Inside Asian Gaming

August 2014 inside asian gaming 23 Asians and Asian-Americans have been the fastest-growing demographic in Las Vegas the last five years, up from 2% in 2009 to 12% in 2013, according to a survey conducted annually by the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. NEW YORK Orange—the New Green Genting is looking at some glittering scenarios in the Empire State. It could own the closest of four new upstate casinos to New York City, where it reaped $301.2 million in gaming revenue in the latest financial year. It could possibly own two of them. It could also wind up holding a majority stake in a third. Voters in New York, the most populous commercial gaming state in the country, have authorized seven full-scale casinos to go with the state’s five tribally owned casinos and nine racetrack VLT operations. These will be licensed in phases. The first four will be awarded for new or expanded facilities in either or both of two designated regions that extend along both sides of the Hudson River from south of Interstate 84 in Orange County north to Saratoga Springs. A third region farther west covers parts of seven counties from the Pennsylvania border north to Lake Ontario. Seventeen bidders are in the hunt. Fourteen of them, not surprisingly, want a piece of the Hudson Valley. The big prize, the one Genting is after, is the area south of I-84 in the lower valley that could see two destination resorts with 100,000 square feet or more of slots and table games operating within an hour’s drive of the Big Apple. Either one could surpass the annual take at Genting Malaysia’s Resorts World New York City, whose 5,000 or so VLTs at Aqueduct Racetrack in the borough of Queens are the most lucrative machine games in the US, averaging currently more than $420 in unit win per day. Fitch Ratings estimates a resort-scale casino in Orange County could generate $450 million a year in gaming revenue. Which is why Genting is moving aggressively to try to secure at least one of them. The tax is steep by US standards, a blended rate of around 27% (10% on table game revenue, up to 45% on slots), but the licenses are shielded by a seven-year moratorium on the remaining three awards, which means no more casinos in or around New York City anytime soon. So Genting has got plenty of company in Orange County. Caesars Entertainment and New York developer David Flaum are proposing an $880 million, 300-room resort in a town along I-87 about 50 miles from New York City. Just west of there, Penn National Gaming and the Cordish Companies are proposing a $750 million resort. One of the state’s nine racinos, Saratoga Casino and Raceway, is leading a bid for a $670 million resort a little farther north off I-84, where Greenetrack, an Alabama machine gaming and encompass 100,000 square feet and feature 3,500 slots and tables. It could open in 2016, more likely in 2017. For now, it’s a $4 billion bet on the come. “It’s probably the gutsiest thing they have done,” says Mr Tulk. “I think a lot of participants and market-watchers have been predicting the Vegas turnaround for a long time, and some of them are still predicting it, and we haven’t really seen it to a large degree.” Asian patronage naturally is expected to be robust, and Asians and Asian-Americans have been the fastest-growing demographic in Las Vegas the last five years, up from 2% in 2009 to 12% in Genting ’s $1.5 billion Sterling Forest Resort would be the closest upstate casino to New York City. Cover Story LAS VEGAS VISITATION A DEMOGRAPH I C SNAPSHOT Source: “Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study 2013”/ Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, GLS Research % 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Ethnicity White 88 86 86 75 73 African American/Black 4 5 4 5 5 Asian/Asian-American 2 3 3 9 12 Hispanic/Latino 5 6 7 8 8 Other 1 1 1 3 2 Household Income $20,000 - $39,999 6 7 3 6 5 $40,000 - $59,999 20 17 14 17 25 $60,000 - $79,999 25 24 24 26 28 $80,000 - $99,999 18 16 17 15 16 $100,000 or more 9 10 10 7 6 Visitor Origin US 86 82 84 83 80 Foreign 14 18 16 17 20 >>