Inside Asian Gaming

September 2015 inside asian gaming 17 initiatives to make Macau a world center for entertainment and leisure, as Suncity’s website proudly notes. Over the past year, Suncity has also branched out geographically. It has significantly expanded its presence in the Philippines, with junket rooms at City of Dreams Manila and down the road at Solaire, where it also opened a Poker King Club, plus Cayagan Holiday and Leisure Resort in the Philippines on Luzon’s north coast. Suncity has also signed on with NagaWorld in Phnom Penh and has VIP rooms at Seoul’s Walker Hill casino and Australia’s Crown Melbourne. Its overseas activities may be seen as enabling customers to avoid Beijing’s scrutiny in Macau. An alternate view is that Suncity is trying to support Beijing’s goal of aligning Macau’s gaming revenue growth to match mainland economic growth. Suncity’s ambitions to be more than a junket promoter extend to running full-blown casinos. “It is the goal of Suncity Group to diversify from being a gaming promoter to a casino operator with its own licensed casino and also to venture into non-gaming business, whether it is locally or overseas,” Suncity’s Marketing Strategy Department President YM Choong says. Suncity has been rumored to be a partner in South Korea license bids and has already secured an opportunity in Vietnam. In March, Suncity was named as a partner in the revival of the Hoi An South integrated resort project in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam province, one of five government designated IR development areas. Genting Group originally teamed with local investment fund VinaCapital in 2010 on the project but dropped out in 2012. Suncity signed on along with Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, the private holding company for Hong Kong billionaire Cheng Yu Tung’s family assets that include a stake in the parent company of Macau casino operator SJM Holdings, property to transport conglomerate New World and the eponymous retail jewelry chain. Chow Tai Fook bought more of the project from VinaCapital this month. The Quang Nam casino will be for foreigners only, though many think that Vietnam will allow locals to play on some basis soon. The government has a $4 billion investment requirement for IRs, though authorities have proven liberal on how quickly that investment requirement must be met. The Quang Nam partnership has said it hopes to open its $500 million first phase featuring a hotel, golf course and casino with about 90 tables by early 2019. With or without locals, Suncity will try to bring its members to the resort, about two hours from the closest international airport in Danang. Administrators of the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone, where the seaside casino site is located, hope to induce development of a $700 million international airport on a build-operate-transfer basis, but so far, no developer has stepped forward. Another deal with the Cheng family to purchase 70% of Suncity for $950 million via a Hong Kong-listed vehicle seems to have fallen through due to regulatory objections. Listing shouldn’t be a problem for Mr Chau. He already has big stakes in two Hong Kong-listed companies. At Sun International Resources, invested in Indonesian mining and race horses, Mr Chau stepped down as chairman last year, but still controls nearly half the company. He remains chairman and executive director of Guangdong property developer Sun Century Group, where he holds an even bigger piece. It appears Mr Chau is ready to be a good guy in the gaming business, too, whenever the authorities allow it. James Packer Executive Director Crown Resorts Co-Chairman Melco Crown Entertainment Imbued with an ambition surpassing on a global scale even his famous father’s, James Packer has transformed Crown Resorts into one of the gaming industry’s marquee multinationals—a US$7.95 billion powerhouse whose expansion has accelerated to the point that he’s taken the bold step of resigning as the company’s chairman to take direct charge of it. In stepping down last month, the 47-year-old tycoon characterized Crown as his “passion”. He said, “My vision for the company is to be one of the world’s best integrated resort and entertainment providers.” He’s a good part of the way there, judging by what the company