Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming October 2016 30 “There is over US$14 billion of recently completed, underway or announced development on the north end of the Strip, making this the largest development corridor in the US … Lucky Dragon will help lead this wave of new development.” from Cornell, says. “Genting is a proven global operator that will draw its core customers from Asia, especially non-China Asia, to make international visits to Las Vegas. We expect the international draw of Resort World for Asian guests will be highly complementary to the local and regional customer base that will be the core for Lucky Dragon. “According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, approximately 70% of visitors to Las Vegas visit five or more casinos during their visit. We expect Lucky Dragon will be one of the first stops for nearly all visitors of Asian descent in Las Vegas for many years to come.” While the Chinese high roller business has withered in Las Vegas, as in Macau and Singapore, growing outbound travel suggests more Chinese than ever will visit Las Vegas. The most recent numbers show Chinese as the fourth largest group among Las Vegas’ 6.7 million foreign visitors, behind Canada, Mexico and the UK. However tourism officials believe there’s an undercount of Chinese due to lack of direct flights from the mainland. China’s Hainan Airlines was last month granted permission to start operating flights between Beijing and Las Vegas, making it Sin City’s second direct Asian route, joining flights from Seoul on Korea Air. Flights from Beijing may not just bring customers to Lucky Dragon; they may also bring owners. Around half of the resort’s estimated US$150 million cost has been financed through the US EB-5 program that gives foreigners preference for legal residency in exchange for investing at least US$500,000 in projects that create jobs or help economically depressed areas, a classification that fit Las Vegas after the 2008 recession. Feature In Focus “The EB-5 program is very popular in China and throughout Asia and many of our investors come from this region,” Mr Jacoby explains. “Given our project’s focus on addressing customers from these cultures, EB-5 financing seemed like a natural fit.” As of late last year, EB-5 had provided US$60 million in equity financing and management aimed to raise US$20 million more through the program. The EB-5 program’s US residency privileges creates a path for Asian citizens to migrate to Lucky Dragon’s primary customer base in North America. Sounds pretty lucky for everyone.