Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming December 2016 10 Cover Story the basic roads as well as the air and rail services. Can you run a successful operation? Can you make enough money to cover the cost of your investment while the country is going through that process? “And how much money are you going to have to invest on the front end? I think it is a killer in many jurisdictions where new laws are passed and the government tries to implement a minimum investment – US$1 billion or whatever it might be. Quite honestly, that may take a significant amount of time to recover if you can recover it at all … and if you are in an environment with some political uncertainty that can be a dangerous game to play.” A case in point is Ho Tram Resort Casino in Vietnam – the first integrated resort to accept the government’s terms of a minimum US$4 billion investment in order to be granted a casino license. The first phase, opened in 2013, cost US$600 million and boasts a five-star, 550-room hotel and Greg Norman designed golf course, while the upcoming second tower, due for completion in late 2017, will bring the total number of rooms to 1,100 and push expenditure over US$1 billion. But Ho Tram was a gamble predicated on the expectation that Vietnam was close to overturning its ban on locals gambling. That gamble appears to have backfired. In September, the government finally agreed to let locals gamble in two Vietnamese casinos on a trial basis for three years – and Ho Tram isn’t one of them. Instead, new resorts in the Von Don Special Economic Zone in the north and in Phu Quoc Island in the south will be the ones to benefit – the main stipulation being that locals must pay a daily fee of US$50 to enter or buy a monthly pass for US$1,100. It is believed Ho Tram missed out because the government sees it as better suited to tourists – the irony being that getting there requires a flight into Ho Chi Minh City then a two-and-a-half hour drive to the coast. Hardly an appealing prospect for visitors. “One of the first things any operator must look at is infrastructure and ease of access because you know from every piece of research on consumers around Asia, convenience is critical for any form of integrated resort,” says Galaxy Macau Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Clayton. Vietnam’s Ho Tram Resort Casino