Inside Asian Gaming

September 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 57 Briefs Las Vegas Sands Corp has made no secret in Macau of its desire to change the business model of Asian gaming in terms of diversifying its revenue and customer base. While LVS understands that high rollers are likely to provide the bulk of the revenue in Macau for the foreseeable future, the company would like to make a better margin on that high volume business. The best and fastest way it can think of is to cut out the middleman and recruit more of the ‘direct’ players. Some analysts have suggested, though, that a Singapore market without VIP agents would be a much smaller market than the US$2 billion annual market estimated last year by the Singapore authorities. There is a potential conflict of interest between the operators and the government on the issue of the high roller segment. The operators could be happy to trade the low-margin, high volume VIP turnover brought in by agents; for lower volume, higher margin direct VIPs. The government, on the other hand, makes its money by taxing the gross gaming revenue (plus a levy for corporation tax on the operators). This amounts to an effective tax rate of 12% of the VIP gross plus a 15% corporation tax on the operators’ profits. The greater the gaming turnover, therefore, the greater Singapore’s tax income. A possible hybrid solution would be to allow the market to open without junkets, and to authorise them later once the economic impact and implications of the direct player model had been established. Resorts World Manila opens Resorts World Manila, the US$700 million casino joint venture between Genting Group unit Star Cruises Ltd and Philippine property developer Andrew Tan, opened on 28th August. The100-tablefacilitydoubles the number of gaming tables available in the Manila market. The operators are confident that it will help the total market to grow, rather than cannibalising business fromexisting casinos licensed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the country’s gaming operator- cum-regulator. Resorts World Manila will draw on Star Cruises’ existing network of more than 2.5 million customers and has the potential over the next three years to generate 11.1 million visitors and raise US$315 million in gambling taxes for the Philippines government, says Kingson Sian. Mr Sian is president of Alliance Global Group Inc., the holding company of Mr Tan, the Philippines’ fourth-richest person. “Our expectation is this will contribute to earnings within the first year of operations,” added Mr Sian. The resort’s casino will have 300 tables and more than 1,000 slot machines by the end of the year, when all three floors of the property are opened, he said. The branding for the property is complementary to Genting’s new Singapore integrated resort, Resorts World at Sentosa, which is due to open early next year. Resorts World Manila, located next door to Manila International Airport, is operated by a JV company that goes under the name Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. IGT product debut in Manila IGT took the opportunity with the opening of Resorts World Manila to give a world premiere to some of its latest advanced video reel REELdepth™ games powered by its new computer processing unit, known as the Advanced Video Platform®. Among the IGT games making a world debut were the Virtua Fighter™ multi-level progressives on the widescreen upright G20 cabinet model. The Joker’s Wild™ multi-level progressives, IGT’s first REELdepth game on the G Multi-Layer Display® (MLD®) model, made its first appearance in Asia. REELdepth games use MLD technology to create an industry-leading 3-D effect on video reels. Lil’ Lady® MultiPLAY and Cleopatra® MultiPLAY video slots were also introduced to the market at Resorts World Manila. The products give players the option of playing up to four games, simultaneously, on the same machine. MultiPLAY games are exclusive to IGT. Complementing the new releases were existing favourites, including the multi-level progressive games Wheel of Fortune® and Indiana Jones™ on the G23 cabinet model; and Red Hot Jackpots® multi-level progressives on IGT’s classic five-reel S2000 model, and Star Wars™. IGT is a global company specialising in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and sales of computerised gaming machines and systems products. Resorts World Manila