ballroom for a staff meeting to start. A bass-heavy electronic beat booms from within. When the doors finally open, drawing a cheer, the ballroom is dark, apart from beams from blue and white spotlights dancing across the ceiling. In the middle of the floor are five figures. Four are tall Vietnamese women, dressed in bright red, ankle-length feathered skirts; bright red, rhinestone-studded bikini tops; and bright red, feathered headdresses twice the width of their shoulders. The women form a square and stride forward, hoplite warriors in the world’s weirdest phalanx, with the fifth person at their center: Michael Kelly, a middle-aged guy from Philadelphia who’d never even visited Asia before signing on as the casino’s executive chairman.
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Journey to Japan
by Muhammad Cohen
Have you heard the one about the Japanese high roller? Not lately, according to a range of sources in the gaming industry. Even though Japan remains the world’s third largest economy and whales like Akio Kashiwagi made casino owners such as Donald Trump sweat as they rolled millions during the 1980s and early 90s, Japanese premium players are little more than a footnote in Asia these days.
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Betting on Brazil
by Chris Sieroty
The popularity of Jogo do Bicho – the animal gambling game – is proof, some analysts and gaming executives say, of how successful Brazil’s gambling industry could be.
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Casino expert stresses convergence of gaming and nongaming industry
Amid Macau’s gaming revenue comeback this year following three consecutive years of financial blunders, the annual three-day Global Gaming Expo Asia concluded Thursday with experts eager for the future of Macau beyond a gambling destination.
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