Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming October 2014 32 The Timing, the Touch If Chien Lee’s track record is any indication, The Grand – Ho Tram and its backers, Asian Coast Development (Capital), should be feeling pretty good about the future. He’s bringing a lot to the table, US$20 million for starters, plus a wealth of experience in lodging and retail in China—and of course Iao Kun Group’s extensive high-roller connections—and those may be worth even more. The Grand, which opened last July, enjoys a beautiful beachfront location on Vietnam’s South China Sea, but it’s struggled to justify its US$500 million price tag. Accessibility is one problem. The resort is some 70 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s largest metropolitan area, and the highway links are less than ideal, though they are improving. The inability to market its games domestically is another issue, and perhaps the more troublesome of the two. Vietnam’s casinos are off-limits to its citizens by law and always have been. But a political leadership looking for foreign investment and inconvenient, but not that bad. That’s No. 1. No. 2, we have the helicopter port on site, so going forward, if we need it, we can provide helicopter service, same as from Hong Kong to Macau: 20 minutes from the Ho Chi Minh airport to the site. So for those important VIPs, we can provide helicopter service. And when we bring people to the property for the first time they will like it. And the property is not that big. Only 541 rooms. It’s not like a Macau. We don’t need those huge, huge numbers. We need only a few percent of Macau VIPs and other visitors to go. That’s good enough to support this. And by the time—next year, or next two years—locals gaming comes in, plus some VIP support, with both in the mix, locals gaming, VIPs, this project will be hugely successful. And your investment, in terms of taking The Grand to the “next level,” as you put it? What’s the vision? Well, you know, now we have the golf course in addition to the hotel and the gaming facility. So, first of all, we have to try to drive up the gaming business. The second step is Tower 2, Phase 1A. We’re in the middle of developing it, and it’s been suggested we could do hotel-condominiums, not Insights “It’s not like a Macau. We don’t need those huge, huge numbers. We need only a few percent of Macau VIPs and other visitors to go. That’s good enough to support this.” only a hotel; and that’s our thought at this moment: we can get into selling some of the rooms, either to investors or VIP players, and when they come there they live in their own property, when they are not there they can give it to the hotel to help them lease it out, you know, like a time share. And by the time we build out the different phases, we can mix in some other ideas. You know, times change. When you’re going forward you will change what is needed for the market. It could be other facilities. It could be a theme park, or whatever, just to throw out some ideas.