Inside Asian Gaming

June 2014 inside asian gaming 45 Crown is also challenging Echo’s casino monopoly in New South Wales with a multibillion-dollar luxury resort slated to open in 2019 not far from The Star on Sydney’s Darling Harbour. Crown’s Melbourne flagship is the country’s leading destination for high-rolling gamblers and benefits from the company’s 33% stake in Macau operator Melco Crown Entertainment. Crown also operates a casino in Perth in Western Australia and is pursuing a resort casino in Sri Lanka’s capital of Colombo. Las Vegas Casino Offers First Bitcoin ATM A Las Vegas casino has installed the gaming industry’s first Bitcoin ATM. The kiosk, available at the D Las Vegas Casino Hotel and developed by Las Vegas-based Robocoin, allows customers to deposit cash into their Bitcoin wallets and exchange the virtual currency for dollars. Nevada rules prohibit gambling with Bitcoins, but the D began accepting the currency in January at the Fremont Street casino’s 629- room hotel, gift shop and restaurants. The technology is approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. D CEO Derek Stevens, who was instrumental in revitalizing the aging Downtown property formerly known as Fitzgeralds, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the currency is drawing customers from as far as Europe and Asia. “This gets to be a whole other ball game where it becomes a more trans-national base,” he said. The kiosk requires a customer toset upanaccount beforedepositing or withdrawing cash. Robocoin CEO Jordan Kelley says the process takes less than five minutes and includes typing in a phone number to receive a verification text message, keying in the verification code, creating a PIN, inserting a government-issued ID card and placing a hand over a scan for a palm vein pattern, a “biometric authentication,” as it’s known. The machine then takes a picture of the customer. Robocoin made international headlines in October with the launch of the world’s first Bitcoin ATM in a coffee shop in Canada. The machine conducted US$100,000 worth of transactions in the first eight days and $1 million in the first month, according to Mr Kelley. Robocoin has since shipped 55 of the kiosks, 20 of which are in operation, in the United States and worldwide, including to Singapore, Japan and Australia. Mr Kelley said he expects to have another ATM in Las Vegas by the end of June and at least five more by the end of the year, including some at other casinos. near Cairns and in the popular tourist destination of Gold Coast on the Pacific Ocean, where Sydney-based Echo has long been the sole operator. Echo also runs the only casino in Brisbane. Queensland will award three licenses in all as part of the largest expansion of casino gaming in Australian history. Reeling from falling resource exports and deeply in debt, the state is banking on the Asian tourism boom to revive its fortunes, led by China’s increasingly wealthy and gambling-obsessed millions. “These projects have the potential to create thousands of new jobs in these two key tourism centers,” said Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney. “We promised to grow the construction and tourism sectors of the Queensland economy and today’s announcement paves the way for this to happen.” Plans for the A$8.15 billion Aquis, the brainchild of Hong Kong financier Tony Fung, include nine hotels, a 25,000-seat stadium, a golf course and a lake and reef lagoon. If it clears environmental and other approvals it will provide 3,700 construction jobs and 10,000 permanent jobs at opening, according to Aquis. ASF’s Broadwater Marine project is pegged at $7.5 billion and likewise envisions an expansive mixed-use offering comprising hotels and luxury residences with the addition of a marina and a full- scale cruise ship terminal. The project forecasts 1,300 construction jobs and employment for more than 10,000 resort workers. Sydney-based, ASX-listed ASF Group (AFA) has holdings in minerals, commodities, trading, financial services and real estate in Australia and China. Its backers in Gold Coast include China State Construction Engineering Corp. and CCCC Guangzhou Dredging Co. The project must also obtain planning and environmental approvals to move forward. The Brisbane finalists have been asked to detail how they will transform an area known as Queen’s Wharf in the city’s central government and business district. Echo, which operates The Star casino and hotel in Sydney, previously had offered to spend upwards of $1 billion to preserve its Brisbane monopoly in the face of an aggressive lobbying campaign by James Packer’s Crown. Echo wants permission to develop a new resort to replace its Treasury Casino and Hotel, which is housed in an aging building that is historically listed and cannot be expanded. The company’s Jupiters Hotel and Casino in Gold Coast is similarly in need of reinvestment and expansion. INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS Rendering of Hong Kong financier Tony Fung’s planned A$8.15 billion Aquis resort.