Inside Asian Gaming

January 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 45 Briefs ing in Atlantic City. It will feature two thin tow- ers standing perpendicular to the ocean, with as many as 3,900 rooms, and even Atlantic City’s first casino wedding chapel. The inte- rior complex, between the towers, is curved and rounded so that it looks as if it has been shaped by gentle ocean waves. Revel is partnering with invest- ment bank Morgan Stanley on the project. It will become Atlantic City’s 12th casino, and the first new one to open since the Borgata Hotel Ca- sino & Spa debuted in 2003 and re- defined the public’s image of what the Las Vegas experience should look and feel like in New Jersey. Hot on the heels of Revel will be other mega-casinos to be built by Pinnacle Entertainment on the site of the former Sands Hotel Casino, opening in late 2011 or early 2012. The most ambitious of the projects will be a US$5 billion casino resort planned by MGM Mirage in the marina district next to the Bor- gata, becoming the largest project Atlantic City has ever seen when it opens in 2012. The burst of new investment is the largest in Atlantic City since the start of casino gambling in 1978. MGM Atlantic City will have three hotel towers with a combined total of more than 3,000 rooms, the largest casino floor in Atlantic City with 5,000 slot machines, 200 table games and 500,000 square feet of retail space, among other attractions. MGM is a partner in the Borgata with Boyd Gaming. A possible fourth new casino to be built on land near the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort by Curtis Bashaw, the former Casino Rein- vestment chairman, and Wally Barr, the former chief executive officer of Caesar’s Entertainment, is also on the drawing board. The new casinos will join an already-expanding skyline: The Bor- gata, Trump Taj Mahal Casino resort, and Harrah’s Atlantic City are all building second hotel towers. Harrah’s Clears Last Buyout Hurdle Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. has tentatively cleared the last remain- ing regulatory hurdle to the largest casino buyout ever. Harrah’s announced on December 24 that the National Indian Gaming Commission has approved the company’s US$17.7 billion purchase by private equity buyers Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group, pending final commission review. That conditional ap- proval means Harrah’s can go forward with the deal,which is expected to close in early 2008. No further regulatory approval is required. Harrah’s and the buyers received the go-ahead a week earlier from the Nevada Gaming Commission, capping a 10-week campaign to ob- tain approvals from state gambling regulators in New Jersey, Pennsyl- vania, Louisiana, Iowa,Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Mississippi. Harrah’s, which had nearly US$10 billion in revenue in 2006, operates more than 50 casinos including Caesars and the Impe- rial Palace in Las Vegas and Bally’s in Atlantic City. Indian Gaming Commission approval is needed because Harrah’s operates sev- eral tribal casinos as well. Ritzio Plans European Expansion Ritzio Entertainment Group, Russia’s largest gam- ing company,plans to expand its presence in Germany and Italy and enter other European countries before gambling is restricted in its home market. Ritzio spent about US$100 million in 2007 buying 80 slot-machine halls in Germany, gaining from 1-2% of the local market, according to a company spokeswoman Larisa Shishkina. The company is targeting as much as 15% of the German gaming market and plans to add to its business in Italy, where it has a venture with a local operator. The government passed a bill in December that will allow gam- bling only in four areas of Russia from July 2009, including one in the Far East and the exclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland. The bill was proposed by President Vladimir Putin following concern across the nation that gambling was un- dermining morals. “We have always aimed to diversify geographically and become Eastern Europe’s largest gaming holding,”Shishkina said.“The new law has pushed us to work faster and more dynamically.” Ritzio, whose chains include Vulcan,Million and City Casino, is con- trolled by billionaire Oleg Boiko, Russia’s 43rd-richest man, according to Forbes magazine. The company generated US$1.2 billion in sales in 2006 and has about 900 gaming venues in Russia, Germany, Italy, Belarus, Ukraine, the three Baltic states, the Czech Republic, Romania, Peru, Bolivia and Mexico, Shishkina said. Crown Buys Cannery Casino InDecember,Crown Ltd.,Australian billionaire James Packer’s gam- ing company, agreed to buy Cannery Casino Resorts LLC for US$1.75 billion in cash, doubling its gambling investments in North America. Crown’s purchase of Cannery’s three casinos in Las Vegas and a racetrack in Pittsburgh comes soon after Packer, Crown’s biggest shareholder and Australia’s richest man, split his media assets into a separate company to focus on the faster growing casino business.The 40-year-old ledmore than US$3 billion of gaming acquisitions in North America in 2007, adding to assets in Australia,Macau and the UK. Borgata Casino