Inside Asian Gaming

43 42 International Briefs Big Boys Block Poker Club Plan Plans to make Nottingham the site of Europe’s largest poker club ran into a wall thrown up last month by three of Britain’s largest land- based operators. Dusk Till Dawn had received a certificate of consent from the UK Gambling Commission to open the 7.9 million, 15,000-square-foot venue but was blocked at the local level when Gala, Stanley Leisure and London Clubs raised objections at a licensing hearing before Nottingham Magistrates Court. The opposition forced the hearing to adjourn until September, putting DTD’s scheduled November opening in jeopardy. “This is a very tough time,” said Managing Director Robert Yong. “We’ve had over 3,000 applications for membership before the club has even opened…We have already recruited all of the key staff, and the premises are ready.” Located in a retail park, the club will contain 50 tables, with a ca- pacity for 500 players, and will also feature a restaurant and bar and a television studio to broadcast live games. Yong said he has no “back-up plan” and is committed to the ven- ture. He characterized the opposition as “an attempt by the big boys to bleed us dry.” DTD’s plans were announced at a time when poker clubs and their members are clamouring for a relaxation of the restrictions on fees proposed under new regulations scheduled to come into effect in September as part of wide-ranging Government-backed gambling reforms. The newly formed United Kingdom Poker Club Association, which counts 13 leading clubs as members, says the new rules would severely curtail tournament action and other services. They also dis- agree with the requirement that poker clubs apply for casino licenses, which has landed DTD in the dilemma it faces in Nottingham and could bar many locations nationwide from hosting games. The period for consultation on the new poker rules closed April 20, but UKPCA, has hired well-connected lobbyists Citigate Public Af- fairs to make its case. Citigate’s clients include US-based casino giant Harrah’s Entertainment, which owns London Clubs. Packer Buys Stake in Hungarian ‘Vegas’ Plans for a resort gambling haven in a sparsely populated area of northwestern Hungary have gathered momentum recently with the news that Australian media and casino tycoon James Packer has bought into a €137.5 million packet of seed money designed to gen- erate outside funding for the multibillion-euro project. EuroVegas, as it’s known, a proposal to build five Las Vegas-style casinos, supporting hotels and other attractions in Hungary’s Gyor- Moson-Sopron region close to the Austrian and Slovakian borders, has drawn an unknown sum from Packer’s Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd.In partnership with EighthWonder,a US-based company that had joined PBL in an unsuccessful bid to build a multibillion-dollar gam- bling resort in Singapore. Australian news reports have linked PBL and Eighth Wonder with another US-based investment management group and Lon- don-based hedge funds in a controlling 80% stake in EuroVegas. The remaining 20% would be held by Asamer Group, an Austrian hotel company identified as the project’s local development partner. The first stage will be the purchase of a 240-hectare site (593 acres) and the securing of necessary permits and licenses, according to reports. This will be followed by construction work beginning in April 2008. Crown Coming to Vegas James Packer’s PBL is also poised to apply for a gaming licence in the US state of Nevada,ahead of the opening of his flagship Crown casino in Las Vegas in four years time. At the end of May, the company announced it had bought a stake in a Las Vegas venture that has building approval to build the world’s second-tallest tower. It follows a US$300 million investment for a stake in the yet-to- be-built Fontainebleau Resorts casino and hotel development on a slightly smaller site next door. Nevada Gaming Commission chairman Dennis Neilander recom- mended that Mr Packer apply for a Nevada license a couple of years ahead of taking over gaming operations as the process can be drawn out by inquiries. The only likely hurdle Mr Packer would face is his Macau joint ven- ture with Lawrence Ho, the son of controversial Macau casino veteran Stanley Ho. However, he is an odds-on chance to get the green light because the commission approved a similar deal involving Mr Ho’s daughter, Pansy, and MGM MIRAGE in March. Before their decision approving the MGM link to Ms Ho, Nevada authorities spent two years conducting probity checks on her. Australian regulators have also investigated Mr Packer’s venture with Lawrence Ho and given them the seal of approval.The two-year investigation,completed last year,took place inWestern Australia and Victoria where he runs the Burswood and Crown casino. The Melco PBL joint venture had originally included Stanley Ho but his 30% holding was bought out by his son and Mr Packer two years ago, amid the states’ gaming investigations. Stanley Ho was forced out of the consortium that won the con- cession for Crown Casino in 1986 and was found “unsuitable” to hold a casino licence by NSW authorities. William Hill to Challenge Greece’s monopoly The stage is set for another European test of wills and legal fees over open-market gambling, this one shaping up in Greece as a result of a decision by UK-based bookmaking giant William Hill to challenge the country’s officially sanctioned betting monopoly. Hill has applied for a license to operate retail betting shops in competition with OPAP, the sole operator authorized to take sports bets in Greece. “This application has been made on the basis of the free move- ment of services and freedom of establishment under EU law,” Hill said. If the application is rejected, which is likely, Hills’ management said it would petition for relief to the EU. “If within three months we’ve had no reply, obviously we would then escalate it into Europe. ... I suspect the most likely outcome is that it would go to the [European Court of Justice] in due course,”CEO David Harding told Reuters. Hill’s move is the latest in a series of legal challenges that private operators, mainly in the online and land-based betting sectors, have launched to try to force governments to open up national markets that historically have been tightly controlled. The European Com- mission and the ECJ have been sympathetic to the industry on the grounds that EU treaty law protects the free movement of cross-bor- der goods and services by Member States. Governments for the most part have been resistant, arguing that restricted markets, many operated by government agencies, are es- sential to combating problem gambling, crime and other harmful so- cial impacts. National courts, on the whole, have supported them. Operators have been winning cases in the ECJ, and the European Commission, in response, has launched investigations into gambling policies in Italy, Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Hungary.The Commission is expected to pursue enforcement actions where anti-competitive policies are judged to be in violation of treaty law. UK-based Stanley Leisure applied in 2005 for a license to operate in Greece but was rejected by the Greek government. Greek authorities recently arrested nine individuals in connection with raids on Internet cafes allegedly taking bets illegally in the town of Arta. Three of the suspects were café owners, six were customers, according to news reports. Sun shopping for Land in Southern Russia South African resort giant Sun International is hedging its bets on a destination-scale casino in Moscow by applying for a long-term lease on about five acres of land in the southwest of Russia. According to Russian news sources, the lease is in the Krasnodor- Rostov region near the Sea of Azov, an area designated in new na- tional legislation as one of four special zones where casinos will be forced to relocate far from the major population centers of European Russia. The new law, passed by the Duma at the end of 2006 at Presi- dent Vladimir Putin’s urging, is scheduled to take effect in 2009. If it proceeds in force it will ban the country’s lucrative gambling industry from its flourishing bases in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Sun has partnered with the Belaya Dacha Group on plans for a gambling resort in Moscow priced at US$2 billion. Sun maintains that those plans are still proceeding despite the new law. In anticipation of a casino boom land prices along the Sea of Azov recently have soared tenfold, according to news reports. The Kras- nodor-Rostov region is expected to see an estimated US$2.5 billion in initial investment and more than US$500 million in government- sponsored spending to improve roads, airports, public transport and access to utilities.