Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING DECEMBER 2017 56 ASIAN GAMING POWER 50 2 0 1 7 Opened as Genting Highlands Resort nearly 50 years ago, Resorts World Genting is harvesting the fruits of its RM10 billion (US$2.5 billion) Genting Integrated Tourism Program. Lee Choong Yan, a 20-year company veteran, tends a garden of gaming related assets in the Bahamas and UK, plus Resorts World New York City, itself undergoing major expansion. Overall, Genting Malaysia contributed 41% of first half EBITDA in Genting Group’s core leisure and hospitality sector. Last December, RW Genting opened its new Awana SkyWay cable car, traversing 2.8 kilometers (1.75 miles) to reach the 1,800-meter (6,000 foot) high resort, a route now bracketed with retail: Genting Highlands Premium Outlets at the base and, at the summit, SkyAvenue, a 130,000-square meter (1.4 million square foot) mall opening in phases through next year. Also expected next year is the world’s first Twentieth Century Fox World plus an indoor theme park. The investments aim to make RW Genting, already with 10,000 hotel rooms and 20 million annual visitors, a regional destination resort for Southeast Asia. In New York, just north of JFK International Airport, RWNYC broke ground in July on a two year, US$400 million expansion of its 5,500 machine ETG parlor, adding a 400-room hotel, dining and retail. Mecca also outlined the company’s plans to work with local businesses. “It’s what we have done in Macau, at Broadway,” he added. “As we do in Macau, what we have suggested is that everyone who registers in the hotel, everyone who comes and visits the resort, we would give them a map of the local community identifying all of the shopping areas and local tourist attractions. We would provide a complimentary shuttle service from the integrated resort to all of the key areas in the city. And, as we have done in Macau, we would invite a number of shop owners, a number of restaurant owners, to be part of the IR so that in every way we share the success of the integrated resort with the local community. “We want our integrated resort to integrate with the community.” Michael Mecca PRESIDENT Galaxy Entertainment Group POWER 816 LAST 35 SCORE YEAR CLAIMS TO FAME Played a key role in establishing Galaxy Macau’s impressive reputation More than 30 years’ experience in the hotel and gaming industry Leading Galaxy’s efforts in Japan 33 Galaxy Entertainment Group’s former Chief Operating Officer, Michael Mecca is now the central figure in the company’s push for expansion outside of its Macau stronghold. One of his first achievements after taking the role in 2015 was to finalize the acquisition of a 5% stake in Monte Carlo-based Société des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Étrangers à Monaco (SBM), whose properties include Casino de Monte-Carlo and Casino Café de Paris, not to mention a range of luxury hotels, restaurants and nightclubs. But it is Japan that Mecca has his sights firmly set on and he has spent much of the past 12 months actively campaigning – behind the scenes of course – on GEG’s behalf in the hope of winning a casino license should the IR Implementation Bill pass as expected in 2018. At the Japan Gaming Congress in May, Mecca told Inside Asian Gaming that he believed the Galaxy brand fits well with whatever it is Japan’s lawmakers are looking for in an operator. “We believe because of our partnership in Monaco and the work we have been doing in Japan over the last two and a half years, as more government and corporate entities learn about the business philosophy of Galaxy we are learning that this fits in very well to the concept of an IR in Japan,” he said.