Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming MAY 2015 32 business with players checking in B300,000 per visit. Holiday Palace has 350 rooms with rates starting at B1,800 per night that are the closest thing in Poipet to five-star, plus the widest range of facilities, including six restaurants, a spa, salon, gym and duty free shop. “Other casinos are cheaper but don’t have the quality,” Mr Lim says. Holiday Poipet is adding 230 rooms, scheduled to open next month, but Mr Lim knows that won’t be enough. “The hotels are full on weekends,” he says. “There should be 5,000 hotel rooms in Poipet” SIMPLY THE BEST Mr Lim contends, “For hotel rooms, we are the best.” But he voices the consensus opinion that “Star Vegas is the best casino in Poipet.” Donaco International is betting $360 million on Star Vegas, and the broader proposition of Poipet’s continued prosperity and growth. “It’s been a very successful gaming strip. Star Vegas is the most successful property on that strip,” Donaco Executive Director Ben Reichel says. The company’s investor presentation says Star Vegas, located at the far end of the strip leg paralleling the border, had 2014 EBITDA of $60 million from its 385 hotel rooms, 109 gaming tables and 1,264 gaming machines, 288 owned outright and the rest on revenue share deals. “Star Vegas in Poipet is, in our view, a best-in-market asset and is the only resort in Poipet for which an argument can be made that it is approaching international standards,” Union Gaming Research Macau wrote in a positive review of the deal after it was announced in January. Donaco foresees little capital outlay required at Star Vegas over the next five years, “except buying more slot machines as the business expands,” Mr Reichel says, “The public areas are much higher quality than other casinos,” with fresh carpets, high ceilings—some featuring the property’s star logo—clean lines, and a performance lounge that screams potential. The property, opened in 1999, also has a swimming pool, its own power infrastructure, water supply from a lake with purification and recirculation facilities on site, and even its own fire engine. Hotel rooms, with rates from B850 to B1,500, aren’t five star and haven’t been a focus under outgoing ownership, Mr Reichel says. “The hotel just has to meet market expectations. They make very little money from rooms. They’re almost all comped.” Cover Story