Inside Asian Gaming

Regional Briefs WPT Signs China Agreement Tournament poker is coming to China—where the card game has been gaining popularity since it was declared a sport five years ago. World Poker Tour Enterprises Inc. signed an agreement on August 6 with the China Leisure Sports Administrative Center to promote “the sport of poker, by helping to create, expand and commercialize China’s first ever national poker competition.” Former lawyer Steve Lipscomb, WPT’s founder, president and CEO, attended the signing ceremony at a Beijing hotel. A statement from WPT said the partnership agreement would run for five years, with an option to extend. Additional details weren’t given and it wasn’t clear what stakes participants would play for. Interest in poker has exploded in the United States in the past few years with the advent of televised tournaments such as the WPT and theWorld Series of Poker.Los Angeles,California-basedWPT Enterprises Inc. signed a licensing deal earlier this year with Game Show Network LLC for the sixth season of its World Poker Tour television series. The game, called Traktor Poker in the US and Tua La Ji in China, was declared a sport in China in 2002. There will be no betting on the game in China, where the Com- munist Party has banned all forms of gambling, categorizing it as a form of criminal, anti-social behaviour along the lines of prostitution and drug use. Japan Casino Decision Likely 2008 The middle of 2008 is shaping up as the time when the Japanese Diet will decide whether to legalize casinos. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is moving toward allowing casinos, in response to the success of Macau and the decision of Sin- gapore to establish casinos. The decision to legalize casinos will likely hinge on government desire to encourage resort development in areas outside the major urban centres and the need to increase tourism. It is no secret that Ja- pan, with about 7.3 million visitors a year, wants to increase the num- bers of tourists by about 30% in the next three years. Foreign gaming operators will eagerly await the legalization deci- sion—the lack of local casino development expertise likely to open up a wide range of opportunities for lucrative joint ventures. But the Japanese government will likely be proactive about establishing tour- ism-generating amenities, and will almost certainly require operators to develop resorts with a wide range of entertainment facilities along the lines of the Singapore model. Melco PBL Secures More Macau Funding Melco PBL Entertainment Ltd has secured funding for the com- pletion of its City of Dreams casino resort in Macau, including the ex- pansion of the serviced apartment complex at the site, located on the burgeoning Cotai Strip The credit facility of US$2.75 billion has a seven-year term and will replace a US$1.6 billion facility obtained last September. As it is currently planned, the serviced apartment complex fea- tures 650 units with views of the Cotai Strip. It is budgeted to cost US$393 million up from US$96 million. The first phase of City of Dreams, scheduled to go live in March 2009, will consist of a 420,000 sq. ft casino, approximately 85,000 sq. ft of retail space, a 366-room Hard Rock Hotel and a 295-suite Crown Towers Hotel.The 1,005-room Grand Hyatt Macau twin-tower hotel is scheduled to open in September 2009. In May, Melco PBL opened the six-star Crown Macau, the com- pany’s first casino property in the city. Melco PBL plans to acquire a third casino site on the Macau Peninsula. It recently announced it had extended the completion deadline to buy the peninsula site through July 2008. The company said it needs the extra time to review development plans and evaluate market conditions on the peninsula in light of recently imposed travel restrictions by authorities in neighbouring Guangdong province on mainland Chinese visitors coming to Macau on individual travel permits. The new restrictions set limits on the amount of times residents can travel to Macau and in some cases, de- nies permits altogether. Melco PBL agreed to purchase the site in May of last year by ac- 40