Inside Asian Gaming

DECEMBER 2017 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 63 ASIAN GAMING POWER 50 2 0 1 7 It hasn’t gone quite to plan for Paradise Entertainment Group in 2017. In October, the company’s best opportunity to expand its casino operations by buying Macau’s Hotel Lan Kwai Fong fell through at the final hour, to be snapped up instead by former Legislative Assembly member Chan Meng Kam. Around the same time, Paradise released financial results that revealed revenue from its once flourishing gaming systems segment had plummeted 46% for the first nine months of the year to HK$131.8 million. Yet company Chairman Jay Chun isn’t backing away from his grand plans, claiming in the aftermath that Paradise will aggressively look for expansion opportunities in the future. And if anyone has earned the right to dream big, it is Chun. A man with many hats, Chun was appointed chairman of Paradise – of which he owns a 59% stake – in 2002 where his day to day responsibilities include managing Macau’s Kam Pek Paradise Casino and the Macau Jockey Club. He is founder of the Macau Gaming Equipment Manufacturers Association (MGEMA) and is the man behind MGS Entertainment Show (formerly Macao Gaming Show), which celebrated its fifth anniversary in November. However, it was a simple observation he made during the early days of liberalization that would change the face of gaming floors across Macau. Noting the incredible pace with which new casinos were being built, Chun came to the conclusion that a dealer shortage in Macau was inevitable and from here the concept of Live Multi Game Machines was born. Featuring a single live dealer table surrounded by scores of individual betting terminals, Live Multi Game Machines also provided a solution to Macau’s government-imposed table cap. An instant hit when the first machines were rolled out under Paradise subsidiary LT Game in 2008, Live Multi Game has gone on to revolutionize Macau’s casino industry. Before Venetian Macao, Grand Emperor brought a dash of European palace ambience to Macau. There’s a mock antique carriage outside, actors portraying Britain’s Coldstream Guards at the door and 78 (why not 88?) one kilogram gold bars embedded in the lobby floor. It all adds pizzazz – and these days, social media exposure – to this SJM satellite casino just west of the Lisboa complex with 300 guest rooms and six stories of gaming, featuring three VIP clubs. Emperor Chairman Albert Yeung wound his father’s watch shop into a suite of five Hong Kong listed companies and a speed dial list featuring the likes of leading Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka Shing and Stanley Ho. In the heyday of Mr Ho’s Macau casino monopoly, he enlisted Mr Yeung as an early investor in Casino Lisboa’s VIP rooms; that market segment became the backbone of Grand Emperor’s Albert Yeung CHAIRMAN Emperor Group POWER 601 LAST 42 SCORE YEAR CLAIMS TO FAME Pioneering VIP investor at his pal Stanley Ho’s Casino Lisboa Grand Emperor Hotel has faux Coldstream Guards at its entrance and real gold bars in its lobby 43 business. In the 1990s, Mr Yeung returned the favor by flipping a casino license in Vietnam to Mr Ho. Beyond gaming and retail, Emperor is a powerhouse in Hong Kong entertainment, including music and films. Mr Yeung counts Jackie Chan as not just a friend who attended the 2006 opening of Grand Emperor, but a minority investor in the project.