Inside Asian Gaming

September 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 15 10 (25) Jack Lam Yin Lok Chairman, Jimei Group operations in Macau, the Philippines and further afield. Jimei Group has expanded high roller operations quickly in Macau since 2008. It has opened the LeRoy VIP Club at SJM’s Grand Lisboa and the International Club at Wynn Macau, as well as VIP rooms at MGM Grand Macau, Sands Macao and The Venetian Macao. JimeiClubatMelcoCrownEntertainment Ltd’s City of Dreams opened in June 2009. The latest addition to the Jimei stable is the Jimei VIP Club at the Four Seasons Macau, which began operating in July 2009. Jimei’s market coverage makes it probably the biggest single supplier of VIP players in the Macau market. Jimei Group has also opened VIP service centres and travel offices in Taiwan and has similar plans for Singapore. The company runs the casino cruise ship M.V. Jimei sailing out of Hong Kong. In addition, Jimei has interests in South Korea and the Philippines. Dr Lam became a junket operator in the Philippines in 1994. In 2000, he acquired Fort Ilocondia Resort & Casino and, in 2004, Fontana Leisure Parks & Casino. Both properties have enjoyed substantial growth in business under his leadership, offering a wide range of facilities including villas, water parks and hotels, as well as gaming. Dr Lam was born in Mouming in Guangdong province, Mainland China, and moved to Hong Kong in 1979 at the age of 18. According to his official company biography, he started out as a bookkeeper at his uncle’s factory, earning only HK$1,000 (US$128) a month and sending most of his salary back home to help his family. He got his introduction to gaming through his uncle, who played regularly in Macau. After accompanying his uncle on several trips to Macau, Dr Lam built up a network of contacts and started working as a junket sub-agent—a ‘ground floor’ role that gave him insights into building and maintaining customer relationships. In 1981, Dr Lam started work as a representative for a small junket in Macau. Thanks to what he describes as his attention to detail and a solid understanding of the market and of his clientele, he gradually emerged as a leading junket operator. Expect to hear more about Jimei Group in Macau and beyond in the next 12 months, especially if the regional economy improves and China relaxes its restrictions on travel to Macau under the individual visit scheme. Prominent Asian gaming junket operator Dr Jack Lam moves up this year’s list thanks to the rapid growth of Jimei Group’s Macau operations since 2008. VIP play remains the lifeblood of Macau’s gaming turnover, with VIP revenue of 33.1 billion patacas (US$4.1 billion) in the first half of 2009 accounting for 64.4% of total casino revenue in the period. Junket operators are essentially facilitators. They connect casino operators with high net worth players. Most importantly, they coordinate gambling credit for high rollers from Mainland China and other markets where restrictions apply on cross-border currency movements. They also ensure that those credit facilities are honoured by the players using them. As facilitators, junket operators must be strong negotiators with all the parties and have enough flexibility in their outlook to be able to adjust their business model to shifting market conditions. Dr Lam ticks all those boxes in terms of his approach to business. In late 2008, Dr Lam also became a Macau casino operator in his own right, with the acquisition of a casino—at the former Mandarin Oriental Hotel (now the Grand Lapa Hotel) in downtown Macau. The refurbished casino, relaunched under Jimei branding and operated under a sub-licence from Dr Stanley Ho’s casino operating company SJM Holdings, opened its doors to high rollers in January. The venue complements Jimei’s existing junket Asian Gaming 50 – 2009 clientele. As such, it includes the integration of gaming with business meetings, medical services and shopping. GKL says visitors to the Seven Luck casino near COEX in southern Seoul will soon have the option of a health check-up at the private medical clinic located in the nearby Intercontinental Hotel, while the Busan Lotte Hotel outlet will soon have a health check-up centre. Under Mr Kwon’s leadership, the performance of the Seven Luck venues in the first half of 2009 has bucked the recessionary trend seen in the wider Asia Pacific and global economies. After setting new highs in revenue with more than 43 billion Korean won (about US$31.8 million) in January, the venues broke previous attendance records for February, recording 105,000-plus visitors. The 34.7 billion won revenue in March represented nearly 34% growth year-on- year, while the 100,000-plus visitors that month was up approximately 52% year on year. The company said most of the growth in the first quarter of 2009 was due to a sharp rise in the number of Japanese visitors attracted by the weakness of the local currency, the won, against the Japanese yen. The three Seven Luck outlets combined to draw 56,977 Japanese visitors inMarch 2009, about 70% more than a year earlier. GKL says that on current projections, it expects around one million visitors to its casinos this year, bringing in 400 billion won in revenue. Mr Kwon has gone on record saying Seven Luck’s biggest strength is in providing resort-style services to cover the tastes of a whole family rather than lone gamblers. GKL was also talking earlier this year of ramping up its slots offer in a market that, like Macau, has until now been dominated by table play. Recession permitting, it could provide some exciting opportunities for equipment suppliers during challenging times.