Inside Asian Gaming

April 2015 inside asian gaming 43 and its officers and employees in relation to the groundless suspicion have thereby concluded for all practical purposes in the Philippines.” In the same statement, the company noted that Prosecutor General Claro Arellano proposed to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima that the investigation be terminated “due to insufficient evidence.” The case, it added, was only based on suspicions by officers and employees of Pagcor, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation. “That is not true,” Ms de Lima said, stressing that Mr Arellano has not made any such proposal. “He has not received the resolution of the panel [of investigators handling the case],” Ms de Lima said in a text message. The Prosecutor General, meanwhile, said he has ordered the panel to expedite the resolution of the case, though he too added: “The case is still with the Panel [of investigators].” required to move the hotel back onshore, will increase the total floor space of the precinct by 8.5%, reports the Sydney Morning Herald , citing the development company in charge of the project, Lend Lease. This is largely due to the size of Crown Resorts’ casino-hotel complex, which is seeking a total floor space of up to 77,500 square meters. The final plans for all of Barangaroo, including yet to be lodged changes to the central portion of the 22-hectare site, have a total development floor space of more than 681,000 square meters. This is more than double the 330,000 square meters proposed in the original 2005 design brief. Lend Lease’s Barangaroo South concept plan, known as “modification 8”, also sets out how the company’s final residential towers will be incorporated into the reworked precinct. Italian Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano had been enlisted to design the three towers, collectively dubbed One Sydney Harbour, with a combined total of about 750 apartments. “A city development of three luxury residential high-rise towers in such a location is, in this climate, a rare opportunity,” Mr Piano said. Lend Lease’ Barangaroo South managing director Andrew Wilson said the “elegant and simple” 250-metre, 220-meter and 107-meter apartment blocks were intended to compliment Mr Packer’s 270-275 meter “diva on the harbor.” Mr Wilson said Lend Lease was hoping the concept plan would be approved “pre Christmas.” The three towers and Crown complex will also be subject to individual development applications, which have not yet been lodged. Crown Resorts chief executive Rowen Craigie said his company would now begin its own planning application processes with the Department of Planning and Environment. In addition to Crown Sydney, Crown Resorts has also undertaken more than A$2.8 billion worth of capital expenditure at its Melbourne and Perth casinos between the 2009-10 and 2016-17 financial years, with new hotel towers planned for both. “Crown has an exciting pipeline of future development projects that will enhance Crown’s position as one of the leading operators of integrated resorts globally,” said the company’s chief financial officer Ken Barton. As part of the ongoing effort to finance those projects, Crown Resorts announced last month that it was pursuing a A$400 million fund-raising exercise. REGIONAL BRIEFS Li Gang Beijing’s Man in Macau Says Gaming Should Not Be “Sacrificed” In a statement that could be interpreted as a denial that Beijing was deliberately targeting Macau’s gaming industry, as some have suggested is happening, Li Gang, director of the Macau Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, said on 5th March that Macau’s gaming industry cannot be dispensed with in pursuit of economic diversification. Mr Li, Beijing’s top representative in Macau, said that the city’s declining gaming revenue was not necessarily all bad, since it had led to local business leaders thinking seriously about sustainable development and economic diversification. He added, however, that gaming nonetheless remains Macau’s lifeblood and therefore should “not be sacrificed.” Mr Li said achieving economic diversification would require a big commitment on the part of the Macau government, since it was “too easy” to earn money from the gaming industry. He also predicted that it would take 20 to 30 years of sustained effort to achieve the goal of diversification. Crown Doubles Budget For Sydney Resort James Packer’s A$2 billion (US$1.6 billion) development at Sydney’s Barangaroo precinct would be more than double the size of the previously approved hotel over the harbor, according to a plan officially lodged with the state government. The long-awaited revised concept plan for Barangaroo South, Rendering of the proposed Crown Sydney Hotel Resort