Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | Oct 2007 for government officials and functionaries at state-owned enter- prises. Moreover, it has recently dispatched plainclothes inspectors to Macau for informal spot checks. The film was reportedly produced as part of a blanket “anti- gambling education” campaign directed by the top party leaders, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, who have grown in- creasingly alarmed by the quick spread of gambling-induced cor- ruption among the rank and file. LVS Seeks Record Singapore Dollar Loan Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) is seeking a record Singapore dollar loan to fund construction of the city-state’s first gambling resort. LVS hired eight banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Singapore-based DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Oversea- Chinese Bank- ing Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd., to arrange the S$5 billion (US$3.3 billion) loan, according to the people, who according to a Bloomberg report declined to be identified because the informa- tion is private. The US$4 billion LVS Singapore resort will capture a piece of the regulated gambling market in Asia-Pacific, expected to expand 15.7% a year to US$30.3 billion in 2011, according to Pricewater- houseCoopers LLP. The loan will also test the city- state’s debt mar- ket, where more loans are being issued in the local currency. “Asia will contribute the most to growth of the global gaming industry, and market share here is important for gaming companies and for Las Vegas Sands,” said Poh Huay Imm, Singapore-based eq- uity specialist at Deutsche Bank AG’s private wealth management group. “Las Vegas Sands’s casinos in the US are cash cows and will help fund its Asian expansion.” Casino revenue in Asia Pacific will double to $25.5 billion in 2011 from $12.1 billion in 2006, with 79% of the growth generated in Macau and Singapore, PricewaterhouseCoopers said. Singapore will receive $2.2 billion in annual revenue from 2011 when both ca- sinos are operating, the report added. Part of the S$5 billion will be used to repay a $1.4 billion 12- month borrowing arranged a year ago, according to the people.The S$5 billion loan, maturing in seven to eight years, will be the largest ever made in Singapore currency, according to data compiled by Bloomberg . It will be backed by the casino. The LVS downtown Marina Bay resort,neighbouring Singapore’s business district, will feature three hotel towers linked by a sky gar- den, restaurants run by celebrity chefs Charlie Trotter and Thomas Keller, and an art-and-science centre. 42 Briefs Third Crown in Melbourne James Packer, head of Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd, plans to spend A$300 million to build Australia’s largest hotel. Buoyed by the success of Crown’s two existing hotels, Packer wants a third, 658-room hotel that will be the centrepiece of a A$500 million-plus upgrade planned for the A$2.3billion casino and enter- tainment complex. Although the Melbourne hotel market is considered over-sup- plied, Crown believes its new hotel is a safe bet because of the popu- larity of its Crown Towers and Crown Promenade hotels. Australia’s largest and most expensive building, Southbank’s Crown Casino is the headquarters and flagship property of Mr Pack- er’s growing international gaming business. The planned hotel has not yet been named,but it will be targeted at convention and conference-goers as well as the international lei- sure market. It will also take the number of hotel rooms at the casino complex to more than 1,600. A further A$40 million will be spent on new conference facilities at Crown that will include 50 exhibition booths, seven conference rooms and an 800-seat hall. Some A$100 million will be spent as part of a refurbishment of the main gaming floor, including new live entertainment venues, on- floor restaurants and new lighting and colour schemes. An additional A$65million will be spent on an upgrade of the Crown Towers hotel, already recognised as one of Australia’s best luxury hotels. The new facilities will also include an international training cen- tre for Crown and PBL staff. Chinese Government’s Anti Gambling Flick The Chinese Communist Party has produced an educational video film detailing the evils of gambling. Since August, the party’s disciplinary unit, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, has ordered the compulsory viewing by its 72.4 million members across the country of a new film. Produced by the party itself under the title “The Evils of Gambling” as a cautionary tale of gambling cases among party cadres, it documents the fall of several top Chi- nese party officials and heads of state-owned enterprises. It features disgraced officials such Lin Longfei, a party secretary in a small county in southern Fujian province, who was sentenced to death for gambling and corruption, as well as for keeping 22 mis- tresses;Wu Huali, a bureau chief of public security in Huizhou, a city in Guangdong province, who got 12 years in jail for losing more than 10 million renminbi (US$1.3 million) in public funds during his 68 trips to Macau; and Li Shubiao, a Henan province housing official who sent 120 million renminbi (US$16 million) of public housing funds to underground banks in Macau and eventually lost Rmb80 million (US$10.7 million) to casinos there. The film has made the rounds in various branches of the Chi- nese government, both at the central and provincial levels. It is also being passed along to big Chinese companies, including oil giant Sinopec, energy company China Power, and the largest brewery, Tsingtao. In some parts of the country, such as Guangdong, the party- controlled government has taken the matter into its own hands and acted to screen travel plans during the holidays in a gambling- busting campaign. Since the start of the year, Guangdong, which borders Macau, has stopped issuing business visas to the enclave Regional Briefs

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