Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | August 2013 14 COVER STORY out hunting them down. It’s been quite exciting for us,” he says. They’re confident enough to be opening a marketing office in Macau. “When you walk around and you get the feel of this building and you feel the energy it will bring people back,” he says. And if government was ever to relent in its opposition to domestic play? “We’d actually be sitting on a gold mine,” is how he puts it. Hanoi has given no indication that it will, however; if anything, it’s indicated the opposite. A new decree that takes effect 1st October affirms the ban and outlines fines for violators. “My opinion is they’d like to see how this goes,” says Mr Wolfe. “We have a good relationship with government, we talk to them all the time, and my expectation is they want to see a good experience with our property and others that they may allow to do international business. I think if there’s going to be local gaming, it’s not next year, it’s a couple of years out at the earliest.” It’s like the accessibility issue, a work in progress. The critical short-term piece is the ability to bypass the port highway out of Ho Chi Minh. That would shave an hour off the drive from the airport. It’s be open within five years. There are other ways in. One of the ITOs is talking about running luxury cruises into the port town of Vung Tau about an hour’s drive away. The Grand also is whisking select players in by helicopter directly from Ho Chi Minh. “There are other airport solutions that are available,” Mr Wolfe says. “We’re in direct discussions about charters with people that have very strong tour relationships throughout the region: frankly, as far away as Russia. We can drop people within an hour of the property.” He’s not worried. As he sees it, The Grand has met its greatest challenge with the snip of that ribbon on the last Friday in July. “To have one property here over time is not at all our desire or the government’s desire,” he says. “But at the same time, the other element is that at some point we hope and believe that the government will offer in some way gaming to locals. So we’re basically wedging ourselves between building the critical mass for this location, creating a platform that will be successful and profitable on its own, but over the long pull, if local gaming comes, it’s a grand slam. … It’s not a big secret. It’s the underpinning of our whole strategy: Get in, do it right, build the business and be in a position that if the larger opportunity presents itself that’s just frosting on the cake.” “When you walk around you get the feel of this building and you feel the energy it will bring people back.” — Chief Operating Officer Mike Santangelo “We’re basically wedging ourselves between building the critical mass for this location, creating a platform that will be successful and profitable on its own, but over the long pull, if local gaming comes, it’s a grand slam.” — Robert Wolfe, chairman, Asian Coast Development (Canada) expected to materialize in the first half of next year with the completion of a direct east-west expressway. An international airport is planned for Long Thanh about 70 kilometers from Ho Tram and could