INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | September 2012 2 Editorial Inside Asian Gaming is published by Must Read Publications Ltd 8J Ed. Comercial Si Toi 619 Avenida da Praia Grande Macau Tel: (853) 2832 9980 For subscription enquiries, please email
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[email protected] or call: (853) 6680 9419 www.asgam.com Inside Asian Gaming is an official media partner of: http://www.gamingstandards.com Publisher Kareem Jalal Director João Costeira Varela Editor James Rutherford Operations Manager Licca Sou Contributors Todd Haushalter, Alexander Lobov, Richard Meyer, I. Nelson Rose, William Stolerman Graphic Designer Brenda Chao Photography Ike, Alice Kok, James Leong, Wong Kei Cheong James Rutherford We crave your feedback. Please email your comments to
[email protected] Tiger, You Listening? In this issue, for the fifth time in as many years, we get to celebrate 50 individuals whose influence and impact on gaming in this part of the world are particularly deserving of note. It’s a tough list to compile, and it doesn’t seem to get any easier as time goes on. When I think about why this is, I realize it’s because gaming in Asia is manifesting itself in so many new and different ways as nations and communities take it along paths of development that are as numerous and unique as they are. There really is no such thing as “Asian” gaming, is there. Rather it is many things. There are many Asias. When we talk about it, what we’re talking about most of the time is Macau. Understandably. It’s the biggest casino market in the world, it owns the headlines, as we’re reminded every month when the revenue numbers come out—mind-boggling numbers, usually, and that always gets people’s attention, or they’re less mind-boggling than usual, and that’s been the focus of some media attention as well the last few months amid signs that the searing growth of recent years may be slowing. Or something happens that brings back unpleasant memories of the city’s less than savory past or fuels speculation about something in the present that maybe isn’t all that savory either. But what we think we know about this megalith of cash built on high-end baccarat, that’s changing, too, as Macau continues to broaden and deepens its appeal as a destination. What it offers the serious gambler, the casual gambler and the non-gambler is way more varied than it was five years ago (as anyone knows who has paid a recent visit to the integrated resorts on Cotai), and this, of course, is what everyone says they want—a world-class center of leisure and entertainment offering the best in gambling action, and a lot more besides. Spectator sports have played, and can continue to play, an important part in this. With gaming industry support, the Macau Grand Prix has long been one of the signal events in the world of Formula 3 and motorcycle racing. Galaxy Entertainment Group has brought to town the best in women’s championship volleyball and an international marathon. Venetian Macau has sponsored appearances by the likes of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Kobe Bryant. The Macau Open golf tournament, now in its 14th year, has likewise hosted some big names— Less Westwood, Colin Montgomerie and two-time winner Zhang Lian Wei, to name a few. Now what if, say, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy could be enticed to bring their clubs? It’s not as far- fetched as it sounds. The US$2.75 million Hong Kong Open, a regularly sanctioned stop on the Asian Tour, has had Mr McIlroy’s name on its leader board. All it takes is money. The casinos have plenty of that. So it was encouraging to hear that Venetian is ponying up for this year’s tournament, which will be played in October at Stanley Ho’s Macau Golf and Country Club on Coloane as the US$750,000 Venetian Macau Open—one of more than a dozen Asian Tour events that begin the first week of September with the Omega Masters in Switzerland (co-sanctioned with the European Tour) and culminate in December, eight countries and $30 million in prize money later, with the $2 million Iskadar Johor Open in Malaysia. Sands has signed on only for this year, according to reports, and as purses go, $750,000 ranks as only a middling stop on the circuit. But it’s a vast improvement over 2010, when the event couldn’t scare up a backer and had to be canceled. Alvin Sallay of the South China Morning Post relates that Mr McIlroy, joined by some other top players, thoroughly enjoyed a brief stay in Macau last year at the end of a privately sponsored China trip. “They loved the bustling ambience of the city,” he writes, “a feature that all players on the Asian Tour talk about.” Casinos and golf go back a long way together. Las Vegas has been exploiting the game’s appeal for high rollers for years, joined in more recent times by casinos in the Philippines and South Korea, and a Greg Norman-designed course will figure prominently in the offering at the MGM Grand Ho Tram resort opening next year in Vietnam. “There is much going for Macau,”Mr Sallay says, “and its tournament has the potential to easily become one of the top events in Asia, both in terms of money and quality of the field. … With casino backing, Macau can afford to draw the best.” There is no reason why it shouldn’t.