Inside Asian Gaming

May 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 41 Briefs the hotel has yet to recruit the majority of the 1,000 staff it needs and secure a license—a step that has been hindered new hotel developments, according to the newspaper report. Owing to the lack of experience among staff in the region, the hotel will need a higher ratio of staff to rooms. The hotel plans to have upward of 2.5 staff per room, while Four Seasons properties in Australia and the US generally have a ratio of about 1.7 staff per room. The hotel complexwill include a 130 table casino,four restaurants, a bar and luxury shopping mall linked by a bridge to the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian Macao. Asian Poker Tour Names Tournament Director The Asian Poker Tour (APT) announced that Matt Savage has signed on as tournament director for the APT’s Manila Main Event to be held from May 27 to June 1. Mr Savage served as tournament director for the World Series of Poker (WSOP)—the world’s blue ribbon poker event—in 2002 after working his way up the poker ladder. He oversaw a boom in prize money at the tournament from £6 million to £25 million. He has worked on more than 300 televised poker shows and in 2003 was awarded the inaugural Benny Binion award for outstanding service in the poker industry. As the tournament director for the Asian Poker Tour Manila leg, Mr Savage will oversee six days of poker action which is expected to attract around 400 players from all over the world. A third of the participants are expected to come from the Philippines, which has seen poker’s popularity surge in recent years. After the Philippine leg, the tour moves on to events in Macau, South Korea and Singapore.The buy-in at all four events is US$2,500 and the prize pool will be a guaranteed $1 million. Alongside some of the world’s best players will be a host of internet qualifiers competing for the money at all the venues. These qualifiers will be making their way to the main event by way of online satellite tournaments.The prize packages awarded from these satellites are worth US$6,000 and cover hotel and travel expenses. For the APT Manila event, online satellites are currently being held on most iPoker-powered poker rooms such as DafaPoker, Tila Poker, ChiliPoker,Titan Poker, Betfred and VC Poker. In addition, some of the world’s biggest and most popular poker rooms, including PartyPoker.com and PKR, will be running satellites for seats into the tournament. Fallout from LVS Trial A lawsuit by a Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen seeking compensation for allegedly helping Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) with its bid for a Macau gaming license in 2002 kicked off in County District Court last month. The case was filed in October 2004 by Mr Suen and Round Square Co. Mr Suen claims he introduced LVS Chairman Sheldon Adelson to high-ranking officials in the Chinese government who figured prominently in the company’s acquisition of a Macau gaming concession. Mr Sun also alleges that he was promised a US$5 million success fee plus 2% of the net profits from the Macau venture. LVS, which won a shared gambling concession in 2002 from the Macau government, operates the Sands Macau, which opened in May 2004 and famously recouped its initial investment within a year of operation, in addition to the US$2.4 billion Venetian Macau, which opened last August. The company is also spending more than $12 billion to build 11 hotel-casinos with almost 20,000 rooms on the Cotai Strip region of Macau. Whether LVS ends up having to pay Mr Suen, the suit “could cost the casino operator millions in damaged reputation and potential shareholder action,” reported the Las Vegas Review Journal . During the trial, 74-year-old Mr Adelson apparently testified that he has a debilitating rare neurological disorder and in 2001 was dependent on pain medication that left him “asleep” and absent from the company’s dealings that year. Furthermore, at one point Mr Adelson said LVS President Bill Weidner may have breached his fiduciary duty, but later attempted to clarify those comments. According to the article: “Weidner committed his own faux pas. While attorneys argued over whether an internal company document could be entered into evidence, he said Las Vegas Sands [sic] was projecting ‘$312 million less than was forecasted in 2008’ while discussing the contents with Judge Michelle Leavitt. “‘That slip,’said James Cox, a Duke University corporate securities law professor, ‘may cause the most trouble’. Cox, who reviewed coverage of the trial,said the document,which adjusts the company’s financial outlook for 2008,‘can’t just be brushed aside.’ “Cox said Las Vegas Sands may have been obligated to release the forecast to shareholders as soon as it was produced. “‘If you issue a forecast and have reason to believe it’s influencing investor behavior, and then you come to a realization you might not be able tomeet that forecast,you have a duty to update shareholders,’ Cox said.” Oceanus Axed The proposed Oceanus project—a rendering of which is pictured above—has been definitively axed, according to former monopoly casino operator Stanley Ho, whose Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) was to have developed it. Dr Ho’s announcement that Oceanus would not proceed comes in the wake of a recent announcement by the Macau government that it would put a halt to issuing new casino licenses and approving new casino projects, given growing concerns that expansion of the gaming industry is getting out of hand. Dr Ho said he welcomed the government’s decision, which was prompted by pressure from the central government in Beijing. However, SJM will go ahead with the redevelopment of the shopping mall and ageing Jai Alai casino on the site where Oceanus was to have been built, with application for the re-development already having been submitted to the government, according to the company. Oceanus

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