Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING FEBRUARY 2018 22 has been involved in casinos along the various popular border areas in Asia, which include Thailand-Laos, Thailand-Cambodia, Laos-China, China-Macau and Vietnam-Cambodia. We placed and managed gaming machines in various licensed properties along the Nepal-India border and in the capital Kathmandu for a while before we selected Bhairahawa as the location for our first integrated resort, Tiger Palace Resort Bhairahawa. BB: Exactly what regions of India and what sort of population base are you looking at as your primary target market?  MB: The principal drive-up target market is the 16 million middle class Indians living within a six-hour drive of Bhairahawa, principally those living in the largest state in India – Uttar Pradesh – which has a population of 215 million. That’s the equivalent of the population of Brazil. Having said that, we have already had customers from China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam among others as the property is a great base for tourism in southern Nepal and northern India. Once the international airport opens in 2019, customers and players will be able to fly directly from India, China, Thailand, Malaysia and beyond to an international airport located just 15 minutes from Tiger Palace Resort. Indians do not require a visa to enter Nepal and recently the Nepal government agreed to issue free visas to Chinese tourists to generate accretive demand in the Nepal tourismmarket. We also have a great feeder property in its third year of operation at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kathmandu known as The Millionaire’s Club & Casino. BB: What is your primary player segment? MB: We are mass and premium mass focused, but we already have the ability to add VIP play in the raised floor section when required. The private gaming areas will be for various uses including VIP. BB: Do you see India ever truly opening up to gaming?  MB: India is already open for gaming but the casinos are in two states and in hard to reach places such as Goa – where players need to take tenders to riverboats moored off the coast – and in the highlands of Sikkim. Daman has been slated to open for the last five years and will likely do so in the future with the principal draws being Maharashtra and Gujarat. BB: Let’s take a look at Nepal itself. What have you found to be the pros and cons of operating in a developing nation like Nepal? MB: Nepal is a beautiful country with so much to offer in terms of tourism, from the peaks of Everest to the jungles of Chitwan and the Kathmandu Valley. There is so much great trekking and adventure tourism as well as eco-tourism and safaris. The people and the culture make it a great place to work and the fact that everyone speaks English means that we can have interactions with the government, all ministries and the central bank in English. It’s very different in that regard from places like Vietnam or China where you would need to know the language yourself fluently or require a translator. FEATURE IN FOCUS The main gaming floor at Tiger Palace Resort Bhairahawa