Inside Asian Gaming

February 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING Licence ‘Scam’ Probed Phnom Penh’s tourism director has been suspended for his alleged role in a hotel licensing fraud that allowed establishments in the Cambodian capital to operate slot machines illegally. Chen Saman is accused of issuing licences for six ‘hotels’ without practical inspections according to a report in the Phnom Penh Post , quoting the Minister of Tourism ,Thong Khon. Following a government directive in December, the Ministry of Finance is the only body that can issue legal licenses to operate slot machines inside hotels. Busted Flush An alleged illegal lottery in Penang said to be bringing in RM2.4 million in bets a month, has reportedly been broken up after the arrest of four women aged between 23 and 54. A senior officer in the state police said the syndicate was believed to have been operating in the area and turning over RM200,000 in bets per day. Sheets of fax paper showing numbers believed to be illegal lottery draws, 11 facsimile machines, four laptops, two cell phones and other paraphernalia were seized in the raid, said the authorities. In a separate police operation in the state, officers detained three people aged from 20 to 36 on suspicion of involvement in an unlicensed online betting operation. Café Culture PhilWeb Corp., an operator of Internet gaming cafes and online games of chance, says it is still registering strong performance in 2009, despite the global economic downturn. Dennis Valdes, the company’s president, said in comments reported on theOnline-Casinos.comwebsite that he expects PhilWeb to maintain healthy profits this year. Mr Valdes said that by the third quarter of 2008 the business had managed double its entire 2007 performance. That positive showing was driven by the opening of 45 new outlets under the Philippine Gaming Corp. e-Games Cafés brand, added Mr Valdes. Even in December 2008, when the economic crisis started to bite in Asia, PhilWeb managed a 25% growth quarter on quarter, said Mr Valdes. The corporation says in addition it has expanded aggressively its games of chance offer including Basketball Jackpot, which is available via a network of 149 kiosks called Internet sports betting stations. PhilWeb also operates a mobile raffle operated on behalf of the Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue. Briefs will need land to build on as well as [having as a partner] a marquee operator. “What we’re committed to doing is assembling a package that has a marquee operator and a piece of land that is ready to go and meeting any other criteria as best we can,” he added. Mr Treanor stressed his company wasn’t deterred by relatively limited infrastructure on Penghu and the competition from Macau, the world’s biggest gaming jurisdiction by gross gaming revenues. “Macau’s proximity to China is a double-edged sword,” said Mr Treanor. “It’s great when visas are being granted to Chinese and that certainly was the engine pushing economic growth up until recently. But then visa restrictions were imposed and operators are suffering tremendously and having to scale back, if not cancel projects. Taiwan has 23 million people and no travel restrictions. It sits in the centre of South Asia [sic] and is just a short-haul flight from many major Asian cities, not just Chinese cities. “It’s our opinion that if only Taiwanese nationals patronise the casino resorts that they will do very, very well. In addition it can be expected that you will have people coming from other jurisdictions,” stressed Mr Treanor. No Goa Area A pressure group is calling for a complete ban on offshore and onshore gambling in Goa. The former Portuguese colony on India’s west coast already has a casino cruise ship operating from the state and indicated last year that more ship gaming licences might be issued. A number of five-star hotels open to foreigners-only also have a small number of gaming machines on the premises. But a non-governmental organisation called Aam Aurat Admi Against Gambling (AAAAG) is campaigning not only against any further liberalisation of the industry but also for a rolling back of existing rules. Sabina Martins, a spokeswoman for the group, said: “Gambling is illegal as per the Goa Gambling (Prevention) Act and it should remain so. We demand a total ban on casinos, whether onshore or offshore.” Ms Martins condemned what she characterised as creeping gaming liberalisation contained in a plan to allow some mid-range hotels to be upgraded to a five-star rating. The group said it had met with the presidents of all the political parties in Goa to press for their support. In a sign of the seemingly contradictory nature of policy making in Goa regarding gaming, Ms Martins added: “Goa is the only state in the country that has legalised casino gambling despite people objecting to the state being promoted as a land of vices in the name of tourism.” Such emotive language is par for the course in Indian politics and it’s not clear how representative Ms Martins’ group is among the general public. It does though suggest that democratic Goa, in common with Taiwan, is far from reaching the kind of political consensus on gaming that has been achieved in corporate- focused Macau. Dennis Valdes, President of PhilWeb Corp. Casino Goa 41