Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming January 2017 42 Duterte to shut down all online gambling? Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appears to have changed his online gambling stance once again, claiming he now wants to shut down the nation’s industry completely. As reported by Philippine media outlet Inquirer , Duterte’s latest comments came while presenting his government’s 2017 budget. “I am ordering the closure of all online gaming (firms). All of them. They have no use,” Duterte is claimed to have said, albeit without offering any details on how and when this might occur. Duterte offered similar opposition to the nation’s online gaming industry soon after coming to power in June last year, most notably refusing to renew PhilWeb Corp’s license to supply software to around 300 government-controlled gambling cafes. However, he appeared to soften his stance in August, stating, “I will restore online (gambling) provided taxes are correctly collected and they are situated or placed in districts where gambling is allowed, which means to say, not within the church distance or schools.” Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Duterte had recently ordered him to look into online gambling firms. The government is currently drafting the order that will outline the scope of Aguirre’s authority to investigate the operations of these firms. REGIONAL BRIEFS Macau daily revenue keeps climbing Macau’s gross gaming revenue grew by 8% in December to MOP$19.8 billion – slightly below expectations of another month of +10% growth. However, it also represented the fifth consecutive month of rising daily GGR, up to MOP$639 million per day from a base of MOP$529 million per day back in June. Likewise, while GGR for the full year in 2016 finished down 3.3% to MOP$223 billion, December revenue was 21% higher than June’s, providing welcome impetus heading into 2017. “With the benefit of hindsight, June’s daily average of MOP$529 million appears to have been the low water mark of the multi-year downturn,” said Union Gaming’s Grant Govertson. “December’s average of MOP$639 million represents 21% growth relative to June. This growth in GGR actually exceeded the growth rates in supply over the same period as it relates to hotel rooms (+15% when comparing December 2016 to June 2016), table games (+6%) and slot machines (+8%).” Wells Fargo Senior Analyst Cameron McKnight said he expects January to continue the upward trend with total growth of between 10% and 14% year on year. “This assumes January same store Average Daily Rate will trend modestly better than historical seasonality for the month excluding Chinese New Year (CNY), down 2.5%month on month on average,” McKnight said. “Chinese New Year begins in January (1/28) this year versus February (2/8) last year and we account for strength in the last week of the month. “The holiday is a week long so will straddle January/February this year. To normalize for the impact of CNY, we note on average January and February is historically up 4% from December.” Australian Open tennis to remove William Hill ads Tennis fans may notice a few changes at this month’s Australian Open after Tennis Australia (TA) announced it would remove all courtside advertising hoardings for online sportsbook William Hill. William Hill branding featured prominently at the 2016 Australian Open after the company signed a big money sponsorship deal, but the resulting backlash from anti-gambling groups has resulted in TA bowing to pressure and backtracking on the original deal. The move to cut gambling advertising has also been linked to recent match-fixing scandals that have afflicted the sport globally. TA President Steve Healy said that William Hill agreed with the measures based on current circumstances. “We need to put it in perspective. The arrangements that were struck with WilliamHill before this issue had such a high profile and so we’ve worked with our partners to address that,” he said.