Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming September 2014 54 Asia is likely to prove critical to the future of Caesars Entertainment as it struggles to reduce its industry-leading debt load and position itself to take full advantage of the growth opportunities that ought to be falling in the lap of the largest operator of casinos in the US. This makes Steven Tight, president of International Development for the Las Vegas-based gaming giant, a key player in that future, moreover one whose knowledge and experience will be instrumental in shaping South Korea’s emergence onto the global resort casino stage—and quite possibly Japan’s as well. Mr Tight’s name has been in the news a lot over the course of Caesars’ involvement in South Korea, where it will be the first international operator—so far the only one—to run a casino in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. The company famously declined to bid for a Macau concession in its former life as Harrah’s Entertainment and then failed to make the cut for one of Singapore’s two IRs. So SK is a coup for Caesars, and certainly for Mr Tight. It’s been a harrowing ride for them both too. The company was welcomed initially as an asset to Seoul’s tourism-growth goals, only to be rejected later for reasons that were never publicized, although fears of a liquidity crisis tied to the company’s US$23 billion of debt no doubt played a part. Then at the end of last year it was invited to apply again, and in March it was approved to operate a foreigners-only casino as part of a resort complex on Yeongjong Island in partnership with Indonesian investment conglomerate Lippo and Singapore property developer OUE. The phased project is priced at US$2 billion at full build-out. Steven Tight President International Development Caesars Entertainment Yeongjong, which lies about 50 kilometers west of Seoul near Incheon International Airport, figures prominently in a special economic zone the government has created for the express purpose of cashing in on China’s outbound travel boom, and the entré given to the Caesars consortium is a big step for the government—“a watershed to gauge the government’s will toward the casino industry,” as one Seoul-based analyst put it to Bloomberg . The project covers 4.3 hectares encompassing 150,000 square meters of developable floor space. Caesars wants to have the first phase open in time for the country’s hosting of the 2018 Winter Olympics and plans call for an initial expenditure of around $800 million for 500 or more hotel rooms together with entertainment venues, a shopping mall, a standalone convention center, an expansive food and beverage offering and a casino with 100 table games and 150 EGMs. Mr Tight has promised it will be “iconic,” and prevailing opinion appears to agree. “It’s going to change the landscape of Korean casinos because it’ll be the first integrated resort-style foreigners-only casino,” said D.S. Kim, an analyst with BNP Paribas Securities Asia. A trained architect, the 58-year-old Mr Tight has long been associated with iconic developments. He graduated from Stanford with a degree in architecture and went to work for the Walt Disney Company after taking an MBA at Harvard Business School. He stayed with Disney 17 years. He was the first managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland and was vice president of finance for Disneyland Paris. He’d risen to senior vice president of operations development at the parent company when he left in 2004 to become chief executive of Al Sharq Investment, the company behind Dubai’s $2 billion Aqua Dunya Resort. Prior to joining Caesars in 2011 he was CEO of Aquiva, a developer of luxury hotels and residences in Europe and the Middle East. As head of International Development he’s led explorations into possible expansions of the Caesars brand into China and India and helped find the company $438 million in badly needed cash by leading it out of a moribund investment in a golf course in Macau. In Japan, where Caesars says it’s prepared to invest $5 billion if it wins a license, he’s been talking with corporate giants of the likes of Kajima, Mitsui Fudosan and Fuji Television Network on possible tie- ups on an IR in Tokyo. He’s been spotted in Osaka, too, representing the company in discussions with government officials there on a similarly priced resort. What’s Your Next Move?