Inside Asian Gaming

November 2015 inside asian gaming 17 the shadow of his father, legendary casino mogul Stanley Ho, establishing the younger Mr Ho’s chops as a dealmaker in his own right. There was yet more drama in the story. Even though Mr Ho claimed the deal had the “government’s blessing,” Macau officials reacted coolly, repeatedly stating in the months following the acquisition that Studio City did not have approval for gaming. In early 2012, Macau authorities published a land contract for the plot that did not include a casino. But in September 2012, then-Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam said the project was eligible for a casino. Then came the added drama of how many gaming tables the project, built to accommodate 400 tables, would receive. It wasn’t until mid-October, barely a week before the opening, that the government announced its grant of 250 tables to Studio City, 200 immediately and 50 in January. For its rewrite of the Studio City script, Melco Crown kept the film theme and production facilities, found new cast members, including Warner Brothers, and brought back Taubman to run the retail portion of the project. Finally, after more than a decade of behind-the-scenes drama, Studio City has taken its place center stage with the spotlight burning bright on it as Macau looks to turn around 17 months of declining casino revenue. 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. Cover Story source, but couldn’t reach an agreement. So eSun sued New Cotai for HK$689 million in damages. New Cotai filed its own lawsuit. The plot sat idle, a handful of pilings and a perimeter fence the only evidence of what had been the most anticipated project in Cotai. THE HERO ENTERS Meanwhile Cotai blossomed. The openings of Venetian in 2007, Four Seasons a year later, Melco Crown’s City of Dreams in 2009 and Galaxy Macau in 2011 each tipped the center of Macau’s gaming gravity away from the peninsula toward Cotai. By then, each of the six gaming concessionaires still had a resort sized plot in Cotai promised to them, except Melco Crown, which had a prior relationship with the Studio City project. It seemed like a natural fit to break the stalemate and in June 2011 it finally did. Melco Crown agreed to pay US$369 million to eSun and CapitaLand for their 60% of the project. The deal also included an additional US$100 million payment to New Cotai in three installments, thought to ensure its cooperation, remove its control of casino cash flow and cement Melco Crown’s leading role in the development. Observers hailed the deal as a coup for Melco Crown and its Co-Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho. Obtaining Studio City gave to Melco Crown, the only operator without a casino on the peninsula, critical mass with two properties in Cotai, plus Altira at the tip of Taipa facing the peninsula. Industry insiders said the acquisition brought Lawrence Ho, then 34, out of Hugh Hefner Lawrence Ho James Packer