Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2013 6 COVER STORY A ustralia’s long tradition of one market-one casino is history, swept away on a rising tide of Chinese wealth. James Packer’s A$1.5 billion Crown Sydney Hotel Resort doesn’t yet have a development deal with New South Wales, doesn’t have legislative or planning approval, doesn’t have its all-important gaming license, but it’s looking like a go, barring a massive public backlash. Its swirling 60-story hotel tower, the tallest structure in the city at a planned 250 meters, is already penciled onto the skyline, and that was true for all intents and purposes at least as far back as last August, when Mr Packer’s Melbourne-based Crown Limited locked itself in as the exclusive resort developer at Barangaroo, a waterfront lot ideally situated on the edge of the Central Business District and the last significant buildable acreage on Darling Harbour. There has been an air of inevitability surrounding Crown Sydney from the start. It had “done deal slapped all over it,” groused Richard Ackland, a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald , writing last October. No question. And deservedly so, perhaps, as it directly addresses mounting public- and private-sector concerns that New SouthWales and its principal asset, Sydney, are missing out big-time on the Asia tourism boom. This was detailed in stark terms in a report issued in June 2012 by the state’s Visitor Economy Taskforce: “NSW needs to confront the fact that its destination appeal has Crown’s Jewel James Packer appears to have won his battle to develop a luxury resort in Sydney the likes of which Australia’s gaming industry has never seen. Not that the outcome was ever in doubt. What happens next is more difficult to handicap As far back as last August, Mr Packer’s Melbourne-based Crown Limited locked itself in as the exclusive resort developer at Barangaroo, a waterfront lot ideally situated on the edge of the Central Business District and the last significant buildable acreage on Darling Harbour. waned and it has lost its No. 1 status across a number of measures. It has been outperformed and outspent by competitor destinations in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region over many years and its competitive position has been eroded.” The state “requires growth not only in visitor numbers but also in visitor spend,” the report said. In other words, it needs to become more like its sister state of Victoria, whose share of international arrivals has increased as New South Wales’ has fallen. Victoria also happens to be home Rendering of Crown Sydney