Inside Asian Gaming

November 2014 inside asian gaming 35 something in the Philippines if the government agrees, it plants the seed for future network opportunities in other parts of Asia as well, whether it will be in markets such as Vietnam, in Japan if the Diet eventually decides to pursue gaming, or in other markets in Asia—that all strengthens our strategy of a really comprehensive network.” Editor at Large Muhammad Cohen also blogs for Forbes on gaming throughout Asia and wrote “Hong Kong On Air,” a novel set during the 1997 handover about TV news, love, betrayal, high finance and cheap lingerie. The China play may prove a little harder to finesse, according to the analyst cited above. “It’s always good for a company to have multiple properties where its players can visit, so in that respect Incheon could help Manila. However, we believe that projects in Korea are primarily going after northern Chinese customers, while projects in the Philippines would naturally try to capture southern Chinese players. So there could be a geographical disconnect.” He adds, “Without a toehold in Asia, Caesars would otherwise have no shot at participating in other Asian growth stories.” However, he considers Manila and South Korea “very much second tier markets” which alone may not be enough to make the company a winner in the region. But for Caesars the potential synergies are compelling. The company is struggling under US$20 billion-plus in debt, the result of a leveraged buyout in 2008, and battling scanty same-store growth in the US regional markets where it’s heavily invested. In its former life as Harrah’s Entertainment it famously declined to bid for a Macau concession and then failed to make the cut a few years later for one of Singapore’s two IRs. It’s looking now to make up for lost ground. “Our other objective is to create a network of properties throughout Asia, just as we have in the US,” Mr Tight says. The glue would be a loyalty program along the lines of the pioneering Total Rewards program Harrah’s developed with great success in the US. “We would hope to do the same in Asia,” Mr Tight says. “The fact that we have the project in development in Incheon, we may have In Focus Rendering of Caesars’ planned Incheon resort developed in partnership with Indonesia’s Lippo Group.