Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming August 2014 24 The VLTs at Resorts World New York City are the most lucrative in the US. Cover Story 2013, according to a survey conducted annually by the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. “I think [Genting] have a particular expertise, given their Asian heritage, and increasingly it’s these Asian and Chinese players that are driving growth in a lot of the overseas markets,” Mr Tulk says. Of course, Mr Lim is shooting for more than that. Resorts World Las Vegas, he has said, “will cater to the high-end visitor as well as the budget-minded tourist. We will give first-time guests a new reason to visit Las Vegas and other tourists a great reason to return”. Mr Klebanow believes he’ll hit it. “What Resorts World Las Vegas is going to become is a must-see destination that’s going to attract regional—Southern California and the Southwest—national and all the key markets that come to Las Vegas, and some international customers. It will have the same effect on the Las Vegas gaming market as Bellagio did, The Venetian did and the Wynn properties did.” The comparison is interesting since all three opened during periods when the US economy was roaring. It isn’t now, obviously, as any operator in the regional markets will attest. Las Vegas’ fortunes are bound up with a recovery, and the future of that is difficult to gauge. Corporate profits are up nationwide, and residential housing prices, a key piece of the puzzle, appear to be on the mend. pari-mutuel operator, is bidding nearby for a $400 million casino in partnership with Full House Resorts. Genting has zeroed in on the wealthy New York City bedroom community of Tuxedo, the best-positioned of all the locations in terms of proximity to the metropolitan area, just 35 miles from the George Washington Bridge. As it has in Florida, and in line with its understanding of how policy gets made in the United States, it has spent heavily on lobbying and contributing to the campaigns of elected officials, more than any of the other bidders, three times more than the next biggest spender, Empire Resorts, which owns the racino at Monticello Raceway some distance to the northwest in the Catskill Mountains in Sullivan County. Which is where things get more interesting. Sixty-two percent of Nasdaq-listed Empire’s common stock is owned by a Malaysia-based investment vehicle, Kien Huat Realty, which is controlled by the family of Genting Chairman LimKok Thay. KienHuat, in fact, is financing a sizable chunk of Empire’s bid for a competing $600 million-plus casino in the Catskills at the old Concord hotel, a premier attraction in the fabled days of the Borscht Belt and closed years ago. As tracked by theNewYork Public Interest ResearchGroup, Genting has lobbied on behalf of its own bids and Empire’s to the tune of $2.6 million over the last two years. Empire’s separate spending—let’s call it Lim Kok Thay’s—brings the total to more than $3.3 million. Genting has spent an additional $984,244 on campaign contributions, Empire, $162,925. Neither of these sums include money that falls outside New York’s disclosure requirements, like the $2 million Genting reportedly donated to a controversial alliance of business interests, since disbanded, with ties to pro-casino Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and whatever Genting and Empire/Kien Huat have budgeted for currying favor with officials in municipalities of less than 50,000 people, a category that includes Tuxedo, Thompson, where Empire wants to build, and all but one of the 16 prospective casino towns statewide. Here’s how it could shake out for Genting, which has $2.5 billion on the table in Orange County: In Tuxedo, officials have already signed off on the company’s sprawling 238-acre Sterling Forest Resort, which takes its name from an adjacent 22,000-acre state park that hosts the Tuxedo Ridge Ski Center and a popular attraction called the Renaissance Faire. Tuxedo is home to one of the most exclusive gated communities in the US, as rated by Forbes . A 300-square-foot boathouse on Tuxedo Lake will run you $700,000. Genting’s pitch speaks directly to this culture of affluence. Plans presented to municipal officials and the newly formed New York State Gaming Commission feature a 125-acre “forest garden” and a winter sports venue called Adventure World to replace the Ski Center, and it’s envisioned that the seasonal festivals associated with the Faire will continue. Genting says it’s lined up a private partner to run these businesses. The hotel will contain 1,000 five-star rooms and suites, a spa, and a full Las Vegas-style casino that likely will be the largest in the state. Total cost is projected at $1.5 billion, including $25 million to build an interchange to speed traffic in from State Highway 17 and the I-87/New York State Thruway, the two major north-south routes leading to New York City. Farther north, just above I-84, around 90 minutes from the city by Genting’s calculation, a $1 billion bid called Resorts World Hudson Valley has been approved by the government of the town of Montgomery, its prospective host. Plans for the 373-acre site call for a 600-room hotel with a casino, 29 restaurants, bars and lounges and 100,000 square feet of meetings and exhibition space. It’s conceivable that Genting could get both of these since the law stipulates only that no region will be awarded more than two licenses. This isn’t likely, for obvious reasons, and for the fact that two licenses in Orange County, which wasn’t considered needy enough even to be