Inside Asian Gaming

September 2014 inside asian gaming 39 an investment banker and vice president of Pacific Century Group, the business group founded by Richard Li, like Mr Ho, the son of an iconic Hong Kong billionaire (Li Ka Shing) not anointed as his father’s successor. Mr Chung is also chairman and CEO of Nasdaq- listed Entertainment Gaming Asia, which is 38% owned by Melco International Development and runs slot operations in Cambodia and the Philippines and manufactures casino currency. City of Dreams Manila could make or break Entertainment City, the cluster of four integrated resorts that Philippine authorities hope will move the country into the top rank of international gaming destinations. The resort will have 900 guest rooms, including a Crown Towers, a Hyatt and Asia’s first Nobu Hotel, a star-studded enterprise headlined by celebrity chef Nobu Matshuhisa that includes actor Robert DeNiro. Melco Crown says it made the call to take a leading role in the Manila resort from Belle Corporation, controlled by the Philippines’ richest family, the Sys, and rebrand it as City of Dreams Manila when regulator PAGCOR revised its formula for gaming devices based on not just the quantity but the quality of rooms. The new formula upped the resort’s allowable gaming tables by 50% from 242 to 365 and more than doubled the number of machines to 1,680 slots and 1,680 electronic table game seats. “The meaningful increase in allowable gaming positions at City of Dreams Manila supports the brand mission and vision of delivering a superior and premium product to the Philippines entertainment and gaming market,” Mr Chung said when the changes were announced last October. To support the increased gaming capacity, City of Dreams Manila has experienced gaming hand Kevin Sim in place as chief operating officer. Mr Sim, an accountant like Mr Chung, joined the company after running operations at Malaysia’s Genting Highlands Resort (now Resorts World Genting) as executive vice president, following stints as the property’s senior vice president of casino operations and vice president of slots, plus finance roles there and with NagaCorp in Cambodia. The expertise is welcome given Mr Chung’s gaming operations record. As CEO of Entertainment Gaming Asia he presided over the 2012 opening of Dreamworld Pailin on Cambodia’s border with Thailand, the write-down of the casino’s entire US$2.5 million cost last December and its sale for $500,000 in June. The company, formerly known as Elixir Gaming Technologies and traded under the symbol EGT, also runs Cambodia’s Dreamworld Poipet, a slots-only operation on the Thai border, opened in May 2013, and operates slots in other casinos in Cambodia and the Philippines. Second-quarter revenue from EGT’s slot operation fell 12% to US$4.4 million, and it may go lower, since the contract with its biggest client, NagaCorp’s NagaWorld in Phnom Penh, expires next year. NagaWorld has installed other machines and reportedly was not pleased when EGT decided to start its own Cambodia operations. Excluding a $239,000 loss from the discontinued Pailin operation, EGT reported a net income of $217,000, hit by bad luck in the form of big jackpot payouts, according to Mr Chung. He may be victimized by more bad luck. Along with Crown Resorts CEO Rowen Craigie, Mr Chung is a director of MCE International, the Melco Crown entity at the center of money-laundering allegations in Taiwan. The start of the Lunar New Year in February ushered in the “Year of the Horse” in the traditional Chinese calendar, and it proved prophetic for the venerable Hong Kong Jockey Club, which has just come off its best season ever, posting record handle of HK$101.83 billion (US$13 billion), an increase of 8.5% over 2012-13. The “most remarkable and notable season in our 130-year history” is how Chief Executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges described the nine months of racing that ended 6th July and saw attendance at the club’s courses at Sha Tin and Happy Valley exceed 2 million for the second consecutive year. The season also was the first to feature co-mingled wagering in the United States. Hong Kong pools are the largest in the world. While its horse races are the HKJC’s most visible activity and its biggest earner, it also holds the monopoly on running the Mark Six Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges Chief Executive Officer Hong Kong Jockey Club lottery and offering fixed odds betting on overseas football matches in the city. Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges is the man who’s ignited HKJC’s fortunes, elevating the quality of competition to world-class standards and spearheading a reinvestment strategy that has seen the club spend upwards of HK$3 billion to upgrade its facilities over the last few years as it energetically pursues younger audiences with new restaurants,