Inside Asian Gaming

Oct 2007 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 43 Briefs Amazing Taiwan Resort Amazing Holdings Plc, a development company helmed by Ne- vada gambling tycoon Larry Woolf, said it will start building a US$50 million five-star resort in January on the offshore Taiwanese islands of Penghu, as part of a plan to win Taiwan’s first casino license, ac- cording to a Bloomberg report. “We expect to complete the purchase of the last of 102 pieces of land very soon,”Ashley Hines, executive director of Isle of Man-based Amazing, said in an interview in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei.“Con- struction of the hotel will begin in January,which could be converted to a casino if we get a gaming license.” The hotel is expected to be completed by the end of 2009. The land deal will complete an eight-year process to purchase property on Penghu, which Amazing plans to use for a 1,000-room hotel and casino. The company expects Taiwan to legalize casino gaming within six months, Hines said. Chief executive officer Woolf is betting on Amazing to introduce casinos to Taiwan while rivals—including SteveWynn’sWynn Resorts Ltd and Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp—expand into the Macau and Singapore markets. Woolf’s Navegante Group Inc manages at least seven casinos in the US, including the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and the Ca- sino Fandango in Carson City, both in Nevada. Shuffle Off Shuffle Master, Inc. announced in late September that on August 30, 2007, the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) ordered that a number of Stargames’ slot machines be turned International Briefs off at various casinos and slot halls in Macau and that all Stargames’ slot machines be turned off at Starworld Hotel and Casino.There are currently 47 machines turned off in Macau.The Company submitted the related software fix in September to DICJ for approval, and once the approval is received, all affected machines will be immediately updated by the Company’s Macau-based service personnel. This action followed a complaint to DICJ inspectors by a player at Starworld claiming a win of HK$42 million (US$5.4 million)on a Star- games stand-alone slot machine. As a result of the player complaint and the subsequent DICJ action, the Company immediately initiated an independent investigation through Gaming Laboratories Interna- tional, which determined that the machine malfunction was related to a ticketing anomaly and that there was no legitimate player win.On September 13, the DICJ ruled that the player initiating the complaint was not entitled to the“win”.ShuffleMaster is currently aware of one ad- ditional incident of the same malfunction,and currently expects that a similar determination will be made on the second incident.To the best of the Company’s knowledge, the potential for this ticket-based mal- function is limited to the Stargames slot machines in Macau. A Measly 55% In early October, shares of US-listed casino operators Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) and Wynn Resorts plunged, after early reports in- dicated that Macau’s casino sales for September were weaker than expected. According to preliminary reports,casino sales surged 55% in Sep- tember from the year-ago period.While that would be a robust climb, it was below many analysts’ predictions. Morgan Stanley analyst Ce- leste Brown called the figure disappointing, and said she expected a gain of 75%. In addition, it was slightly below Jeffries analyst Law- rence Klatzkin’s estimate of 61%. However, according to Klatzkin, the sell-off had nothing to do with analyst calls.“Apparently, someone put out a whisper number, of 100%,a couple of days ago,”Klatzkin said.He said,“the rumor was just ludicrious,” because Macau’s capacity increased by only 92% in Sep- tember and sales traditionally lag capacity growth. The stock prices had surged as some investors believed the rumour. Furthermore, the 55% figure is not set in stone. According to Klatzkin, it’s a rough estimate that will probably be revised. Official numbers should be in about a month. He believes that Macau’s casino market is still favourable and continues to rate the Sands as a “buy.” However, Morgan Stanley’s Celeste Brown, was less optimistic. “The gaming revenue number implies that the new supply that came to the market shifted revenue rather than grew the market in- crementally,” she said. Sky City May Sell Assets Sky City Entertainment Group Ltd., New Zealand’s largest casino owner,may sell some of its assets as it awaits an offer from an uniden- tified bidder conducting due diligence on the company, Executive Director Elmar Toime said in a Bloomberg report. Because we don’t know how the takeover situation will end up, it’s quite important to move forward on our own initiatives, including assets sales,”’Toime said. Sky City shares gained considerably after September 21 when the company received an offer from the bidder at a“significant premium.” Sky City allowed the suitor access to its financial records and said it would approach other potential bidders. Meantime, the company will go ahead with plans to boost earnings, cut costs and offer its Adelaide casino and its New Zealand cinema unit for sale,Toime said.