Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming September 2014 52 Matt Hurst brings both a wealth of Macau experience and, importantly, a reassuring presence to Kazuo Okada’s Manila Bay Resorts, the US$2 billion super-casino that is forging ahead toward a scheduled 2015 opening at Entertainment City through a gale of legal and ownership troubles the Japanese machine gaming magnate has stirred up for himself in the Philippines. Mr Hurst likes his employer’s chances. “The chairman is putting together a property that is truly an integrated resort that’s going to stand shoulder to shoulder with anything in Asia or the world,” he has said. “I think we’re going to be the flagship of the area. It’s going to grow the domestic market.” Plans for the 44-hectare complex are indeed expansive and include a 30,000-square-meter casino with 3,000 machines games and 500 live tables. Mr Hurst, as executive vice president – Casino Operations and Marketing for its operating company, Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment, will be in charge of them all. His responsibilities range from strategic planning and development to mass and VIP marketing, advertising, branding, public relations and customer service. He calls it his “dream job,” and his decision to pack it up in Macau and head to Luzon was an easy one, he says. Certainly he’s built an impressive career in preparation for it, dating back to the mid-’90s with a shift manager’s job at Harrah’s Sky City Auckland. He came to Macau as a senior shift manager at Sands Macao just weeks before the casino’s historic opening in May 2004, and he was Matt Hurst Executive Vice President Casino Operations and Marketing Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment at Wynn Macau for its opening two years later, serving as director of slot operations before helping to open his third resort, Melco Crown Entertainment’s City of Dreams, where he was vice president – Gaming Machines from May 2008 through November of last year and was instrumental in pioneering concepts such as floor-wide jackpots and dedicated high-limit slot areas, which are now staples of the Macau market. India’s Delta Corp. recently launched a new brand, Deltin, under which it has placed its growing portfolio of gaming and hospitality properties in Goa and Daman. “Rebranding our properties is an opportunity for us to complement our continued growth and expansion as an organization, plus introduce a stronger brand identity which is more descriptive of our mission, products and services,” said Jaydev Mody, 59-year-old Jaydev Mody Chairman Delta Corp.