Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming October 2015 44 Lawrence Ho’s Russia Casino Opens Lawrence Ho’s Tigre de Cristal casino held its soft-launch this month, becoming the first casino in Russia’s Primorye gaming zone to open to the public, reports CalvinAyre.com . The oft-delayed casino has missed many previous opening targets but over one thousand guests—including government officials, business types and those lucky enough to wrangle a special invite—attended the 8th October soft launch ahead of the full opening scheduled for 12th November. Following the VIP sneak peak, the doors were thrown open to the public. Primorye, located 50km from the port city of Vladivostok on Russia’s east coast, is one of six official gaming zones in which Russian authorities allow casino gambling to take place. However, outside of properties in Krasnodar and Altai, there were no other active casinos until Tigre de Cristal opened. Konstantin Shestakov, director of the Primorsky region’s tourism department, said Tigre de Cristal was already “greater than all existing [Russian] casinos by volume.” Phase 1 of the property boasts 67 gaming tables (42 mass market, 25 VIP), 769 electronic gaming machines, two restaurants, spa facilities and a 121-room hotel. Phase 2 is expected to open in 2018, adding more hotels and gaming options in addition to entertainment, retail and dining facilities. Tigre de Cristal will have the Primorye market all to itself for the next couple of years. Rival properties from the Royal Time Group, Nagacorp and Diamond Fortune won’t begin opening until late 2017 at the earliest, but Primorye officials expect all these properties to be fully developed by 2022. Tigre de Cristal is owned by G1 Entertainment (formerly known as the First Gambling Company of the East), in which Lawrence Ho’s Summit Ascent Holdings holds a majority stake. Taiwanese gaming device maker Firich Entertainment holds the next biggest slice, while local Russian partners control the rest. Dina Titus Calls For Hearings on Legality of Daily Fantasy Sports Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus has added her name to the list of congressional representatives requesting hearings be held on the legalities of daily fantasy sports businesses that have come under fire over cheating allegations and concerns the industry is largely unregulated, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal . INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS In a letter earlier this month to the chairman and the ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Ms Titus said it was “critical” Congress “investigate this growing industry.” Ms Titus, whose district includes the Strip and downtown casinos, said she is concerned daily fantasy sports are skirting the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which prohibits financial transactions associated with online wagering. “Many experts in gaming law believe that the (daily fantasy sports) business model violates the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act,” Ms Titus wrote. Nevada gaming regulators asked the state’s attorney general’s office, which advises the Gaming Control Board and Nevada Gaming Commission, to analyze the legalities of the activity. While the Control Board hasn’t taken a formal position on daily fantasy sports, regulators have cautioned casino and sports book operators to keep their distance. Several operators have said the activity is gambling. Ms Titus’ letter came a day after FanDuel and DraftKings—the two largest daily fantasy sports operators—took steps to repair public damage after a DraftKings employee won $350,000 in a FanDuel contest reportedly by using inside information. Both websites said they had banned their employees from competing in daily fantasy sports contests and brought in outside law firms and former prosecutors to investigate and review their internal controls. “Players on all (daily fantasy sports) sites likely assume that consumer protections are in place to prevent some players from having such an advantage,” Ms Titus wrote. “Unfortunately, many learned the hard way that they were losing money to competitors utilizing access to information to upend the competitive balance.” Gaming Revenue Down in Nevada For Straight Third Gaming revenue in Nevada and along the Las Vegas Strip fell for the third straight month in August although other areas of Clark County reported double-digit increases. The Nevada State Gaming Control Board said casinos statewide collected $908.2 million from gamblers in August, a decline of almost 1.4%. Strip casino revenue declined 4.7% to $527.4 million. The Strip declines were due to baccarat, where revenue of $126.5 million fell 24.1% over the same month a year ago. Baccarat wagers of $872 million declined 16%. The VIP sneak peak of the Tigre de Cristal casino The Las Vegas Strip